And Then There was Lathlynn

Chapter Five

*David's POV*

My hand went up to wave to her, but in a second she was on the tip of her toes with her arms reaching around my neck. Odd that I didn't really want to let her go, but she was home now. And really it wasn’t odd at all, for she was a pretty girl whom I did indeed like.

"Bye Lathlynn, I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" I smiled, she nodded, and then we went our separate ways. She had no more steps to go but I had to get off Melinda Road and onto Lucinda. It shouldn't take me any more than five minutes to get home.

I walked down her driveway and turned left on the sidewalk. It wasn't until I had passed by a few more houses that I realized I should have gone right. My feet turned themselves and my body followed. The end of the road looked so far away.

Maybe I should run? My bag would look a little stupid, though, bouncing up and down on my back. I guess I could just walk back, but if Lathlynn saw me I might look dumb. If anyone saw me I’d -

"Are you lost boy?" A little old lady stood on her porch clutching onto her walker. Gosh, I'd been standing in front of her house making such unearthly thinking faces for a good minute or two. It made me want to apologize for being a disturbance in the old woman’s day.

"Oh, no, I just... thought I heard someone call me." I lied.

"Well boy, you best be getting home and..." she paused, looking real baffled by me. "Who are you?"

Darn, I looked stupid no matter which way I went. And old ladies don't care who you are, yet they always know your name. I’m not sure how they manage to know everyone, but they do. She'll point out the obvious and tell me I was on the wrong road.

"Uh, David... David Walters." I could already hear the words coming back at me telling me how dumb I was.

"Oh, as in Clarissa and Joe Walters? I thought you lived on Lucinda?" There it was. "You're on the wrong road boy." Yep, the remark hit me right in the gut.

"Oh, that explains why I wasn't seeing my house... thank ya ma'am." How brainless did I look?

Without any hesitation, I turned around and went walking back down the road. One house... two house... three houses passed and then I could see Lathlynn's. Although it seemed creepy, I looked in the window with the odd hope of seeing her. All I saw was a little, chubby girl sitting down stuffing her face with pizza. And I thought to myself, awwh, that’s disappointing. I don’t know, I’m weird.

As I met the end of the street, I pulled my phone out of my pocket. 5:12 stared back at me in this weird way, telling me I was late. Even if my mom didn’t get mad at me, the lateness always just changed my internal schedule and then I had to adjust to the change and - I really got to get home. The phone then met my pocket once more.

I began jogging around the corner. With each step my long legs took my bag hit me. Each time my bag seemed to hit me harder. I could hear my math book crushing the papers I so carelessly stuffed in the back. Then, as if it were instinct, my leg slowed down and I found myself walking. Walking was good, running was very eh. Everyone thinks because I have long legs I must do track or basketball (or both) because that’s obviously all I’m good for, right? To be honest, none of that stuff really caught my attention.

Naturally, as I began approaching my house my hand reached in my pocket for my key. My pockets fit everything in them, in case someone is wondering. The silver piece of metal rose up in the air only to be knocked out of my hands by a beer bottle.

"Ouch...” My hand began to have a slight stinging pain as I saw the open wound. The cut wasn’t that bad, it just hurt very, very much. I realized either the bottle was broken or my keys tried to murder me before leaving my grip.