Critical Thinking ✔

44

I started talking more to Bookie again, having actual real conversations. And I started to talk again to our group. I still tried to reach out to Clyde but our chats were normally short. Even though that made me sad, for the most part things were okay again. I was still trying to work out my feelings but I was starting to think that maybe I should just push them aside completely. I needed to focus on school such as finals especially, the field trip, and lastly the park.

Farley and I have been trying to get people to sign a petition against destroying the park. It felt weird, since I had no direct connection to the park, I had never even been there. But we were getting signatures from many peers, even teachers and the school staff. My mom even came down to sign it, my dad of course signed it. They are both proud of me for taking a stand on a cause. But really,it was Farley taking a stand. Our friends helped get some signatures too, like I knew they would. We got a lot of support from The Blue Ginger where Farley does music. We got mulitiple signatures right after one of Farley's performances.

I started hanging up posters everywhere I went. I taped or stapled them onto poles, buildings, wherever I could. With this and preparing for finals I was kind of stressed out. The Band Field Trip surprisingly helped, but at times it would also stress me out. For once we didn't really have to really play in front of students from our school. But then again, our teacher wasn't giving us too many details, so it made me nervous. Only certain people were to do somethings that the rest of us weren't allowed to know. And Farley was one of those people, and he wouldn't tell none of us a single detail. It was killing Vic the most. Ms. Housewright wanted things to be a surprise it seemed. Which I wasn't sure if I liked surprises or not, hopefully it was good.

"Ready to go?" someone asked, whispering closely.

I jumped turning around quickly, with a burning face to find Farley. He laughed showing me a dimple when he grinned. I muttered to myself as my heart flip flopped.

"Ready to go where?" I ask while we walk past the crowd heading to the buses.

"The park, remember? Today's the day we see if our petition swayed their opinion or not. Hopefully it did." he says sighing was he walked by my side, tugging at his bag.

"I'm sure it made some kind of impact, lot's of people were on our- your side about it." I say nodding with an encouraging smile.

He smiles a little, then looks forward leading the way. I follow close by and try not to get distraced, to not get lost. The walk takes a while, but not too long where my legs are aching. Eventually he stops, and I bump into his back. I move around him to see the park. I see something that looked like it was a slide area was obviously broken down recently. They must have started the process anyway...

I glanced at Farley, but his eyes were looking somewhere else. I followed his gaze to find a huge, thick stump. You could tell it was freshly cut. I looked at him again to find his eyes glistening. I reached my hand out to him, but he shook his head violently. He balled up his fists, sinking his teeth in his bottom lip. I frowned as he squeezed his eyes shut.

"I didn't save it." is all that left his lips.

I took a step forward and got in front of his view. "But you tried, that's what matters. It's not your fault that this happened." I say and there's silence after a while, until he sighs unballing his fists while opening his eyes.

"I guess..at least I have the stump left....and my memories." he mumbles, his eyes falling down on the stump again.

I frown and take a deep breath, recollecting my thoughts. I needed to think, to do something. Eventually I bent down grabbing a rock and went over to the stump. Then I started digging the rock deep into the bark.

"What are you doing?" I hear his voice choke out behind me, as I hear his footsteps grow closer.

I shut my eyes continue to dig in the bark, in different directions. I couldn't bear to hear the pain in his voice, on his face. The Farley I saw usually was nothing like this. And I hated that he was feeling the way he did, like he didn't do enough and probably more under the surface. Eventually I stopped, dropping the rock on the ground and stood up beside Farley.

"We were here?" he reads mumbling as he wipes his face, trying to not let me see.

"Yeah..." I say feeling dumb from what I wrote. "You worked hard okay, and the stump and your memories are still here like you said. And you can make new memories too. The memories will always stay."

"Thanks Oakely." he says sighing, and finally turns his body in my direction.

Those ocean eyes of his find mine. They are misty from his tears, his skin is pink from him holding in cries and letting them out. I lean in, to hold him- to something. Then bright lights shined on us, a blaring honk following after it. Which causes me to jump, stumbling a but over the stump landing on my butt. With my legs slightly tangled on the stump.

I hear a laugh slightly escape from his lips. My face burned as I got up dusting myself off. Eventually I noticed Farley's aunt making her way up to us quickly. As soon as she gets to us she practically devors Farley into her arms. I can barely tell she's there with him buried into her.

"I was worried sick you damn boy, I figured you would be here but still." she says breathlessly, then her eyes land on me. "Thank you so much" she mouths, and I nod with a short smile.

But my work wasn't done yet.

~ Sorry for the late update everyone! I had birthdays, and a lot of projects due. And this week I have a finals and exams. Then more will come later. So I apologize if updates are weird! I'm going to try to update Bipolar Sunshine this week like it was supposed to be but it may have to wait until next week! Anyway, thank you all for reading ❤