I can't believe I forgot my bracelet. I ran my hand through my hair, distressed. The one time I take it off, I forget it.
I continued to pace back and forth, going between nibbling my finger nails and twirling the rings on my fingers.
We stopped our tour because Elle was missing. I didn't even realize she left, I just assumed she was talking to someone else.
"We just got a call from one of the police departments." Out teacher spoke, causing me to stop pacing and twist my fingers. "They found her. She's where we ate dinner." I let out a sigh of relief, my friend no longer missing. But my bracelet is still gone.
Pushing away my sadness, I followed the teacher as she walked towards a chaperone. "Would you please go get Elle?"
The chaperone nodded and smiled. "Of course." The teacher smiled a thank you and walked away.
I hurried up to the chaperone as she walked away. "Elle is my friend, is it alright if I come?"
The chaperone smiled and motioned for me to walk with her. "Sure Dear." We walked in silence while we made our way to Elle, anxiety eating away at me.
When I saw her, I immediately started to run, a huge smile on my face. "Elle!" She turned towards me from where she was sitting in a bench and I watched as a smile grew on her face as well. I hugged her tightly, feeling relieved she wasn't lost anymore. "You idiot! You freaked me out!" We let go of our hug as she laughed, and my eyes widened as I watched her pull something out of her pocket.
"I went to get your bracelet." Elle handed it to me, the precious keepsake finally back to me, its owner.
Oh my gosh she got it!
I felt my eyes well with tears as I put the bracelet back on. "Thank you." I hugged her, remembering the day I got this.
"Hey Theo." Eli smiled as he sat next to me under the tree.
"Why do you have to leave?" I asked without making eye contact with him, mad at the one reason I was still here. "You can't leave me here alone."
"I'm not going to leave you alone." Eli smiled as he looked out at our property, the green meadow dancing with the wind. "You have Kathryn, Will, Abigail, Emily, Hannah, and Jacob."
"Yeah but they hate me."
"That's not true." Eli nudged me, trying to draw a smile on my face.
I gave him a look. "Yesterday they tried to get me lost in the woods so I wouldn't come back." "Yeah but I found you." Eli wrapped his arm around me, rubbing my shoulder "It was a fun little adventure."
"Adventure my butt." I hugged my knees to my chest, ignoring his affection.
"I bought you something for while I'm deployed." Eli dug into his military bag. He had to leave for the base in about ten minutes, our goodbye closing. I wasn't going to see him again for a long time.
"Woah." I breathed after I opened up the box. "Eli, this looks expensive."
"That's because it is." He winked at me. "Put it on."
I did as he said and looked at it in awe.
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"Thanks Eli."
He died what, six months ago?
And nothing has been the same since then.
I haven't been the same since then.
"Thank you." I whispered to her, letting go off our hug so I could wipe away my tears.
"Don't cry." A male voice made me jump. "Smile! It pretty on you!" I just noticed the Asian boy sitting next to Elle. I didn't even see him, I was too focused on Elle. I moved a piece of my curls away from my face as I looked down at the ground. Boys catcall me, yes. But no boy has ever genuinely meant a compliment about me.
"Jiminie Pabo!"
My eyes left the ground as an angry looking Asian boy ran to the other boy sitting next to Elle. I smiled as I saw the look of pure terror on the sitting boy's face while he watched his friend run over. The angry boy put the other in a headlock and messed up his hair, the sitting freaking out. He spoke in Korean, then the two began to argue and laugh.
I smiled at their friendship. It was cute.
"Let's get back to our group, girls." The chaperone walked over to us, smiling at the two boys arguing. The sitting boy jumped to his feet and started to talk to Elle one last time.
I made eye contact with his friend.
He smiled at me and scratched the back of his head nervously.
I felt my cheeks grow hot as I smiled at the ground. When I glanced up, I saw the boy blushing as well.
"Bye!" Elle finally said to the two, concluding my 'conversation' with the other boy.
I waved at the boy who was smiling at me. He waved back before I turned around to walk beside Elle.
