Written by Jamie Board
Chapter 2: Familiar Faces
Voices whisper eagerly inside my head, encouraging me to wake up when all I want to do is stay asleep.
Autumn.
He’s here.
Autuuuumn!
Winter boy looks lonely.
AUTUMN!
“Alright, I’m awake!” I shout as I raise myself up, holding my ears. “Geez, you guys are noisy.” Yawning, I look up and see Winter with his hands in the air, wide-eyed. Heat rises to my cheeks.
“Sorry, the trees are chatty today.”
“You know, as long as I have known you, I’ll never get used to that.” Winter says as he lowers his hands.
I give him my best devilish grin. “I know.” I hop off the bench and man my back is stiff! “So what’s the plan now?”
Winter takes out his phone. “Well, it’s almost three. Should we call it a day or do you want to do something else?”
“We should head home, I feel pretty drained.”
Winter nods and we head out. As we were leaving the forest, my eyes catch on a boy about Winter’s height with dark hair. He was holding a book in one arm and in the other was a strange bottle. Probably a collector, everyone is fascinated with this forest.
The walk home is a bit on the chilly side so I shove my hands into my jacket pockets. Winter doesn’t seem to mind of course. The neighborhood is nice and quiet with the occasional car passing by. One by one, the porch lights begin to flicker on. I was about to ask what Winter has planned for the night when a loud shriek fills the air behind us. Winter and I whip our heads around and I am immediately tackled by a giggling goddess.
“Autumn! What a delightful time to see you here!”
“Yeah, you too.”
“Oh and Winter! How I am ever so happy to see you here too!”
She finally releases me and leaps into his arms. His grey eyes grow wide, his face turns pink, and his hands stay in the air, not knowing what to do with them. Before he can return the hug, she slips back into Summer’s sweaty, beefy arms.
“So, fancy seeing you two here.” Summer said as he studies us up and down. His eyes linger on me and I shiver.
“Well, we do live in this neighborhood.” I remind him.
Summer chuckled. “Same old Autumn.”
“I think what Summer means”, Spring piped in while rubbing his arm, “is that we should hang out sometime!”
Summer looks as though he swallowed a fly. “I do?”
“Of course silly!” Spring turns to us with a big grin on her face, flashing her perfect white teeth. “What do you guys think?”
My brain couldn’t compute and I glance at Winter for his opinion. He looks just as surprised as I am.
“You want to hang out…with us?” Winter asked before I could.
“Well sure! High school life is over, so now we can be friends!”
Those words felt like a sting and I felt my blood begin to boil. Of course we would only matter when no one will be praising her. “So we exist now?”
“Autumn..” Winter warned as my hands tighten against my sides. “I think it’s time for us to go home, we can catch up some other time.”
Summer takes Spring’s delicate hand. “Yeah us too before things get ugly.”
Spring looked confused as he drags her away. “Wha—”
“Don’t worry about it.” Summer chuckled.
I close my eyes and take a deep breath, slowly letting the air out of my lungs. Opening my eyes, Summer and Spring were no longer in sight.
“You ok?” I look over to Winter and saw that he was genuinely concerned.
“Yeah..let’s go home.”
“You looked like you were ready to start a storm.”
A laugh burst from my chest. “I wasn’t going to, I promise.”
“I dunno about that, you looked pretty scary.”
“I was just frustrated. Spring had plenty of time to want to hang out with us and suddenly now that school is over, she wants to be best friends. She had our entire childhood to do that but now that no one will be putting her on a high pedestal, we appeal to her.”
Silence fills the air.
“Maybe she had a change of heart.”
“Maybe..” I echoed.
To be continued…
Have you read Chapter 1? Click here!