The missing pieces

The lies

The next morning Sarah wakes me up "Lyn it's nearly 9am, don't you want to get up?"

I sit up groggily. "It's nearly 9am?" I ask disbelievingly, I can't believe I've been asleep  for that long.

"Yeah." Sarah say's as I get up and usher her out of the room, locking the door. I still feel shaky from last night but I put on a blue flowery top and black skinny jeans and tie my hair up into a ponytail. I open my bedroom door and run down the stairs grabbing a cereal bar. I'm about to open the door when Sarah say's "where are you going?"

"To the park." I answer, opening the front door.

"Why?...." I let her question hang in the air as I rush out of the door.

I get to the entrance of the park and see a lonely figure with the same raven coloured hair. I want to run up to him but I stop myself. What I'm I supposed to say when I'm the one that's late? I take a deep breath and walk but stop halfway because I don't know what I should say.

He turns around, his hands in his blue hoodie, he looks so sad and I feel so bad. He's looking at the ground and when he looks up he see's me and walks slowly to me. I stand still as he walks, just looking at his disappointed unchanging face. When he gets to me I feel my heart beating like a drum. He smiles widely, showing his perfectly straight teeth. "You're, late Lynny." He say's. Everytime he say's my name like that it feels like someone has just punched my heart in a good way, if that even makes sense.

"Yeah about that... I kind of overslept, I'm so sorry"

"That's ok at least you're here now and it's not like I waited two hours for you to come." It makes me feel bad but at the same time I can't help but feel happy over the fact that he actually waited that long for me. A nobody. "You didn't have to wait, you know."

"Yeah, I know but I wanted to anyways I want to show you something."

"What?" I ask.

"It's a surprise, I feel like you might like it."

"Why is it 5 seconds of summer?" I ask, trying to be sarcastic.

"What, no, obviously it's not." He say's, not getting my sarcasm.

"Well what is it?" I ask.

He takes my hand in his and I feel sparks shooting through my arm "I'll show you." He smiles, his eyes lighting up. He leads me to the edge of the river. There's a little bush. He lets go of my hand to move the branches of the bush a little and I see it , there's a duck and surrounding the duck is some little ducklings. "Awh they're so cute, how did you find them?

He lets go of the bush "I was bored waiting for you and I heard qwacking and this is what I found." He say's.

He stands up and looks at me "you look pretty."

"Thank you," I say, blushing "hey we're matching." I say looking at his blue hoodie and black skinny jeans.

"Oh really?!" He say's excitedly "I didn't notice." He say's, his voice oozing sarcasm. I frown and he imitates me, I laugh.

He suddenly looks serious as he walks closer to me I take a step back he takes a step closer as I take another step back "you've got something on your face."

"What?" I say, trying to take it of my face. He takes hold of my hand as I take a step back and feel myself slipping before I can get my balance I fall into the river taking him with me. I don't know how to swim and I'm flapping my arms all over the place like a demented chicken. He holds onto me and lifts me up out of the river, my clothes are soaking wet, he lifts himself up "you really are clumsy." He say's to my embarrassment.

"Well shouldn't you be strong, how did you fall in with me?"

"You're stronger than you look and how was I suppose to know you'd fall in?" He asks with pretend annoyance, I shrug and we start laughing.

"Eww! I'm all wet and I stink and so do you!" I moan, he sniffs me and scrunches up his freckled nose.

"Well we can't exactly go home like this can we?" He asks, I shake my head.

The sun is shining and I realise if we stay here for a few hours we will dry up. "Let's just walk around." He suggests.

"Yeah." I say. He takes my hand in his again and my heart is racing and I hope that he can't sense my nervousness.

"Guess what?" He asks.

"What?"

"You're meant to guess but anyways I listened to your favorite boy band's music and it is actually good."

"It's not a boy band and what song did you like the best?"

"I don't know it all sounded the same and technically it is a boy band because it's a band and they are all boys."

I can't be bothered to argue so all I say is "whatever." As we walk along we see an old woman who looks at us with the weirdest expression, realising it's because we're soaking wet even though it's a boiling day, I turn us around.

"Did you see that woman?" I ask.

"Yeah she looked terrified, I wonder what she was thinking?".

"Probably teenagers are crazy nowadays." I suggest.

"Yeah." He agrees.

Somehow we get on the topic of parents. "My mum is so annoying like I'm 16 and she treats me like I'm a 6 year old." At least you have a mother I was tempted to say but managed to bite back my words. "Yeah same S..I mean my mum and dad are both so annoying like I'm 16 but they can't get over the fact that I've grown up they think I'm like 5 years old." I find myself spiralling into these lies.

He looks like he doesn't really believe me but he doesn't say anything and he laughs at the right moments. "My dad's at the army and my mum's friend Claire lives with us." Claire? 

I feel my heart stop. "What does Claire look like?" I say trying to sound natural but I know my voice is shaking.

"Why?" he says and notices my expression "she's got, like, red hair and green eyes." I feel a wave of disappointment overcome me. How stupid of me to even think it could be her.

"Are you OK?" He asks.

"Yep, I'm fine." I say smiling. He smiles back and starts talking about his favourite video games and  I have no idea what he is talking about so I just nod and smile at the right moments.

We sit on the grass together, his arm over me and we are looking at the dying flowers. We haven't discussed if we are going out or not. Well it has only been one day so I guess we are just friends. "Should we play tig?" He suggests.

"Are we five years old?" I ask.

"Yeah, so let's play!" He say's excitedly, releasing me and standing up. "You run and I'll catch you, I'll give you  a head start go on." He say's, helping me stand up.

I start running and I hear him running behind me. I start laughing and it feels so good. I can hear him laughing as well. If anyone saw us they would think we're crazy.

He grabs on to me. "Got you!" He say's as I try to break free. He suddenly let's go of me and I fall on the floor grazing my hand. I start laughing as does he. He comes to sit with me and takes my hand wiping the dirt away. "Awh, I've never met someone as clumsy as you in my life Lyn."

"I know, aren't I so special?" I ask sarcastically and he is still holding onto my hands.

"You are special." He say's sincerely, looking into my eyes. I turn away and pretend I'm looking at something. "It's my turn to catch you, go on run!" I say, standing up as he runs.

Once I got home I got a long lecture from Sarah who went on about how unacceptable it is to ignore her phone calls. For the rest of the holiday I met up with Jay a few times a week and went to work on time everyday and I had no panic attacks which was amazing and life felt great and I didn't think about her or him. Tomorrow was the first day of college and I was terrified.