SHADOWS OF KAYLA

NOT A MEET AND GREET

Kayla.

The streets were noisy and bubbly, and I could not deny that I was angry and jealous. The sun shined bright with vigour, and burned to the earth with heat, I wished I wasn't there to see all of it. The walk from the hospital to the park wasn't long, I knew, but it felt like miles to me.

“What a waste of time,” I said to myself as I kicked at a piece of paper on the floor, but my leg just went through it. Of course, it would. What did I expect?

Van never came. It was just a long two hours of waiting for nothing. I began to question what the point was again, that I had to start the pointless quest in the first place. I silently scoffed at myself and just wanted to go home so badly. But I knew returning home was going to bore the hell out of me. I was tired.

“Everyone seems to be having a great day despite the scorching heat,” I said vaguely to myself as I sat on an empty seat in the park. Of course, I could not feel the rays of the sun on my skin, but it wasn't hard to tell how hot it was, seeing how everyone walked around in their own sweat, some were red with sunscreen, others protected themselves with wide hats and sunshades.

“Is today blue day or what?” I hummed amusedly to myself after noticing almost everyone passing by had the blue colour hanging somewhere in their outfits. It was fun counting.

Number six hung on my lips as I watched a young guy approach where I was, he had a blue face cap on and and a black backpack hanging to one side of his shoulders. His eyes were squinting at something on his phone for a while before he finally put his phone to his ear and muttered some inaudible words to whoever was on the other end of the call.

Honestly, I would not have paid any more attention to him had he not come to lay his butt on the seat next to me. He dropped his phone from his ear and made a loud sigh, proceeding to look in my direction.

I could feel his stare piercing through me, although I was hundred percent sure that he could not see me. Why would he? But damn this jerk wouldn't take his eyes off of my side.

My head turned slowly to my right, then I saw a blonde girl and another guy whose face I couldn't see properly, kissing…Yes kissing passionately under the same sun some are currently taking cover from.

I scoffed at both the kissers and the one watching them like a hungry puppy. Even though my presence was known to none of them, it disgusted me to be right in between them. I had enough of that bad day already that every little thing irked the s**t out of me.

Like a magician pulling a last minute trick, I turned to the guy and stuck out my tongue. Crossing my eyes the weirdest way possible.

I could always get away with feeling embarrassed for doing stuff like that, because no one knew I was doing them in the first place.

***

Festus.

The smell of my sweat continued to hang around my nose as the hotness of the afternoon raved through my skin. I pulled on my sweat-drenched shirt to release some heat off me as I sat on the hot bench. I wondered how long I was going to spend waiting for Josh to come pick me up.

“Hurry before I turn to roasted chicken,” I had told him right before he hung up.

I still couldn't believe that I was finally out of the house. It was like a sick dream coming true. I stared at the far end of the road, where my dad's old truck was parked at. That was the abandoned vehicle in the garage that no one really cared about. It only made sense that I used it, it didn't hurt my pride to take dad's old truck. Although it did give me some issues before it finally decided to heed my calls, it was going to be useful for me. Cars were not allowed in the area, so I had to pull it over outside.

Feeling a sudden ache in my left shoulder made me scold myself for not keeping my backpack in the truck. On second thought, it was good I carried it around, so I wouldn't seem like a nineteen-year-old idler.

“...four, five, six,” I absentmindedly heard someone count as I sat. However, I paid no meaningful attention to the voice until I didn't hear “Seven”. I turned to my side and saw the cutest looking girl I've seen in a while.

She was wearing a short multi-shades-of-brown checkered two-piece —a jacket and a short skirt, which I later realized was a school uniform after seeing the bow tie and school badge. Her short brown hair was packed up in a neat ponytail, with tiny silver studs clinging fancily to her earlobes. She looked too cool and comfortable for someone sitting in the sun. Her skin looked pale, but it all the more emphasized how pretty she was.

My inquisitiveness almost pushed me to ask why a school girl was sitting alone in a park when she was meant to be in school or at least with her friends if they had already clocked out of school for the day. But when those light brown eyes of hers stared questioningly at me before they narrowed into a suspicious squint, I stopped myself. She turned her face from me to a couple who were busy kissing and I don't remember the thoughts that ran through my mind at the time.

When she looked back at me, her face surprisingly held some kind of disgust, that I thought I had done something wrong. Or had I? I really didn't know. Probably she was disgusted at them and not me, I thought. But when she made a silly face at me and walked away, I found myself smiling like a fool. She was just so cute.

Somewhere in my heart, I prayed I would meet her again and get to talk to her. I didn't understand why I was feeling that way, she was just a highschool girl…funny for a person who just graduated high school to think. I couldn't possibly have started to crush on someone I met less than two minutes ago. For all I knew, it was a kiddish thing that I never wanted to do.

Even while I watched her leave, I couldn't tell exactly when she disappeared from my sight…like a ghost.