Cloud Chasers

ten | the mysteries of the horizon [pt. one]

a/n: remember to vote!

Chase had been waiting for about twenty minutes when he received a text from Blake.

He had hardly moved away from the bench in Okin Liberty Park where he was sitting. The whole time, he hoped Daisy wouldn't take this long to arrive. Because his mind had started to reflect, and he thought there was something off about the park. The light breeze typical of spring time that blew his hair over his face, the smell of freshly cut grass, the distant echoing voices of children playing and moms screaming at them to be careful. It all seemed unreal to him.

Chase felt as though his mind and his senses were expecting these little things to be there. So he'd done something of an experiment. He'd sat on that bench and closed his eyes. He removed every thought from his mind and concentrated on his senses. He pretended to enhance the way his ears worked, he tried to examine the scents that came along with his breathing. He focused on his skin, excluded his body from the rest of the world.

And that's all it took for him to notice that there was no light breeze brushing against his skin, that his hair was perfectly still on his head. He opened his eyes and scrutinized the world around him before it could slip away from him.

He saw that the grass hadn't been cut in a while. He noticed that there were no distant children voices. All he could hear was the unbearable noise of cars rushing in the street near the park; the sounds of hammers against bricks, distant drilling, tower cranes beeping, car radios playing.

The smell of freshly cut grass had been replaced by freshly rolled grass, a result of the people that populated that park along with him. Grown men and women dressed in pullover raincoats with the hoodies pulled up over their heads, their faces barely visible. Joints and normal cigarettes promptly in their hands, as they passed them to each other.

The kids in his head weren't playing in that park, this was the reality of it. And unfortunately, the reality didn't feel refreshing to Chase. It felt uneasy, unwanted. He longed for the fantasy his mind had created to come back.

And that's when he received the text. The last time he checked his phone was twenty minutes prior, when he was already on that bench, waiting for Daisy.

Joyce came by, looking for u, Blake had informed him.
Chase facepalmed himself as he looked through his contacts. Blackbird, she'd finally given him her number.

When he'd woken up, liberated from the migraine, he'd promptly saved the number on his phone but hadn't texted her. He'd told himself he would text her later. Worst mistake he could've possibly made.

He debated inside his mind whether to text her now or not, and in the end he did.

"There you are," a tiny voice called his attention just as he hit send.

"Hey, I was waiting for you," he said, standing up to greet Daisy with a hug.

"Sorry, I'm late, as always," Daisy shrugged, her long hair flying in the wind. Oh, would you look at that? It seemed like reality had disappeared once again in favor of fake perceptions. Good.

"Don't worry, I was just... thinking," Chase said, not entirely lying.

She sat on the bench just as he was about to ask her if she wanted to walk with him. Whatever, he sat next to her.