𝔸𝕕𝕦𝕝𝕥 𝔻𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕤𝕚𝕠𝕟 // Weston Koury

Son

Weston's hair was pushed back off his face as he cycled up besides me through the tall grass, the sunlight shining over him as if it were filtered through an old projector. I glanced at him, and then glanced again, the front wheel of my bike wobbling a little and demanding my attention again.

He was grinning, laughing as he cycled, shaking his head a little to keep his hair out of his eyes. I pedalled faster to try and keep up with him.

I really was doing my best not to stare at him, for once not only because of embarrassment, but because I didn't want to send myself flying over my own bike's handlebars. We had cycled past college, and were on the way down the trail towards through the woods- where the train station was on the other side.

Ahead of us, across the field, I saw the clearing opening up to the forest. I glanced at Weston, cycling beside me, and before I could say anything, he said "3... 2...."

On '1' we both shot off racing towards the clearing. I already felt out of breath, but pedalled faster to try and catch up with him, putting all my energy into the final stretch to the woods.

Before I knew it I had passed him and I shot ahead of him, barely ducking underneath the branches covering the clearing. I heard him call "Hey, you cheated!" as I cycled ahead down the trail. I called back, "Screw you!" before slowing down to catch my breath, zigzagging downhill through the trees.

I tried to slow down as the hill down got steeper and steeper, and I swerved away from a tree - only to scrape against another. The front wheel of my bike twisted to the side and I fell down in a split second into the grass.

I groaned in a moment of self pity before starting to get up, as Weston's bike skidded to a halt next to me. "Oh my GOD," He said dramatically, putting his hands to his head. "Is your bike okay?!"

"Ha-ha." I said flatly, trying to pretend my body didn't hurt all over as I picked up my bike and checked that it was actually okay. It looked alright. Weston threw his bike down and patted me on the back as he passed me, saying "You're alright, Anais."

He walked ahead to a rock and sat down, facing the big lake we'd shot most of the film at. I dropped my bike and walked over to sit down next to him, still catching my breath.

"Hey, oh, you got... something..." He said, looking at me and leaning forwards suddenly, lifting his hand to my hair to take a leaf out of it.

His hand lingered on my hair for just a moment too long before he flicked the leaf away, and I cleared my throat. "So, like, this woman knows we're coming, right? To look at the kittens?"

"Yeah, yeah don't worry that'll be fine." He dismissed, stretching.
"And looking IS all we're doing." I confirmed. "I really don't have the-"
"-The money-or-time right now, I know." He cut me off. "We're just looking at them."

"At least bringing home a kitten would be an ice-breaker in the house." I shrugged. "Could force the others to talk to us again."

We both sat in silence then, looking out over the lake.

"Doesn't feel long ago we were all here filming as a group, does it?" He asked.
I sighed. "Yeah."
He paused for a second, before saying; "God, I'm so sick of hanging out with you, we really do need to try and get back into the group somehow."
"Ugh, I know, but there's nothing we can do to make them like us. You've fucked it Weston." I groaned, getting up. I offered him a hand but he got up by himself. I took a mental picture of him stood infront of the lake, his hair gold in the sunlight, dusting dirt off of his trousers. 

We got on our bikes and cycled the rest of the way through the woods, out the other side and into the neighbouring town. We had to stop 5 or 6 times to re-check the directions to the address, before we finally got there. I was certain I smelled of sweat after all that. I blinked in the sunlight, glancing at the front door and then at Weston.