my name is aaron (ftm)

7

Wind blows short hair out of my face.
I'm suddenly not very grateful to have short hair.
I wrap my arms around myself.
"Its cold." I complain.
I contemplate for the twentieth time why I am not in my bed, surrounded by warm blankets, like I should be.
"It gets colder in winter." Screw responds.
"No shit." I say.
Screw snorts and stops once we reach the big play structure. I stop as well behind him and we both look up at it. It's huge and it's made up of jungle gyms and monkey bars and slides and tunnels and all tons of shit that kids like to play on and fall off of.
"Didn't know this was a play date." I joke.
Screw ignores my sarcastic remark and starts to climb up onto the structure. I watch him skeptically as he hoists himself onto the platform and swings his legs over the edge, looking down on me.
"Y'know, you have this thing of watching people instead of doing what you're supposed to be doing." He informs me.
My senses snap back again.
"Oh, you expect me to climb up there." I say blandly.
"It's not hard." He says with a shrug.
I scoff and set down my bike before climbing up the same way he did and sitting beside him on the platform. Our feet dangle off the edge.
He pulls out a pack of gum and hands me one.
I take it and he grins mischievously. I raise an eyebrow as I chew it.
"Spit it out." He says.
What the fuck.
I spit it into my hand and I'm shocked to see the gum glowing in the dark.
"How the fuck?"
Screw laughs as he chews his own weird glowing gum. I see it shine throw his tooth gap as he grins while chewing.
"It's glow in the dark gum." He tells me.
"I didn't know that existed." I confess as I put the gum back in my mouth and proceed to chew. I try to identify it's flavor.
He shrugs. We look up and stare at the stars, the only sounds breaking the silence are our chewing and occasional crickets that are hiding in the grass.
"Screw-" I begin to say after a few minutes.
He cuts me off with a shush, and those are the only words we say for the next half hour.
I don't sleep, but I close my eyes.
I listen to the silence.
I feel the wind on my face and this time, I embrace it.
The cold kisses my cheeks and wraps around my neck like a scarf.
I feel my short bangs tickle my forehead.
I'm suddenly not in the park, next to Screw, at 5 am.
I'm in the middle of nothingness.
Just me.
Alone.
With not even my thoughts.
Time has evaporated and slipped through my hands like sand.
I am not Arona, or Aaron.
I am not one, or the other, or in between.
I am just a collection of molecules made up of matter, just like every single thing on this planet, including the planet itself.
I am basically nothing.

A nudge brings me back to reality.
I am suddenly something again.
My eyes open and I see Screw looking at me intently. I raise an eyebrow and he nods his head towards something.
I turn to see what he's gesturing to and I see the sun begin to poke it's head over the horizon.
We silently watch, our eyes glued as the sun slowly but surely rises.
We are washed over with an orange glow. I steal a glance at Screw, who looks... Focused.
Like if he stops staring at the sun, it will sink back down and drag the darkness back.

Once the sun becomes too bright to look at, we turn away and I'm breathless.
"When I was younger..." Screw begins to say.
He takes a deep breath.
"My mom and dad used to fight. A lot." He says. "Sometimes I would wake up at night to the sound of them screaming, or something being smashed or thrown across the room. I used to just cry myself back to sleep. At one point, I couldn't take it anymore. I snuck out and ran all the way here. I climbed up here and hugged myself to protect myself from the cold, and then I saw my first sunrise. It was... Reassuring. I would come back to see the sunrise whenever I was troubled. Or, just, whenever I wanted to. Eventually dad met some other girl and moved out, so it's better now. But I still like to come here."
I blink.
Huh.
"So this is like your special place." I say.
Screw nods. "Yeah."
He turns and grins at me.
"Well, that's my story." He says, exhaling, "Your's is next."
Wait, what?
He sees my quizzical looks and grins wider.
"I expect something interesting, Aaron. You seem like an interesting person."
He jumps off from the platform and lands perfectly on the sand underneath the play structure. I watch him and he grins that tooth-gap grin up at me one last time.
"See ya." Are his parting words.
Then he disappears on his skateboard.

That kid is strange.