2006
"Can't catch me!" Riley whips her head around and yells this to me. Her speed picks up and her legs are now moving back and forth, faster than ever.
One . . . two . . . three . . . four . . . five . . .
I count to five, giving her a head start, before I make a dash for it.
Riley has now reached the edge of the woods and I expect this to be the end of it. She's stuck, so I catch up to her. Easy peasy, lemon squeasy.
The only problem is that Riley does the unexpected and disappears into the woods just when I think I've caught her.
I grumble under my breath about the unfairness of her longer legs, yet I continue running. "Riley!" I yell. "Where are you going?"
I catch a glimpse of her face as she turns it towards me and responds, "on an adventure!"
I grumble again, yet still continue running. I must've lost sight of where I was going, however, because one thing I know I'm chasing after Riley and the next, I've bulldozed right into her.
I catch myself from falling, but Riley isn't so lucky. She slips in the mud and falls square on her butt.
I expect her to cry out in pain but all I get is a wide-eyed stare by her at something. I follow the direction of her gaze. What we both see is a place that at the moment, may have seemed run-down and a bit creepy, but it was a place that would become a hangout spot for us for years to come. Little did we know, this was the place where I would comfort her as she cried over her first breakup, mending her broken heart. And ironically, it was also the place where she would break mine.
<3 ash | 7.4.16
Dedicated to my Wattpad bestie @CookiePhoenix for being so supportive with this new book of mine :)