Two Boys Learning

1. Not Caring

In William Kade's opinion, his new town was freezing, humid, and ugly. 

It was also small, small enough that he could see where it began and ended just from his new bedroom's window. To be fair, though, he lived on a cliff, and his bedroom's window was in the turret.

Eh. Semantics. They didn't matter much to him, not since he had bigger problems to worry about.

His stupid dad. Just had to go and get himself tossed into jail, didn't he? Now Will was stuck at this stupid one-horse town where the only thing that looked even remotely cool was the crashing, angry waves down below.

The house itself was perched on the very edge of the cliff, and leaned over the ocean like an old, crooked lady. Much like his grandmother, Will thought, before she'd kicked the bucket. In that very ocean, on that very beach.

Huh. Small world.

Will had taken to skipping rocks in the murky water, even though they usually just jumped once or twice before slamming into a cresting wave and disappearing. His mother said that the weather got better, during the summer, but Will had no plans on lasting that long. It was already fall, and he had to start at the only high school in this tiny town that didn't even have anything beyond a clinic.

For animals.

Will looked up to the house and the staircase cut into the stone that led down to the beach where Will sat, on a half-submerged rock halfway out into the water. He'd known the tide was coming in when he sat down.

He didn't care.

Dipping his hand into the water, he watched as a tiny crab scrabbled for purchase beneath the translucent waves. It hooked one claw into the seaweed, finally stopping itself from being swept away.

"Too bad," Will muttered, reaching below the freezing water and grabbing the seaweed, then lifting it and shaking it. The crab fell to the water, surrendering to the current again.

Will sighed and spread out his legs on the rock. It was large enough to fit at least three people, which was convenient because Will didn't plan to have more than three people on it.

Me, Myself, and I.

Will smiled faintly at the thought and lay back, folding his arms beneath his head and peering up at the stormy gray sky. It wasn't that it was raining; the clouds always looked like that. Will's mother swore that the town wasn't bad, but it was another one of those things that Will didn't care about.

He didn't care about a lot of things, these days. Like sleeping, or pleasing his mother. He never cared about that.

Sighing and dragging a hand through his dark hair streaked with bright blue--courtesy of a friend back home--and glanced back at the shore. It was getting father and farther away, but the rock was big enough that the water wouldn't come over the edge. He pulled his jacket tighter around himself and sighed.

"William!"

Will focused on where his mother stood. He hadn't seen her. He rolled his eyes and turned back to looking out over the stormy blue ocean with white-crested waves.

"William, come back!"

Will huffed out an annoyed breath and stood up, turning around and crossing his arms. "It seems that there's a little space in between me and the shore, Jessica," he called.

His mother huffed, wrapping her arms around herself to combat the wind. "William...I thought I told you to stop calling me that."

"I thought I told you to stop bothering me," Will muttered, low enough that his voice was lost to the wind. Will lifted his chin and motioned at the expanse of water between him and the shore. "Too cold."