Human (Discontinued)

Chapter 4

We walked back home in silence. Meri was biting her lip and I didn't want to disturb her thoughts.
The wind had started blowing fiercer, and it whipped her short hair across her face, getting it caught on her lips. I pulled the hood of my coat up, and shoved my injured hand into my pocket.
It was still silent on the street, but this was a different kind of silence. This was like the stillness where everything could be a possible trigger for an explosion; it was like how everyone would be completely mute when there was an obvious question to be asked.
The air felt thicker, somehow.
"So...you're sure your mom won't mind if I stay over?" She said, breaking the uneasy silence between us.
"Well I wouldn't really know, I mean I think she'd be a little surprised since the last time she saw you was at your funeral. But y'know, I'll explain that you're no spirit raised from the dead, and she should be cool with it..." I attempted a smile in her direction, though she wasn't looking at me. I was afraid I'd been talking too fast, I didn't want it to seem like I was desperate to smooth things over, even though I was.
She mmm'd in reply, still looking down at her feet. I didn't attempt to break her out of her bubble of thought, and raised my head to look up at the sky instead.
There was clouds covering the sky, like a grey blanket. The birds that had fluttered away earlier were now flying in a perfect V-formation above our heads. I shut my eyes as I walked, letting a slight feeling of dizziness wash over me. Have you ever felt dizzy when looking directly up into the sky? When you can't see anything else but it, and your neck is straining to look up, making it hard to swallow.
The roof of the world. Literally, that's what it was. I think there was a mountain range nicknamed that, but I couldn't remember which one.
I opened my eyes and breathed out heavily, running a few short steps to catch up to Meri, who'd continued on without me.
"You were walking around the road with your eyes closed y'know," she commented, as I drew up beside her.
"I was looking at the sky." I replied.
"Hmf...reminds me of the time we stood at the top of Greenback's Hill with our arms out and rolled down the side of it." She said, distractedly. I raised an eyebrow at her, wondering what was up with all her nostalgic thoughts today.
"...Riiiiiiight...." I sighed, reaching into my pocket for my keys as we turned into the street that led back to my house.
She didn't say anything while we were walking up, but as I reached up to put my key in, she put her hand on my arm to stop me.
"What are we doing?" She asked quietly, her eyes cloudy and unfocused.
"Going into my house..?"
It came out sounding more like a question than a reply.
"No...I mean...I mean what are we going to do now? We can't just keep pretending like everything's normal you know. Whatever this is...it's...well, weird. We have to do something."
"I have a method; cutting the useless watch out of my wrist." I said, trying my hardest to keep the edge out of my voice.
"No..! I can't get rid of it! I want to know why it stopped. I have to know. I'm still alive, but it ended my life. I want to know why!" She started slamming her fist onto my chest repeatedly, "I want to know why! I want to know why!"
"What good do you think hurting me will do exactly?" I asked wryly, taking hold of her wrists to make her stop pounding then against me, "I don't know anymore than you do."
"Then let's go find someone that does."
"What? Who?"
"Randy Johnson."
I groaned inwardly. Randy Johnson dropped out of school before I did. Not because of any particularly valid reason, he was just too lazy to get any work done.
As far as I knew, he was working in a junkyard on the outskirts of town. A short, pudgy kid that grew into a slightly taller, pudgy kid. Who was rumoured to be doing drugs.
I didn't make a sound, or say anything of what I was thinking, but Meri must've noticed some change in my expression.
"Come on...he's meant to be good at working with stuff isn't he?"
"Did some research while you were locked up without contact did you?"
She blushed slightly, but shook her head.
"I uh...may have read a text on your phone when you went to get your jacket. I swear it wasn't snooping! It just popped up on the screen..."
"Whatever. And he's good with mechanical things, like cars and whatever. He was just interested in what I was doing with the wrist watch so he wanted to try help me out. He's useless though."
"I still wanna go, can we? Please?"
I shut my eyes for a second before throwing my head back and sighing.
"You're making me waste my day y'know." I muttered, stuffing the key back into my pocket and pulling out some coins for the bus.
"Not like you had anything better to do...and Cal?"
"What."
She looked me up and down briefly.
"You should work out more."
"...Shut up."
I set off for the bus stop, with Meredith in tow, smiling.