My favorite noise is the crunching of the leaves when the universe can't decide if it wants to be summer or fall. The sun's starting to rise and as I run, my thoughts wander and I think about the school year that has yet to start. Last year, I didn't really do much besides homework, photography, and running. Micah thinks that I should take more pictures of myself because my eyes contrast the color of my jet black hair, but I think he's just talking out of nothing. Speaking of Micah, he's my mom's- or was my mom's- lab assistant, but now he works with my dad.
When I was 12, my mom was at work trying to find a way to slow the growth of malignant tumor cells when a car bomb went through the front door and hit her office and four others. She worked for Allegiance, a small, pharmaceutical company that focuses mainly on cancer patients. Compared to the Abbott's of the world, Allegiance was nothing more than an anchovy in a sea full of sharks. My dad and I got the call as we were preparing dinner. When my mom worked late, we always made sure she had a plate wrapped in tinfoil and kept in the fridge, but when the fire department called our house, my dad let the macaroni burn in the oven.
He never let anything burn.
Back then I wondered why my dad sat at the kitchen table with a bottle of liquid that smelt like an oak tree and a doctor's office, and why he stumbled around the living room babbling nonsense for 15 days. But now I understand that my dad loved my mom more than he loved himself, and he didn't know what the meaning to himself was anymore now that she was gone.
A cold splash on my forehead wakes me from my daydream, and I notice that I've already run to the end of my subdivision when it starts to downpour. I cover my head with my windbreaker and jog to the nearest park, hiding under the slide until the rain stops. Out of nowhere, a shrill voice breaks the rhythmic beating of the rain.
"What the fuck, Micah!"
YOU ARE READING
Paper Flower
Ficção AdolescenteMeet Layla, a senior at Stone-gate High School, who has bright blue eyes, jet black hair, and an important decision to make. Meet Micah, a tall, yet sweet blonde boy who's been by Layla's side since her mother passed away in a freaky lab accident. A...
