A Light in the Dark

A Group of Boys in the Woods

3: Mason

“Dude come on!” Curtis whined to me.

“Really? It’s so cold today. You can’t wait until tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow isn’t a half day.”  He pointed out.

“Whatever. I’m only coming because I have nothing else to do.”

“Thank God for you man, I did not want to be there with all Dani’s friends.” At the mention of Dani’s friends I froze in my tracks.

“Oh God please don’t tell me that Kaitlyn girl is going to be there!”

“Now who is the one whining?” I zipped up my hoodie, the weather had lightened since the morning, but it was still a little chilly.

“She’s so annoying.”

“You didn’t seem very annoyed at lunch…” I punched him and shoved him towards the road. We laughed and walked our way towards the Rita’s down the street from our school, Renderon High. I walked in with Curtis where we stood in a small line waiting to get our Italian ice. A couple of guys Curtis knew from the football team showed up and the four of us were hanging out by the basketball court when three girls giggling and chatting away showed up with Italian ices in their hands.

            Of course I recognized Kaitlyn’s brown curls the second she walked into my field of vision. She was with her friend Dani, whose black hair was straightened and cut short. The other girl had bright red hair and I didn’t recognize her at all.

“Hey Curtis!” I almost groaned out loud, but I refrained myself from doing so. These two girls were so annoying. “This is my cousin Elise!” The girl with the red hair – Elise – waved at us. Curtis’s friend, Dale whistled and Zack whooped. They were morons too.  

At least they weren’t jerks like some of their buddies from the football team. I only hung out with Curtis because I needed at least one friend and he wasn’t snotty and pretty-boy-like. Neither were Dale or Zack, who were by the way, twins. Dale and Zack came from a huge family and the only reason they could afford to go to Renderon was because they got a football scholarship. I still thought they were morons. I rolled my eyes at them and ate my Italian ice. The girls came over to us and Dani was immediately at Curtis’s side. He wrapped his arm around her side and pulled her to him. I scoffed and leaned against the pole of the basketball hoop. Dale and Zack swarmed the poor Elise girl who warmed up to them quicker than I would have expected.

            “Your lips are blue.” The sudden voice made me jump and Kaitlyn laughed at me. I glared back and continued to eat my blue raspberry deliciousness.

“Well yours are green.” She smiled at me and I couldn’t help but notice the way her hair was being blown across her face from the wind and I began to laugh when she went cross-eyed. “What are you doing?”

“Trying to see the color of my lips to see if you’re lying or not.” This brought a scoff out of my mouth.

“I’m not. You look like the wicked witch of the west.”

“Her skin was green, not her lips,” she said, taking another spoonful of green ice.

            “Correcting me isn’t very smart.”

“Well it needed to be said,” she smiled into her cup and both of us continued to eat. The awkward silence continued until Zack screamed, “Guys versus girls! Dale brought a basketball!” I quickly finished my ice and threw the empty cup in the trash. The seven of us set up for a small game of basketball.

            “Hey! The teams are uneven!”

“You’re right,” Curtis said, “Four girls and three guys…”

“No wonder you’re failing algebra,” Dale told him, “you can’t count.”

“No, I can. Elise, Dani, Kaitlyn and Mason versus you, me, and Zack.”

            Everyone burst into laughter and I just let it roll off my shoulders.

“That’s right boys, you’ve all been drooling over the fact that I’m the hottest one here. I know I’m gorgeous, but let’s get this game started!” I pretended to flip my non-existent long hair. This got a whole new round of laughter from the group and I laughed with them. Finally we stopped and got our genders straight enough to get a game started. In the middle of the game, a group of kids passed by smoking and walking out of the woods. Kaitlyn, who I was currently trying to get the ball from, turned pale. All of the color drained from her face as she dropped the ball.

“Kaitlyn, what’s wrong?” Dani asked.

            The two girls were quickly in a whispered conversation and Dani’s face drained of color as well when she looked to the group of boys. I watched as Dani turned to talk to her friend, but she was already sprinting towards the group. I could hear Dani letting out a string of curses and without knowing how I got there, I was by her side.

“What’s going on?”

“Mason, jeez you scared me. Oh, um… well it’s Kaitlyn,”

“No kidding it’s Kaitlyn, what’s going on?”

“Well…” She seemed hesitant to tell me, but Kaitlyn had just run into a group of kids who were probably all high. I had about half a minute before I was going to snap and run after her myself. Curtis was quickly at Dani’s side, along with her cousin.  

“Dani, what’s going on?” Elise asked.  Dani took a deep breath.

“It’s…. Ronnie.”

“Who’s Ronnie? Dani you have to tell us,” I told her.  

“Kaitlyn’s brother, she’s furious-” I didn’t hear the rest of what she said because I had started to run after the group, who had stopped and were now in a circle down the road. Dani called after me, but I didn’t stop. I wasn’t sure what was compelling me to go after Kaitlyn. I knew I would probably kick myself for it later, but I didn’t want her to get hurt. Distantly, I heard feet running behind me, probably everyone else rushing to Kaitlyn’s aid as well. When I reached the group of boys, most of them were paying attention to the boy Kaitlyn was screaming her mind off at.