The Fountain Girl

Chapter 19

The snow tinkled brightly and shimmered on the top of the equally white marble fountain. Anna closed her embrace around my neck even tighter as I carried her on my back and sat on a bench next to the fountain. She remembered again.

"Come on, we'll play tag," I told her, sensing the boredom in her. She nodded her head excitedly and hopped off the bench. "You'll be the one tagging me, okay?"

I ran around and around the fountain slow enough for Anna to barely catch up to me. My boots crunched in the snow and melted some of it as well. We were on our third round around the fountain and Anna was a hair's length away from me -- And then I saw Katie.

She was standing in a gorgeous white knee-length dress (something that I'd never thought she'd wear in my life) at the foot of the fountain, staring at one of the three statues carved into the marble. We used to call him Nosebleed, because there was a white streak of goo where a pigeon had taken a dump right below his left nostril. Thump.

Anna ran straight into my behind, giggling with uncontainable joy. "Tag! You're it!" she told me in her young girlish voice that I adored. Without a word, I pulled her down so we were concealed behind the marble base of the fountain, out of Katie's line of sight. I poked my head over the top, a steady pour of water in beween my eyes and Katie. She couldn't have seen me; the water must have been distorting my image. 

Out of nowhere, wearing a basketball jacket and ripped jeans, came Colman, Katie's new boyfriend. I should've known. Katie wouldn't wear something so unlike her for no reason.

They were having soft chat between each other. Colman took Katie's hand, and with hesitation, Katie accepted. He leaned in for a kiss, but Katie hesitated once more, turning her head away in rejection, her eyes closed tight like she was trying to resist a certain feeling. They walked away, silent, Colman casting weird glances at Katie as they were walking off as a couple.

Anna looked at me as we were hiding. I pressed my index finger to my lips. "Shh," I whispered. She giggled like we were playing a game and put her thumb on her lips, "Shh."

I held her hand and dashed over from the fountain to behind a tree, hiding most of my body. I looked at the couple to make sure I was sneaking in the right direction. As they continued walking, I hopped from tree to tree, Anna giggling non-stop as we went. They headed onto the street pavement and I followed them quietly, mingling among the crowd, trying not to lose sight of them and trying to be an inconspicuous part of the crowd as well.

They entered a mall, and Katie whispered something to Colman, and she walked off quickly to the unisex bathroom on the left. Colman sighed with happiness as he watched Katie go in her beautiful dress. He headed to a clothes store to take a look at the fashions.

I followed Katie to the unisex restroom, asking Anna to wait outside next to the mall's doors. I walked closely behind a mother and her two children, disguising myself as part of their family. Katie took a right and I took a right. I hid behind a bathroom stall's red door as she walked to the front of the mirrors. 

And then she cried.

Black-stained tears unceasingly flowed forth from her eyes. She fished her phone out out of her bag and tapped on something on her screen. Immediately pictures popped up on her screen, the ones that I had sent to her the day before. She was sobbing and laughing at the same time as she scrolled through each picture. 

"Wish you were here..." she muttered softly to herself. She kept her phone back in her bag and applied her black eyeshadow, and walked out of the restroom. I walked out a few minutes later to make sure she had left for good. 

Scooping Anna in my arms, I brought her home, and on the way, bought a cinammon salt pretzel for the both of us to share.