Ten Steps With You

Chapter 1: A Day No Different From The Other

----------

Underwater in darkness, Oliver slowly sank.

Fazed and disorganized, confused and disconcerted. A light above the surface weakly shone on Oliver's face.

Opening his eyes fully, bubbles exited his nostrils. Unable to panic, Oliver turned his head to look around. 

"Summer?"

On the other side of what seemed to be a glass screen, Summer stood with a face of confusion. Hand on the glass, she looked Oliver straight in the eye. 

Everything around Oliver turned monochrome. The once gloomy and murky waters around him, his body, and his clothes had been stained in black and white.

No vibrant color remained except on Summer's end of the glass.

A bizarre sensation filled Oliver's spine. From his head to the tip of his toes, he began to regain movement in his arms and legs.

Looking at Summer again, he positioned himself upright, attempting to move closer to the glass.

As their gazes deepen, Oliver's heartbeat paced faster.

Summer began to bang on the window, each hit cracking the glass slightly.

What is she doing? 

On Summer's 10th strike, the glass shattered as water rushed into the room.

----------

Oliver reopened his eyes again. This time, instead of the water, he felt the softness of a bed and the warm touch of someone's hand.

"Hey, you okay?" A familiar voice asked.

The sounds of clamor attacked Oliver's currently sensitive ears. The ringing of a telephone, the volume of the afternoon programming, the voice of the school nurse. 

"Summer?"

As Oliver tried to get up, he accidentally grabbed the hand of the girl in front of him. His vertigo still not resolved, he only succeeds in bringing her closer to his face. 

Her red lips were immensely close. A drop of sweat slowly traveled down the side of her neck as her black silky hair glistened from the artificial illumination of the ceiling light above.

"Uhm, Oliver..."

"Alright you two, that's enough flirting for today." Miguel entered the room.

Summer pulled away. "I wasn't doing anything!"

Not yet fully conscious, Oliver fell asleep.

----------

With the loud bell ringing, Oliver and Summer make their way out of the school. 

"Want me to carry your bag?"

"The nurse told me to escort you home because of your scene at the cafeteria and you want to carry my bag?"

"Yeah, why not? We uh..." Oliver trailed off.

"We what?"

"We haven't walked home together in a while. Actually, we haven't talked much in a while. I thought I'd do it as a courtesy."

----------

Why is he so close yet so far away?

Summer questioned herself as she inattentively stared at our male protagonist from behind. 

The dusty pavement, the lukewarm afternoon air. Summer's hands fidgeted in her skirt's pocket while her mind wandered away into fantasy. 

Suddenly, with each step she took, the world around her began to change. 

Huh.

Defying any concrete laws of reality, the terrain and environment around her started to crumble.

Stumbling but not falling, Summer looked around with a face of confusion as the outside environment turned into a white room of nothingness. 

The air shifted to a chilly breeze and the ground disappeared. 

Before any words of confusion or panic could leave her mouth, Oliver turned around and swiftly grabbed her hand with the same force he used at the clinic.

White rosy petals began to fall out of the sky.

Light coming from a sun that didn't exist highlighted the falling floral leaves. Summer's cheeks heated up quickly as she froze in place.

She began to recall.

---9 Years Ago---

Head down, crouched in the backroom stage, Summer's tears fell upon the wooden platform of the school's theatre. 

"We'll be putting you in the competition, Summer." 

"Uh, okay."

She regretted it. Summer knew that she should have never accepted the assignment.

She had never spoken in front of a crowd that big before. Up to now, she still never really fully understood what she was doing there.

But she was unable to decline. Summer's first year as an elementary school student had been plagued with expectation after expectation, goal after goal. Because of this, she was afraid to disappoint anyone. 

More and more people entered and left the stage. 

Covering her ears and gluing her legs together as she trembled profusely, the voices of cheer and applause blared in the background. 

A mysterious figure reached his hand out. "Hey, you okay? We're up next. I'll be going first."

Forgetting completely, Summer remembered that she had been given a partner.

The recitative competition was to be done in pairs and the two of them had been practicing together for the past couple of weeks. 

Despite this, she tended to spend much of her time practicing alone as she expected that involving her partner too much would hinder her personal performance. 

What was his name again? Oliver, was it? 

Despite being so young, the boy relayed his lines masterfully to the quiet crowd who listened intently.

Swaying his arms in the air with every emphasized syllable, walking in pace with the piece he was delivering. The loudness and volume of his voice were like hitting Summer in the chest repeatedly. 

Not long after, he had spoken the last word to his part.

"Good luck." He whispered into Summer's ear.

Staring blankly into his eyes, the boy eventually broke eye contact as he walked backstage.

---Present---

It's that boy, again. Summer thought.

Her arms and movement were completely still. She tiptoed on her black shoes, elevating her slightly.

His glasses fogged up, heat coming from the touch of his hand. The boy gently raised her chin to the height of his lips.

---------------