Our laughter echoed emptily against the concrete wall of the abandoned bridge. The four of us were out there again, laughing and staring at the flourishing garden below us. It was beautiful really, with a whole assortment of colorful flowers. Vibrant fruits and vegetables were sprinkled throughout the garden. Someone could live off of that garden and I suppose that someone does. We didn’t see her often, she would only come out after she heard our laughter stop. It happened by accident the first time, I think. We sat silently looking at the garden contemplating how we had all gotten there, poor but together. All of a sudden, this mousy girl with short brown hair came skimpering out into the garden. She surveyed the garden quickly and darted round and round picking up the bottles and wrappers that we had tossed down into the garden. We looked on at her in awe, we had never seen anyone in the garden; we had figured that the garden was abandoned. Finally, Leo mustered up the courage that the rest of us could not and yelled down to her. “Hey, you come here often?”
Yeah, Leo was the charmer of the group obviously. Her eyes darted up to us, quickly scanning us with pupils blown wide in fear, swallowing the reflecting purple of her eyes. We could all tell that she was startled, as we would later relate to each other. Then, her eyes changed. I could see the resolve in her eyes as she steeled herself together and ran back under the bridge. This became a routine, some days we would just stay quiet to see if we could get her to come out. We tried to figure out her name several times but she never spoke. I think she came to expect that we would come and wait for her.
And that leads us to today. We looked into each other's eyes. Brown looking into green looking into dark blue looking into hazel. We decided right then that we would wait for her today. It would be our fifth time getting her to come out. We settled slightly and leaned over the edge to see her come skimpering out. She stopped at the edge of our line of sight and looking up at us quickly, slowly walked into the garden. Once, she was in the middle of the garden, she looked back up at us. Her short brown hair was stuck to her forehead with sweat and she was wearing a threadbare gray shirt and torn light blue shorts. We looked, startled, at each other and snapped our heads back to her in sync. She opened her mouth and started shouting at us. We reared back in surprise. We had speculated about what her voice sounded like but we never thought about that she could have such a low melodic voice. “Why do you four always come to my bridge and throw litter into my garden, then watch me when I pick up your trash? You want to come down and help me with it?”
We looked down, having been scolded by a girl probably as young as us. I called down to her an apology. “We’re sorry. We didn’t mean to be creepy and are really sorry about the litter.”
She looked up at us skeptically. I nudged the others to get them to apologize as well. They stammered out apologies and I rolled my eyes at them. When I rolled my eyes they met the girl's purple irises. The look in her eyes was incredulous. I shrugged and she had to hold in a snort by raising the back of her hand to her nose and looking at the ground. I yelled out to her again. “Again, we are sorry for being creepy and littering. We’ll be leaving now.”
I shoved my friends towards the end of the bridge, looking back at the girl. She was laughing at the sight of me shoving three other high school boys to the side and tripping the entire time. I determined then that I would be seeing her laugh again. That I would come back and hang with her, keep her company and maybe, hopefully, become her friend.
I sat up quickly and the rotten floorboards creaked, complaining against the strain and quick movement. A gut-wrenching pain stabbed through my stomach and up to my head. I doubled over quickly and started dry heaving, trying to keep quiet because I know the other will still be asleep by the time its noon. They needed their sleep or they would be cranky all day and I can’t deal with them like that when I am sick.
I got sick quite frequently, have ever since I was a kid. I was born prematurely and don’t get enough sunlight ever because I’m severely allergic to pollen and I used to get a terrible reaction. The reaction has gone down as I got older but I still itch all over come springtime. I’ve learned to deal with it and thrive. But, I can’t deal with three rowdy teenage boys all day.
I sound like a mom and I suppose that is an accurate description. I’m the oldest of the group, 18 just teetering on the edge of 19. I could vote if I cared enough but I don’t especially because whatever president will be chosen will do jackall for us, the poor class.
I got up quickly and walked/ran to the bathroom, slamming the door behind me. I didn’t puke up much. I don’t get much in my system to puke up, ever. I felt light headed after all the heaving, finally deciding that I needed some fresh, crisp, fall, air.
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