April 6, 1994

His fingers ghosted over the sticky grass. It had begun clumping together irregularly as the liquid congealed. Gavin set himself down cross legged on the ground and tilted his head to look at his friend. He saw some of the grass touch his legs and leave strokes of stain on them. He idly traced the stains, and twirled the grass in his fingers.

Most of the grass was only lightly speckled, but the most significant amount of the stuff was all pooling in the same place around David’s head. It had not reached his white velcro shoes yet.

They were clean, if not at a terrifying angle compared to his knees. Gavin didn’t know when David was going to get up, the only reason the shoes’ had been kept clean was pressure from his mother to do so. Gavin didn’t want his mom to yell at him for getting them dirty so he pushed himself up and crouched at his friend’s feet. He undid the velcro one strap at a time so that David wouldn’t wake up. He knew he must have been very tired to fall asleep on the ground like this. Gavin made a note to ask David how he got his legs bent like that later as he removed both of the shoes and placed them ten yards away from the growing puddle. Then he sat back down beside his friend and put his knees against his chest.

Something felt empty about it. But he brushed it off as what it felt like without David’s voice drifting through the summer air. It’d be better when he woke up.

Gavin would sit there until the sun began to set and his mother came outside to check on the boys. Orange light draped over everything in her yard. She smiled initially at the sight of her son looking so intently at his friend. As she drew closer, he looked over his shoulder and put a finger over his lips. Eleanor’s eyebrows furrowed as she walked towards her son. 

Her eyes widened and she screamed at the sight of her son sitting in front of his friend, with his blood on his legs. White sneakers still discarded ten yards away. The sound cut through the warm air. 

Gavin’s father came ambling out of the glass sliding doors on their patio with a pair of barbecue tongs in his hand. He paused to squint at the figures in the distance his wife, son and who he guessed was David lying on the ground. He must have fallen, or something.

Eleanor turned quickly to give her husband a panicked look.

“Greg! call the police, the ambulance, anybody Greg!” She barked. Gavin wobbled up to cover David's ears, but his mother was too quick. She ran to Gavin and grabbed him away from his friend rather harshly. Jerking him up by his armpits.