Finley
Weekends were my least favourite part of the week. Not because I loved school but because my family was very demanding of my time. They didn't allow me to go to dance on Saturdays or Sundays and cringed at the thought of a Friday lesson, though I went anyways. The further we got in to the weekend, the more my family wanted for us to sit down and talk, play board games and cuddle up on the couch to watch movies. Every living moment of my weekends were spent with my parents. That's why on Sundays I had started skipping church. Our church had a tradition of keeping the kids in Sunday school until they reached eighteen so I had the opportunity of ducking out for the next few years. During the time it took for the flourish of us to move from the main hall in to our groups, I snuck out the back door and walked in my Sunday dress down to the lake.
It was one Sunday, smack in the middle of winter that someone had caught me.
"Hey! You can't do that! Where are you going?" I knew it was Alec without turning my head but I had shoved my blonde curls in to the neck of my coat so he didn't know it was me. There was a large group of people blocking him from getting to the back door but he had pushed and shoved his way past and I hadn't even cleared the parking lot when he had grabbed my shoulder.
"Where are you going?" He had demanded, spinning me around. I had looked at him, terrified and shocked and he stared back, surprised it was me beneath the black jacket.
"Finn, what are you doing?" It was stunningly cold for California and I stood frozen, glancing over his shoulder to where he had burst out of the church, leaving the door trailing open behind him. I shut my mouth, pulling him in to the brush behind the parking lot.
"Finn! Hey, Finn! No! I don't want to go anywhere!" Once we were out of view of the door, I turned back to him.
"I need my space." Alec had looked at me weirdly.
"What's that supposed to mean? What are you, breaking up with me?" He had asked, smiling at his own joke.
"Just from my family." I had turned away, pushing through the jungle resembling trees to get to the abandoned lake. I heard snapping branches behind me and rolled my eyes when I realized he had decided to join.
"So do you do this every week?" He had asked all while swearing at the branches.
"Yeah, essentially. It's just nice to get away."
"Yeah, I get it." I remember his face when I had found the lake again. He stood there in awe looking at the crystal clear blue water and the peacefulness of our surroundings. Since that day back three years, our silent treaty was made and we found ourselves at our loving lake each week.
Now I sat down on the warm grass and pushed off my black ballerina slippers, dipping my feet in to the cool water. I waited a few minutes before I heard the familiar cusses streaming out of Alec's mouth as he pushed his way through. He had never quite gotten the hang of the walk.
"Can we cut some of these damn trees down, Finn?"
"Of course not! It gives the art of beauty to this wonderful place. Plus, we've already beaten down the path enough over the years." Alec sighed heavily and placed his hands on his hips, his awkward thick rimmed glasses falling down the crutch of his nose. In one action, he slipped on wet grass and fell down next to me, inches away from going all the way in the water, soaking his pants up to the knees.
"Great. Now what am I supposed to tell my mom what we did at Sunday school?"
"Water balloon fight?" I said, hiding my smile from him.
"Ha ha, very funny, Finley."
"Oh calm down, they'll dry before we have to go back." He pulled himself out of the water and trudged over to where I was sitting, plunking himself down beside me. We watched the water flow over rocks, the peacefulness of the day taking over my hurting head. I sighed and leaned back on the grass, closing my eyes as I lay down.
