floating | ✓

11| secrets

“Something lost. A part of yourself, perhaps. That which you seek, inside you will find.”

- Yoda

11| secrets

It’s been two weeks of spiraling, and I am at school. I have decided to leave Oliver alone for a while. That poor guy deserves a moment of peace. I am watching the clouds. The sky is blue and the clouds are running around. I am right there with the clouds, still floating.

“Seriously?” I avert my eyes from the clouds and see Oliver, who is looking down at me with his hands in his hips.

“What?” I ask him, unaffected.

Oliver covers his face with the palm of his hands and sits down beside me. “I thought ‘where could she really be?’ Then I find you lying down in the middle of the football ground.”

I shrug, still lying down. I keep watching the clouds.

“Is this craziness a suit of armor, or do you really love being crazy?” Oliver asks me.

“I dunno, maybe both?” I reply.

I pop up on my elbow and face him. “What’s your suit of armor?”

Oliver shrugs. “Why don’t you do me the honor of telling me?”

“I am not good at figuring people out. I am horrible at that,” I say, “but maybe I know yours.”

“And it is?”

“Being rude,” I say. “I was puking ,and you said ‘get out of this room right now!’ I thought you didn’t have a heart.”

“Now you think I do?” Oliver asks, smiling slightly.

I would be lying if I say I don’t like seeing him smile. It is a rare occasion and whenever that happens, I feel lucky. I feel like I earned a smile.

And of course, Oliver has a heart. For some reason, he keeps it hidden pretty well. He was rude and mean to me. He still is. but then he joins me in my midnight adventure, buys me tater tots, bikes with me through the whole town, leaves his favorite book to talk to me, shares half of his stories, and now he looked for me when I left him alone.

Oliver Carlson has a nice heart. If only he gave it to me. I would have kept it with me, locked in a safe, forever.

“I think about a lot of things,” I reply, “like you should lie down beside me and watch the free show the clouds are giving us. That one looks like a candy.”

Oliver gazes where I pointed. “No, thanks. I am fine how I am.”

“I also think it’s not fair,” I say.

“What?” 

“The fact that I am grounded and you are not. After all, we bunked school together, so we both should be punished.” I say. “Didn’t they call your parents like they did with mine?”

“It was your idea in the first place, and that is a good punishment for you,” Oliver shakes his head in agreement.

“Shut up, Carlson,” I say. “Why don’t you have any punishment?”

“Huh,” Oliver frowns. “I don’t know if they called my parents. Whatever.”

“Looks like they did. At least they did call mine. Now Mom is home all the time and I can’t do anything!”

“Well, even if they called mine, I wouldn’t know. My parents didn’t tell me anything,” Oliver shrugs.

“Lucky,” I poke him in the arm.