Spring Writes Stuff

8. Leaves

The sun set peacefully from outside Wybie's house, as the wind met his face blissfully while waiting for his best friend. Coraline texted him that she needed someone to talk to, and he's surprised that she's going to him instead of Norman.

You know, Norman. Her supposedly perfect boyfriend. Or as Wybie calls him, 'Mr. Steal Your Girl'.

Wybie shrugged silently to himself, before sighing heavily as another gust of wind blew on his face, making him smile sadly.

He always felt like just a reserve around her, like another person that she can approach whenever she wanted to pass the time. And all this is fine by him, as long as he can still talk to her.

At the 7 years of knowing her as a person, that is the closest thing that he can be for her. A friend.

The horn that had honked loudly from nearby snapped him out from his train of thought, as he looked below him only to see Coraline's car parked in front of his house, making him smile.

She's here. "Finally," Wybie whispered to himself, making his way downstairs, all the way to his front door.

When he opened the door, his heart immediately skipped a few beats.

"Hey Wyborn," Coraline greeted with that small smile of hers that he truly adores. He had to gulp down the knot inside his throat so that he can reply coherently.

"H-hey Jonesy, how's it going? Come in, come in," Wybie opened the door wider for her, as she gladly entered his house.

She removed her coat swiftly and hanged it beside the door, before smiling at him brightly. "Nothing much, just hoping for someone to talk to."

The both of them sat on the couch in front of the small TV, and Wybie carefully noted the distance that sat in between them.

"I got you back Jonesy, what is it?"

Her tired sigh made his heart sink hard down south. "I don't know how to say it, to be completely honest, but I feel like he's starting to forget that I'm still here for him."

That self centered ass, Wybie thought to himself. "What did Norman do? Again?" Wybie asked her carefully, leaning his body towards her because he knows that her voice tends to grow weaker whenever she's upset.

"Well, when I send him texts, he doesn't respond. Whenever I call him, he never picks it up. I update him about everything that has happened to me every single day, but the only thing I know about him is that he's still breathing. And I hate the fact that it has been bothering me more and more these days."

Seeing her in the verge of tears made him want to wrap his arms around her, but he can't. And it's getting to him deep into his nerves.

"It sounds like you two haven't talked personally in a long time," Wybie said softly, as Coraline nodded her head solemnly in agreement.

"It's been months. The only thing he told me before leaving is that he's going to be very busy with that stupid 'project' of his. Meanwhile I'm just here, working on fixing the flower shop, but yet I still find time to check on him when he can't."

A tense moment of silence had filled the room for a short moment, before Coraline chuckled bitterly to break that ice. "It's funny, because I always wondered if he still thinks of me the usual way he did before."

Then a waterfall of tears crept its way out of her eyes, as Wybie looked at her sadly. "I feel like, as time passes by, he's slowly seeing me as a person I was to him before."

Wybie raised an eyebrow in confusion. "A secret admirer?"

Coraline breathed out tiredly, smiling bitterly at him. "Not even any closer to that."