Ethereal

Chapter 1 - Alone?

I sat down against a tree, feeling the hard bark dig into my back. I winced - why didn't I choose a better tree? - but decided it wasn't worth moving. I just adjusted my position until I was comfortable enough and sighed, pulling my knees to my chest.

I dimly watched a couple mourning doves take flight from the grass. They rose high, their wings fluttering softly. One of the three perched on a telephone wire while the others moved onward. It shuffled and folded it's wings into an acceptable position, fluffing out it's feathers.

None of them were trapped on the ground like the flightless creature I was. My wings had been destroyed long ago, through all the people who found someone better than myself and tossed me aside, like I was some silly plaything. To them, that's what I was. A toy. A single item that doesn't care how you treat it. An emotionless, inanimate object.

A breeze blew by, and I lifted my head slightly. A single, dead leaf was shaken off it's branch, and it drifted to the ground lazily. I blinked as it landed in front of me.

I put my head back on my knees and looked at the sky in front of me. It was still daylight; maybe another hour and a half until dark. A few clouds were drifting across the vast sea of blue, fuzzy and white.

I wondered why I even existed in the first place. Why was I born if my life was going to be spent sitting on the sidelines? Of course, I was used to it by now, but it didn't hurt any less. I wanted to be out there, happy. Free.

Oh, but it would never be that way, would it?

"Hello?"

I looked over my shoulder, looking back into the forest where I thought the voice [no, not Max's] had come from. I didn't see anything at first. Just leaves, trees and vines. I shuffled so I could see better. "Yes?" I said.

"Are you alright?"

Oh. I looked up, and I was met with curious green eyes, ginger hair, and a worried face. He was hanging by a branch from the same tree I was sitting under, maybe five feet above my head. I shrugged. "Maybe. Who're you?"

"Napoleon, but please call me Sock. Everyone does. You?" He swung himself upright and dropped to the ground in front of me. For a moment, I was surprised at how cute he was - but I quickly shut the feeling down. I was just going to get hurt.

"Jonathan," I said.

"That's nice." He grinned. He stuck out his hand, and I hesitated for a moment - should I really accept this?

Carefully, I reached out and grabbed his hand. Sock pulled me to my feet, and for an instant, I thought he might be different. No, I told myself firmly. He's just the same as everyone else.

"So, what's wrong?" He asked me.

"What d'you mean?"

"Well," Sock started. "You're out here sitting on a tree, alone, looking all sad like you're about to start crying. So, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing," I said. I wasn't about to pour my heart out some stranger. I didn't care how cute he was - dammit, forget I said that. I didn't care how nice he was; it wasn't going to happen.

Sock looked up at me. I wasn't a very tall person, so I was a little surprised by his height. I wondered what it would be like to cuddle with him, to protect him from all the pain I'd experienced.

Oh, what am I doing; he's probably not even gay.

But his eyes...it was like he could see through me, into my soul. Like he understood me. Like he knew. It was strange; I guess he was good as looking passed the curtains.

He pulled something from his pocket and shoved it into my hand. It felt like a metal straw; a thin, cold cylinder of steel. I looked down at it, opening my hand. A laser pointer. The ones you use on cats.

"There's a little mirror in the woods behind the tree you were sitting by," he said. "If you shine that on it, the beam will shine into my bedroom. I set it up last night. If you ever need someone to talk to, please; do that. I'm always up."

Sock hugged me. I stiffened."Take care," he muttered.

Then he was gone, leaving me with a laser pointer and a muddled mind. I stared in the direction he went for a minute, thinking.

I shook my head and walked away. He would learn soon enough that there were better people to worry about. He had to.

                                     ~

I literally just realized this wasn't published or was unpublished somehow {In my sleep...? ;)).

I'm an idiot.