Truth or Dare

Summer, surprises and Island Boys job

                                                                                                                                                          Wes

"Lydia?" My eyes pretty much popped out of my head when I opened the door to see her standing there. When I had heard the doorbell ring, the last person I could have thought of was Lydia. "What are you doing here?" I asked, catching her in a hug.

"Ran away for the summer. Thought I'd come see you this time." Her skin had become darker from the sun, and her hair was back to the natural brown I had always known it as. The color that matched the chocolate of her eyes.

"Wait, did you say you ran away?" I asked, snapping out of my assessment of her to move out of the way for her to come in, taking the duffel bag and rolling suitcase from her. "Why'd you run away from home?"

"A lot of reasons. Schools out, Nicole left for vacation, Mula left me and Hayley for the summer to see her family, most of my other friends are either working or going to summer school, Support Group is on break and I couldn’t stand being in that house with my dad by myself. Charlie left too, he went down south to work for our uncle all summer. Did even offer to take me with. Plus, my dad has his new girlfriend and I didn’t think they'd want me to get in their way. So I decided to go find my own adventures."

"So you came here?"

"Yeah, so I came here."

"Well, a little warning would have been nice." I laughed.

"Sorry, it was kinda spur of the moment. I was gonna text you but my phone died at the airport and I didn’t feel like digging out my charger.

"Where do you plan on staying?"

"Um, well, I was planning to ask if I could stay here," she shrugged. I noticed her hair was shorter, it fell just above her shoulders, bouncing with every movement causing a few of her bangs to fall in front of her face. "I'll figure it out."

"You cut your hair again."

"Yeah, I felt like another change."

"It's brown again."

"The red was temporary. But I kept the purple streak. See?" she pulled a clump of her hair forward. Unlike the rest of the brown, this piece was dyed a dark purple that had faded brighter a bit.

"Nice, kinda edgy."

"That's what I been going for lately."

"Also explains the new piercing." I motioned to her newly pierced cartilage on her right ear, wondering why she felt such a need to change all of a sudden.

"Yeah, my dad kinda freaked out about that one. But I'm seventeen and able to get it without him taking me to Claire's and giving consent. Besides, I know a girl who did it for ten bucks. She even did it for me for five because I got it done on my birthday." She laughed, but something was off about it. It wasn’t the laugh I knew and loved. It was almost, sad. "Btw, thank you so much for birthday present you sent. I loved it."

"I can see, you're wearing it." I pointed to the silver arrowhead hanging from her neck, the little infinity symbol etched into the metal standing out in the sunlight coming in from the window.

"I never take it off." She smiled, touching the silver charm and holding it close to her heart. "It's kinda became my lucky charm."

"Glad you liked it. It took forever to find," I had known what I wanted to get her from the day I had left after the dance. It just had actually taken me fifty bucks and half a dozen phone calls to find someone to make it special for her. But she was worth it.