You Can't Fly

Chapter 1

The story I am about to tell you is something I both am glad happened and secretly wished it hadn't. I suppose many stories that people tell are like that. We tend to want to hold on to what we love and fear any thing that might change all of that. What we don't realize is that it is better to allow that change because we become far better than anything we could have hoped otherwise. It might hurt at first, but by cutting off the old and dead we allow the new to bloom even more beautifully. Although, I am not sure if you could call what happens "beautiful." It did change me for the better. It began as many stories do, on a mountaintop. Or really, at the bottom of the mountain and stretched over the course of the entire mountain.

It was a Saturday afternoon and the weather was perfect for a hike. Kristen, my best friend, had insisted on meeting her here. My parents had dropped me off, happy that I was getting out of the house for once. If it wasn't for all their rules, maybe I would have gone out a bit more often. They left me with the usual warnings about being careful and checked to see that I was in fact wearing my sunglasses. After they left, Kristen approached me. 

"Please don't be mad." Kristen tugged at her ponytail, a nervous habit of hers. 

"Why would I be-" I didn't quite finish cut off by the appearance of her cousin.

"Hey Amolas," Alex waved as if had been expected. He was not.

"Why is he here?" I glanced over at Kristen who flashed me a sheepish grin.

"I thought it would be good for the two of you. Bury the hatchet." Kristen shrugged, adjusted her pack and began making her way to the open mouth of the trail. 

"She sprung this on me too." Alex whispered as he passed by me. 

"Sure." I muttered through gritted teeth. Why did she have to bring him here? 

Alex and I caught up with Kristen. For a while, no one said anything, but let the crunch of our feet on the trail do all the talking. 

"What if at will people could grow wings?" Kristen, spoke breaking the uncomfortable silence that surrounded us on that mountain. Birds chirped as if they were attempting to answer her question.

"What?" I bit my lip and dug my fingernails into my palms. What was Kristen getting at?

"You heard me." Kristen tilted her head and raised her hands up toward the sky. "If you could grow wings whenever you wanted-" She continued to gaze up. "Imagine what you would see, feel. You could find out what the clouds tasted like." She spun around with her hands still in the air as if she was attempting to fly herself.

"Water, probably." Alex chimed in. Kicking at the dirt and staring at his feet instead of looking at her.

"You two are no fun." Kristen reared back and punched me in the shoulder.

"What was that for?" I rubbed my arm. I was always the one that was punched.

"It's okay to daydream every now and again." Her face fell and the excitement drained from it. "I 

suppose now isn't the time for that."

"Are you going to finally tell us why you brought us all the way out into the woods for?" Alex folded his arms and looked at her with disdain painted on his face.

"You know exactly why. You two have been friends forever and now all of a sudden you won't speak to each other. What is going on?" Kristen's raven wing ponytail bounced as she spoke. "I brought you out here to knock some sense into the two of you." She punched me once more.

"Ask him." Alex's face contorted into a scowl as he gestured toward me.

"I don't want to talk about it." How could I explain this to the two of them? There is something that I have been keeping secret from you? That if you knew, could put you in potential danger? Alex got too close to it and I needed to push him away to keep him safe and, by association, Kristen.