Sun heated the still-cold asphalt of his shadowed path towards the village that he was heading to. It was an abrupt highway, pretty tight, barely having room for two cars to pass near each other. One lane that goes towards the city, and one lane that goes towards the village. The edge of the highway had a long and unending metal protection on the left side. The left side of the highway was protected by a eight meter dusty cliff, which was clothed in a rope blanked to prevent any rocks from falling down from the top of it, and causing an unexpected and unwanted incident.

An oak forest surrounded the highway, with trees longer than the others, and some very close to the metal protection of the highway, dropping a good amount of shadow on the warm-ish asphalt, from a good distance which was around ten meters.

Looking at his brand new and expensive phone, while his small earbuds, colored in pale-orange, sang a melody which was on repeat for the sixth time, he changed the music to a melodic-rap genre, which was his favorite genre, too. Cars passed him every ten minutes or so, creating a perpetual motion that slightly caused the oak trees to slightly move, making them wiggle left and right, changing the perspective of their swish cheese-shadows.

His hair is short, freshly cut. His outfit, barely used a few times, and his eyes a blue-marine color. With not a care in the world, and one present purpose in his mind, he pumped out his chest and dragged his shoulders towards the back, creating two bumps in the top of his shirt, right before checking the sound of a notification coming from his phone, which he seemed really curious about, totally ignoring the natural beauty that stood still in every season, that was wide as a green sea.

Putting the phone back in his pocket, where it got vacuumed by the pocket of his skinny black jeans, he changed his sight towards the ground, which was an instant reflex and habit, doing the same ignorance towards mother nature. More towards the right, there was the village that he wanted to get to. It was a big village with a wide opening to the sea, having a border of sand between the crystal clear sea and the humanities interaction with the land.

All of the sudden, a white-colored small car-truck stopped right near him. The car-truck had a place behind, which held the trunk’s place, wide for six refrigerators. A small yell was heard from the driver that wasn’t heard by the boy, because the music that he listened too, was too loud.

Out of curiosity on what was going on, the boy quickly took one of his earbuds from his right ear, and slightly turned his head towards the place from where he heard the voice, which turned out to be the voice of a girl that looked around his age.

Even if she clearly looked at him, waving her hands and pointing desperately at something in front of them, constantly changing the perspective of her face, between the boy and the continuation of the highway, all the way to the end of it.She started speaking relatively loudly, almost shouting at the boy, tears slowly started forming and her voice gained trembling, the more she talked.

He sighed and placed his small pale-orange earbud, back into his right ear, exhaling deeply, after which he continued his walk

“Whatever”

He said out loud, taking out his phone from his pocket, putting on another tune.

In the moment that the phone was placed back into his pocket, he saw a tribe of oranges carting down the highway, so many that it was hard to even understand that amount. Some of them got through the empty places from inside the metal protections from the edge of the road, and some just drifted down with the speed of a bycicle.

A thought of mind has stopped his movement factors, the nerve-bone combination, making him unable to move forward, not even one more step. Just like a car driver would slam his shoe inside the brake pedal to avoid an accident in traffic, he stared at the countless oranges coming one after the other, targeting the rolling in groups or families of the fruits.

The mirrors of his vision shifting left and right, from one fruit to the other, while his breath was staying still in the same exact pace, slowing down with each second passing, eventually getting to a still pace, where, without realizing right in that moment by putting one and one together, that those fruits came from the back of the girls car-truck and he did nothing to stop it. It was abnormal ego and arrogance that held him back to even care about his surroundings. Which he didn’t know in that present moment, that this one action would lead to many changes in his future from that village.

Finally understanding the situation when it was too late, narrowing his eyes with an upset expression over his ‘brows, he quickly shifted his sight towards the girl, who was squatted down right near her truck, leaving the driver’s door open, holding her head with both of her hands, sniffing her nose and letting out quiet moaning noises, the noises that her heart unintentionally took out from sustaining a big mistake that could not be repaired.

That moment right there, was the first time he’d ever seen someone cry, which was very unusual, so he did not really know how to act, but frustration quickly took over, as well as anger, an anger that he felt towards himself, for making the mistake that he knew that couldn't be repaired.

Looking down the highway, near the last turn towards the right, he saw the last few oranges dropping themselves down from the road’s edge, then he fully understood what consequences could and surely will come from this.

Slowly approaching the girl, wanting to ask if everything was okay, his plans were demolished; he was the one ignored and seen like a monster. She looked through the gaps between her fingers, only for a quick second, at the boy, after seeing him approaching, she raised herself from the ground with both knees making a quick popping sound, and went towards the car-truck’s door, almost falling down because a small rock that she didn’t see, was stuck in the straight asphalt. Supporting her almost-fall, by placing her hands on the car-truck and wiping her tears with the back of her hand, sniffing her running nose one last time, the girl placed herself on the driver’s seat, closing the door, that made a loud locking sound.

“I wanted to apologize, like what is her deal?!”

Exclaimed the boy, annoyed at the situation that he thought it could be fixed on the spot, but it was a totally different story from now on.

