Somewhere Else

Chapter 28: The Beginning

Aksel and I stay in the park until the sun begins to set – which isn't saying much, considering the steadily decreasing daylight hours as the year crawls past the three-quarter mark. We don't move, but our fingers do – sliding and dancing in a familiar rhythm only they are privy to.

Above us, the sky turns the colours of the leaves beneath our shoes. The shadows around us lengthen and begin creeping up every available surface, butting heads with each other until they give up and merge into one flat pool. Eventually, they clamber onto our laps, over our clasped hands, devouring everything until the brightest parts of Aksel's face are the bridge of his nose and the whites of his eyes.

It is only then that we reluctantly get on our way.

"Dinner?" Aksel asks me as we step onto the path leading back to the railway station.

"Sure," I say. "What do you want to eat?"

He shrugs. "What do you want?" Then he shakes his head. "Wait, I know–"

"Anything with potatoes." We both say it at the same time.

I laugh. He knows me too well.

"You haven't changed," he says, looking at me with a smile. I glance at him, trying to read the emotions behind the curve of his lips.

"I've changed a bit," I counter.

The edges of his gaze soften. "Well, okay," he says. "Maybe a bit."

I mock-glare at him, about to retort, when a prickling on my neck makes me look up. Standing mere feet away, her eyes wide with surprise, Lumi stares back at us for a long moment. Then she lifts a hand in greeting. Her gaze travels down our arms to the meeting point of our entwined fingers. I rein in the automatic impulse to snatch my hand out of Aksel's, as if we've been doing something we shouldn't have been. But when she looks back up, she is smiling.

"Hey," Aksel says, habit taking over and tingeing his accent so that the word that comes out is indistinguishable from its Finnish counterpart. This is one English word he always says with a lilt that betrays his roots. "Lumi! Small world."

Lumi laughs. "Yeah, I know. Helsinki is too small." She looks towards me. "Hey, Emi."

"Hi," I say.

"On the way out?" Aksel asks, but Lumi shakes her head.

"Going home," she says. "I have a project deadline coming up next week." She pulls a face.

"It's Saturday." Aksel sounds scandalised.

Lumi shrugs. "Life of the freelancer," she says.

It's odd listening to them converse in English. I would almost rather they speak Finnish with each other – it makes me feel as if the whole conversation is for my benefit and that I am letting them down by keeping silent.

"Good luck," I say. "I hope you can finish quickly and get some rest."

Lumi's eyes flicker back to meet mine. "Thanks," she says. The pitch of her voice sounds surprised, almost questioning. She's not used to me being nice. "I sure hope so, too."

"We'd better get going," Aksel says. "We're going for dinner."

"Cool," Lumi hikes her backpack up the shoulder it's hanging off on. "You guys have fun."

Aksel smiles back. "See you next Friday?"

Friday is the standing appointment their friend group usually has for their meet-ups, I remember. A flash of that hot, stuffy bar comes to mind, sending a shiver down my spine. That – and Aliisa's beady, judgemental eyes. Never again, I think to myself.