Short Stories Inspired By Friends

The Tracks

Before the tracks, that pesky town, I'd always thought people were . . . how do I say this? I guess you could say they were odd, careless, meaningless, and many other things that I'm not going to get into. To sum it up, people will never give you the time of day unless they want or need something. Of course, I thought this was for a long time, years even, and I never thought I'd think differently. That is, before the buildings and the tracks.

It was a good day, a day that my dad thought I should go out and enjoy, and even though I had protested, he somehow managed to get me to leave the house.

That day, I decided that I'd visit the nearby town of Rosefield. Rosefield wasn't very popular due to it being a ghost town. If you were driving, it was about twenty minutes away, which was good for me, I didn't want to be around anyone at the time.

After driving and blasting music throughout my car, I finally made it to the town where I then continued to wonder. To be honest, it was a great town, it was very quiet, something that I very much needed. I wandered the town and found some train tracks to walk across, and that's where I met him. I'd noticed him staring at me a little while before, of course, that scared me, but he seemed to be close to my age, so I let him watch. Eventually, he made himself known and asked why I was here and what I was doing. I asked him the same thing, and his answer was, "I come here for quiet. No one ever really comes here, but you're here, that must mean you're interesting. I'm Kyle."

After we introduced ourselves we continued to walk across the tracks and eventually explored the tallest building in the town. I remember this is where I realized I realized I liked him, that the thoughts came across my mind that he wasn't like other boys. I mean, we had been talking for hours at this point, but something about him was different. While we were climbing the stairs, I fell onto some glass and cut my arm. I tried to wrap my hoodie I carried on me around it, but after a while, the bleeding didn't stop. Kyle told me he was studying to be a doctor and was taught how to stop the bleeding in accidents like this. I don't remember how, but he managed to get it to stop, which calmed me down. I stared in his eyes as he worked, he was careful as he fixed my cut, that's what I liked about him, he was overly caring.

The day began to grow old as the sky became a bright orange, signalling the sun's fall until it rose again. We agreed to meet the next day, and so we did. After then, we'd met at the same train tracks every Saturday and Sunday for the next two years.

During those two years, he taught me that there really are some people in the world you can trust. That some people won't leave you. I won't ever forget what he told me after I'd opened up about those things, he said, "People are just like the trains that once traveled these tracks, and this town is just like your heart. Some people come and visit, only to leave, some stay for a while and then leave, and others stay for good. Not everyone was meant to be in your life, but the ones that know you by what's in your heart will stick around."

Later that day, I'd thought about what he said, and that's when I realized that he was in my heart, he loved the town, and I believe he loved me too, and I loved him. This same day, we met by the tracks just as usual, but he seemed different. He seemed sad and empty. I asked him what was wrong, and that's when I felt my heart break a little. He'd told me he was going to college in Oregon, we were from Oklahoma, but he told me not to worry and that he'd visit here as often as he could. He never told me when, but I had hopes I'd see him again. Every day I waited for him to come to visit just as the trains that ran along the town's tracks once did, but he never came.

That was three years ago, and I still wait at The Tracks.

Creator of the theme: Dawson_Cary

Theme: "Two friends are exploring some abandoned buildings near some railroad tracks but something goes wrong."