*Why did she run away so often, even ignoring me*

Grunting his eyes, the boy looked at her driving off, taking a turn and disappearing after the lowering of the highway, making herself unseen.

Taking off both of his small earbuds, putting them back in their hard-plastic case, and then putting it back into his inventory, which was his pant’s pocket, he stood still for a moment, thinking the situation over

“I’m so going to make her apologize for ignoring me; maybe I’ll just find her parents somehow and tell them how wild is their daughter”

Momentary overreacting and overthinking took over, so he continued his walk towards the village, slowly losing an arguing battle over his actions.

*Wasn’t I the first one to ignore? I’m so stupid, what was I thinking? I have to find her and apologize, not make her apologize. Kenny you stupid guy, dang it!*

Many more sentences went through his mind, gently bumping his fist on his forehead with each sentence he was thinking, almost punishing himself for his actions.

*If I needed help, would I like to be treated the way that I treated that woman, no… I would not like it*

Silencing himself, not knowing how to defend himself from his own arguments towards his own self, sighting and exhaling deeply with carved unhappy lips on his expression, he just kept walking, not mentioning another word, the rest of the way.

His phone continued ringing with small sounds of notification, but the empty feeling inside his stomach didn’t let him take his addiction out of his pocket. Doing so, he could hear the chirps of the birds, the sound of the vehicles cruising on the highway at high speeds, he could also hear the rustling of the leaves, finally realizing the scenery in front and left to him, it was an entire new world for him, a world that he only heard about.

Many long and hard minutes later, at what he saw in front, being the village. It was a relatively the same place as his home town, but only a small percentage smaller. Small-city lookalike. A big difference was the fact that it had a lot more shops, restaurants, and a massive opening to the beach, kind of like a party-place of someone really really wealthy, or just a summer station.

A characteristic of the village was an unhealthy amount of laughing people all around, which he found very uncommon, not seeing this much laughter in his entire life. For some reason, people were just happier in the village, is what he thought.

The entire ground was covered in a brick-ish material, colored in cream.

While checking around the surroundings, passing near countless groups of people and couples, passing him left and right, he saw the girl that drove the car-truck, being shouted at by someone way older than him, maybe his father? They were around ten to twenty meters away from the boy. Looking at her with a sudden shock and upsetness, he quickly found a way to sneak through the small crowd of people that was spread around the path which was leading downwards . Because they were a good distance away, only the muffle of their voices could be heard, or in other words, the echo of their voices, arguing. Most of the conversation was being led by the girl.

Swerving through the crowd just like overtaking five cars at the same time, totally avoiding being contacted in sight, by the girl or her father, knowing that there might be a chance that he was told to her father.

Continuing on, he checked the address on a piece of paper one last time, then looked around slightly confused about the part of the village that he should be in, but eventually found his way after a few mentions were written down, answered by the owner of the rental home.

Arriving, he found his home, in which he was staying for the rest of the summer, to be between two other buildings, seven story blocks.

Gently placing four of his fingers from his left hand, on the sliding canvas doors, the sliding of the long door has made a quiet sound, along with a small thudding sound of two wood pieces gently being pushed towards each other.

For the interior, taking a look inside, inspecting his entire home, a simple main room, with a small old television sitting on a fine wooden table, in one of the corners, pointed towards the rest three, being colored in dark-orange. The main room had other doors that lead to different rooms, like the bathroom, kitchen, and a bedroom, nothing extra, nothing shocking, a simple home.

Each room was about three meters by three, but the tiny spaces did not bother him at all, he was already used to them.

Reaching for the shoulder support of his gym bag, by bending his right hand’s wrist, the boy gently placed it down inside his bedroom. Inside it, all of his personal items found their way, like his clothing, phone charger, toothpaste, toothbrush and so on.

Unpacking his expensive and trendy gym bag, he started putting all of his clothes in the wardrobe, alphabetically sorted, by the merch name. His shoes were put right near the inside entrance of the home.

Parallel with the entrance door, there was another sliding door which led to a small place with freshly cut grass, cornered with a tall and thin, wooden fence.

For some reason, after unpacking everything entirely, he slowly placed himself down on her warm canvas floor, relaxing himself for a quick moment, zoning out for a quick second towards what happened with the girl, and because she had an argument with her father, most probably because of him.

His arms open wide, staring at the shadowed wooden reinforced roof, zoning out again, not thinking about anything at all, with his consciousness going into a dark and silent place.

Suddenly, his moment of mental pause was interrupted by a loud joyful laugh by a group of boys from outside.

Startled, widening his eyes, he quickly raised his back from the ground, supporting his upper body with his arms, looking up, listening carefully at the voices of the boys, with a confused look in his eyes, eventually sitting up from the ground and hurrying himself towards the exit. Sliding the door with his right hand, exposing a group of boys around his age, clothed up in different summer outfits, all joyfully laughing, pointing towards a boy that had poured a bucket filled with water and ice, by an older man, who looked like he was in really good parts with the group of boys, maybe a mentor, or a really good friend of them.

Taking a few steps outside his door, but not before sliding the door back, behind him, he started hearing their voices more clearly, entering their general good, summery vibe.