Before the Morning [BEING EDITED]

17 | Safe

About ten minutes into Nora's walk, the tears started up again. She wiped her sleeve across her eyes before typing into her cell phone. Just stepped over a crack, she wrote. Someone's mom's back is mighty thankful 

She hit Send and let out a shaky breath of air. When she was little, her dad would lift her over the cracks on the sidewalk. "Protect Mommy's back!" he'd say, laughter in his voice. "Big jump, big jump!"

A tear fell, and then another. She grimaced and swiped them away, wincing as her sleeve scraped across her sensitive skin. I miss her, she thought to no one in particular. She kicked at a rock with so much force it rocketed to yards away.

This wasn't how it was supposed to go.

More tears fought their way to the surface, but she suppressed them. She searched desperately for something to send Nolan. The distractions were fleeting, a staccato within the legato, but they brought a much needed peace, no matter how brief that peace may be.

Just passed a really cute house

Oooh they're watching Phineas and Ferb! I know what we're going to do today!

Perry the Platypus having a pillow fight with Doofenshmirtz brought a nostalgic smile to her lips. It was one of her favorite shows as a kid. The summer after she first watched it, she and her friends had tried to recreate some of Phineas and Ferb's inventions. It was a glorious failure, but it was still one of the best summers ever.

Her phone dinged, and she opened Nolan's reply.

Cool

Please tell me you've seen it. If you haven't, I'll have to reconsider our friendship.

A moment, then a reply that made her laugh, despite a tear that insisted on escaping.

Yes, yes I have.

A small, distant crack! made her pick up her pace, hurrying down the darkened road, which only had a few dying streetlights to supply light. She couldn't wait to get to Nolan's.

Two shadowy blobs emerged ahead in the darkness. Her stomach twisted, and she squinted. Please tell me I'm not about to get murdered.

What would you suggest as a weapon against blobs?

A distant ding. Her eyes narrowed.

Blobs?

Blobs.

Another distant ding. She was beginning to suspect one of the blobs had a cell phone.

"What did she say?" one of the blobs asked.

The blobs stepped under a streetlight, and she smiled. The owner of the voice was trying desperately to sneak a peek at the other blob's cell phone, who was pushing his face away with a pale hand.

You know, one of the blobs looks remarkably like one of my incredibly stupendous friends.

Ding!

Brown hair

Ding!

Pale

Ding!

Frowning

Ding!

Maroon shirt

Ding!

Nolan looked up. She laughed and waved, stepping under a streetlight of her own.

"Nora!" Caleb exclaimed.