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My shoulders start to shake as a stab of loneliness hits my heart. It strikes, snapping my chest right along with it. It hits so ruthlessly that I hiss out a breath.
What the hell?
Hailey’s back in that place. The one from right before she left without telling anyone. Not the school, not me, or her best friend. Rory was as shocked as the rest of us after we’d all found out.
“You know, I never understood why people hate the rain.” Hailey says after a beat. Extending her arm, she rotates her wrist, oblivious to what’s happening right beside her as she catches the light droplets. Totally unaware of the turmoil going on inside me.
My shoulders rise and fall in deep breaths.
“The rain, it’s come so far just to give us these tiny kisses,” she muses meekly, never stopping as she continues moving her arm like she can catch them all. If she could, she’d keep every last one from touching the ground. I have no doubts.
This rain, it’s come from nothing. Springing as quickly as the shift in the air between us. It’s light, a small dusting, but something you feel all over.
“You like water, any kind,” I remind her. This is one thing I’m positive about.
Her eyes slant, but there’s a hidden smirk in there as well. “Maybe water just likes me,” she rebuttals, not at all offended like I knew she wouldn’t be.
Her expression turns lazy and it’s the most relaxed I’ve seen her since I arrived. That dimple of hers even popped out. It was brief, but it was there momentarily. Do I ease something in her as she does me? Or is it me not only remembering but pointing out her infatuation with water?
The water always has had some sort of effect on her. It doesn’t matter the kind or where it comes from. If Hailey’s around it, she’s at peace.
“If I asked you to go on a walk with me, would you come?” My voice sounds deeper, gruffer. My words don’t carry that usual confidence. All I sound like is a dead battery.
She tilts her head, and even more surprising than that, she reaches for my hand and our touch ignites like a power surge between us.
Absolutely, there is no way she can not feel this charge between us because it’sallI feel. The zing erupts between us like a thousand bolts of lightning.
Wrapping my fingers around hers is the second punch to my gut. The first had been how our eyes connected the half second before she agreed. The thing inside her mind was either dying, or she shoved it deep down. Whatever it was, it’s sated for the present.
All I care about is how I have her full attention and now that I’ve got it, I don’t plan on losing it. She’s mine…at least for the moment.
I wish it were longer…I need it to be longer.
Our walk isn’t long, unlike my grip on her, holding her hostage. Never. That’s how soon I’m willing to let go. We’re gridlocked, she’s stuck with me and I won’t allow her to be the one to decide when we separate. Not this time.
“I showed Rory this spot once.” She and I used to run together a lot around the property back in high school.
Hailey’s eyes go wide. “Rory was okay with coming through here?” She shakes her head with a soft laugh as if backtracking herself. “Never mind, she’d go anywhere as long as she felt she had the freedom to go.”
I match her airiness by way of agreement. She’s right, Lil Sis never cared as long as she didn’t feel trapped. Suffocated. The very same way Hailey makes me feel. I can’t escape.
A wave of empathy ignites, and I synthesize with Rory in a way I never had thought to understand before. I know why she’d always preferred running alone now. Funny how it only took me years and someone else’s observation to understand this.
My head tilts. “Rory definitely hates being smothered.”
We keep moving. It’s been a while since I’ve come through these paths behind our property.Yearsactually.
Running helps Rory, as sports and music help me.
Unfortunately, college, basketball, and life played a role in Lil Sis’s and my running time. We don’t always have the opportunity like we used to. It sucks, but like everything else, you learn to deal.
After those first couple of times years ago, it became less of a chore and more of an unspoken concept.
“You know, one of these trails leads back to Eli’s house,” I tell her. I don’t want the conversation to die.
It’s been a hot minute since I’ve been this far back and it’s showing. The trails are more cluttered and less maintained than I remember.
“Is that so?”
