The Lost Son | Ferry's Tale # 2

Letting go

"Be careful, Ferry," Lavender told him as he was about to go out the door to go to school. "There's a fairy lurking around. It attacked Sage several times. Nothing happened, don't worry. But we don't know what its intentions are."

Ferry nodded and went out the door, barely keeping himself from laughing. Over the past nights, every time Sage got too close to Matilda, he had thrown all the ammunition he had prepared in his head: fruits, cookies, nuts, twigs. He had no intention of hurting Sage; he just wanted to keep him away from Matilda. At least for a few minutes.

In front of the school, he came face to face with Andrew. He looked even worse than before. Several gray strands appeared in his hair. His eyes were empty and his lips almost as pale as his cheeks. Looking at him carefully, Ferry noticed that his ears looked pointy than before. And the grin on his face was long gone.

When he caught sight of Ferry, Andrew tried to hide his face with the collar of his red jacket.

"Andrew, wait," Ferry called him.

Andrew stopped. "What do you want, Ferry?"

"My mother is back home. And— she's worried about you."

"Tell her not to be," he said and continued on his way.

But Ferry cut him off, "You know what? I really don't care about you and I certainly wouldn't want you around my mother. But she cares because ... that's how she is. She wants to know you're alright. And you don't look very good ..."

Andrew gave it a thought for a moment. "Tell her I'm fine," he said with a sigh. "Your mother is a good woman. I've already caused her a lot of trouble. I don't want to cause some more. I always create problems for people around me," he added and went inside the school.

During the break, Ferry looked for Ben. He saw Celia coming out of the basement of the school, and after a while, Ben appeared, too. His friend tried to tidy up his ruffled hair and button up his shirt. His lips still kept on Celia's kisses. The make-out sessions between them became ever more dangerous, but that didn't seem to bother them. On the contrary, Ben entered the thrilling game of kissing under everyone's nose but with no one seeing them. They had even found a name for it—hide-and-kiss.

The game was simple—every time he and Celia met in the town, they chose to walk on parallel streets as if they didn't know each other. But their paths always crossed at one point. And then, at the corner of the street, Ben would catch Celia in his arms and pull her to a quiet street where they would kiss for minutes. The girl then ran from his arms, and the pursuit continued. Ben caught her again on the next street's corner, carried her in his arms to the shelter of the sunset's shadows that was filled with their passionate kisses.