doncaster city lights | YUNGBLUD

sixty-four

"Where are you going?"

Julia jumped and she was just on time to stop her phone from falling out of her hands. She turned around and saw her little sister standing on the stairs.

"Jesus Sen you scared the hell out of me."

"Sorry," Senna whispered, "are you crying?"

Senna frowned so she could see Julia's face better, but Julia shook her head and turned back to the coat rack to grab her coat.

"I'm not."

"Where are you going?" her little sister asked again.

"I'm going to- a friend's house."

"Max's?"

"Doesn't matter," Julia brushed it off. "Can you go to sleep again. And don't tell mum and dad that I went away in the night. Just tell them you heard me leaving in the morning or whatever."

"Why are you going now? It's 5am." Senna said, and Julia knew her sister was just worried but it was hard for her not to groan because it annoyed her.

"One of my friends called me," Julia lied.

"You're a good friend," Senna said, her voice quiet and small.

Julia couldn't help but smile through her tears that were still in her eyes. "I love you," she said to her sister, blowing a kiss. Senna smiled and blew one back before quietly climbing back up the stairs to go back to her room.

Julia sighed in relief and quickly grabbed her keys and opened the front door to escape the house before her parents would hear her. She didn't even know where she was going yet, but she needed to walk in the fresh air, hoping it would stop her from crying.

The air was a lot colder than she had expected, though, but once Julia realized that, she had already closed the front door behind her. She decided not to risk going back inside and just zipped her jacket all the way up to her chin before she started walking.

Julia had hoped that walking around and looking at things she passed would take her mind of things and would calm her down, but every time Max crossed her mind she would just start crying again.

Every word he had said to her was stuck in her head and she couldn't get rid of it, no matter how much she tried to distract herself.

So there she was; wandering around town and only walking further away from home because she only wanted to go home once she felt better, but that moment just didn't come.

Although she told herself she had no idea where she was going, she had unconsciously been heading to a specific spot the entire time. And she only realized that once she started climbing up the hill, going further and further away from the city lights.

Being at this place would probably make it even harder for her to shift her thoughts to something else, but it was her favorite location and she knew she would eventually feel at peace there, because she always did.

Julia smiled a little when she finally arrived on top of the hill as the sun was coming up, giving the entire town a red flare. Slowly she walked onto the wet grass, sitting down on it as she never took her eyes of the view that was right in front of her.

The tears in her eyes caused everything to remain blurry and so all the colors and lights blended together but it was pretty in some way, so it didn't even stop her from crying.

Once the sun was finally up and there were no lights lighting up the sky anymore, Julia laid down in the grass to look at the clouds instead. To count them to distract herself, until her eyes finally got heavier and she fell asleep.