The Moth

Chapter Eleven: Days In Color// Hello Again

Chapter Eleven: Days In Color// Hello Again 

I crouched down and tried to focus in on the red leaves scattered across the wooden steps. My legs hurt and I'd need to be on my way soon.

"What's so interesting about a bunch of leaves?"

I jumped and nearly sat on my ankle, yelping and turning the other way to relieve the pain.

"Ack!"

I swiveled around on the ground to see Lyon standing over me, blowing bubblegum.

"Aye, you scared me."

He snapped his gum. "Hello," he said, crouching own.

"Hello yourself." I scooted backwards to see him better.

"Why're you taking pictures of a bunch of leaves?" He squinted, criticizing my scattered little pile.

"The colors. They're beautiful and I wanted to photograph them."

"They're just leaves," he replied uncertainly, turning back towards me instead.

"They're not just leaves! Look at them! All the different colors, the deep reds and burning golds and and... nevermind."

He stood up and kicked a small pebble towards the bushes. "Mmhmm."

I peered up at him, brushing strands of hair out of my face. "What were you doing here anyway?"

He smiled. "I wanted to take a walk, maybe learn to find my way around town."

I stared at him, not sure what to do. I'd lived here my whole life. I couldn't imagine what this place must look like to a newcomer. "...Need some help?"

He raised both eyebrows, taken aback as a smile spread across his face. "You want to help? Me?"

I looked down at my camera, fidgeting with the strap. "Uh, yeah. About what happened last week...sorry. I should've helped you." Especially with karma being a little witch and me losing my own way home.

He laughed. "It's fine. It wasn't too hard going home. My house is only five minutes from the middle school, so it wasn't a huge deal."

I pursed my lips. "Aye, that makes one of us," I muttered under my breath.

He raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.

"So, you're gonna show me around?"

"Y-yeah, just give me a second." I gave one last fleeting glance back at my little setup. It'd have to wait. Hopefully, it'd still be here. If not...oh well.

"I can wait if you want to finish what you're doing first."

He rubbed the back of his neck, looking down at me. "It's not like I have a deadline for this."

I nodded at him, and turned back gratefully. Having people watch me usually made me uncomfortable, but I'd take whatever time I could get. I pulled the camera back up to my face, one hand holding it steady as I focused on the red leaf in the foreground.

Click. Click. Click.

"You're a good friend of Jennie's?"

I shook my head absentmindedly. "Sorta. Mostly just a classmate. Wanted someone to take along with her...I think her normal friends were all busy. I was... third-wheeling, really. Bored at home."

"Ah."

I finished and got up, brushing off my jeans. "And you?"

"Cousin."

"Ah."

I made sure my camera was secured around my neck before taking the lead. It was more of a silent, awkward walk with the occasional "here's the ____ " or "there's a shortcut this way to get to ____" than anything else. Even Lyon didn't seem too talkative, studying everything that passed by with a sense of wonder. I don't know why though. This whole place looked the same my whole life. It gets tiring and old really quick.

The sun started to set as we made our way back towards the old school building. He thanked me for the time and I nodded, watching as he said goodbye and turned away.

A part of me wanted to go to some cliffside and scream and I didn't understand why.

I chalked it up to needing a nap and turned to go. But not before taking one last look at his receding back.

He made something inside me incredibly sad. Maybe I was messing something up and taking out my frustration on him.

Or perhaps my soul already knew it would be broken soon and felt powerless to stop it. 

He made me sad. 

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A/N: Happy Tuesday! The Moth hit #846 (roughly...I forgot the exact number. Oops.) in the top 1000 on Wattpad on Sunday! <3 We broke the top 1000 books in General Fiction! ;-; Thank you so much! ;) 

I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I know I haven't been responding as quickly to comments recently... I tend to have frequent headaches and they put me off my whole day. >_< But I hope to get to them all soon!  Cheers!

-Autumn