Killing is My Middle Name

Chapter Six

        I was startled by a little sound against my window. I got up and opened my curtains to see Shane looking at me. I stopped myself from gasping and opened the window. Shane jumped in and sat on my bed.

        It had been months since Shane was in our group of friends. He and I had gone back to being best friends.

        As I looked at Shane now, he looked a little scared. His eyes were red and puffy from crying and he was frantically looking behind him as if he were terrified of seeing his dad following him.

        "My dad kicked me out..."

        He was looking down at the floor and it looked like he was about to cry again. I sat next to him on the bed and put my arm around him, trying to comfort him.

        "Why? What happened?" I asked, starting to worry.

        "He said that I was stealing money from him. I'm not though! I don't know why he's doing this! You know I would never steal in my life!"

        "Maybe he's just freaking out over your mom still. Maybe that's his way of coping?"

        "But it's not fair!" He almost shouted.

        "Shh, you'll wake my parents. You can stay here for a few days then I'll take you back home and we'll see what's wrong with your dad, okay?"

        "What if he doesn't want me back? What if your parents get mad?"

        "Then you can stay here. My parents won't get mad, they like you. Here, you can sleep on the floor tonight or do you want to sleep in my bed?" I asked while putting a blanket on the floor and a pillow.

        “No, it’s okay, I’ll sleep on the floor.”

        "Are you sure? Because you can take the bed if you want. Actually, I think you should. You've had a pretty rough day and night I'm assuming. I'm okay with sleeping on the floor.

        “I don't want to take your bed away from you though..." Shane looked at me with a sad look on his face.

        I smiled and said, "It's really okay! I want you to be as comfortable as possible." I ruffled his hair and he gave me a little smile. 

        I walked down the hall to get another blanket. When I returned, he was already lying down, looking exhausted. I put the blanket over him and checked the time. 2:54. Four more hours of sleep...

        "Thanks a lot, Naminé, I really appreciate it. Goodnight."

        "Goodnight, Shane."

****

       In the morning, I told my parents what happened with Shane. They were okay with it and said he could sleep in our guest room until his dad was okay again.

        It was the last day of school. It came by so quickly. I really didn't want to leave since I had made all of my friends in this place. However, I knew that we could always hang out over the summer, I just didn't want to lose touch with any of them.

        We had graduation a day before. We had gotten used to having Shane at my house everyday so my parents said he could stay the summer too. His dad had, unfortunately, said he never wanted to see him again. Shane had tried to ask why but his dad just slammed the door in his face. I felt really bad for the kid.

        The first day of summer was fun. Alexandria came over and we went to the pier. The ocean was beautiful today. The waves kept returning to the shore then going back out again as if the shore pushed them away. The sky was a clear blue without a cloud in sight and the ocean was also blue but with a few hints of green. The only problem was it was a bit too hot today. Being there calmed me down for all the things that had happened yesterday and I think the same happened for Shane.  

        We ran into the water and splashed each other. All three of us got soaked with tiny water droplets slowly crawling down our bodies.  

        We ran around while people stared and we didn’t care. We were just having an amazing time. 

        After a few hours, we walked along the pier and watched the sunset. The sky had begun to turn soft shades of pink, purple, and blue while the sun dipped low into the sea, taking all the light from this side of the world with it.  

        Sitting down at the end of the pier, we dangled our feet off the side and gazed into the sparkling blue ocean before us. Calmly, the waves were pushed in and back out again.  

        When it got darker, we decided to walk to the restaurant not far from the beach. It was called Beach Side Restaurant.

        So original.  

        After that, Alexandria said she had to go home. Both Shane and I drove back home and, both tired, went to sleep. Shane had, what it seemed like, forgotten about what his dad did to him because he was really happy.

****

        I woke up to Shane lightly tapping my shoulder. He looked like he had just woken up himself since his hair was sticking up every which way.

        He gave me a big grin and asked, "Can we go to the park? Please, please, please?"

        It was only 8:32, so I said we could. The sun had just came up anyway. Not many people went to this park because it was sort of hidden. It’s at the end of a cul de sac and there’s a lot of big trees that shade it from view. A person would have to be walking right along side the trees to even know there was an area behind it.

        I looked around at the small play area they had. A slide, monkey bars, and a bridge. On the other side of it was a basketball court. A few houses ran against the back of the park. Shane ran to the swings and jumped on one. He begged me to push him. 

        I swear, he's such a little kid sometimes.  

        I walked over to the swings, shaking my head with a slight smile. Before I could even get there, he was already off the swings and was walking cautiously to something he saw ahead. I watched his gaze and my eyes widened. He was not supposed to go over there. I ran over to Shane.

        "What are you doing?" I asked, trying to hide the panic in my voice.

        "I saw something over here. I want to check it out."

        "No, let's just go back to the swings. I didn't even get to push you yet!"

        He gave me a weird look and said, "Let me check this out first."