Friendly Dating 2 - Ethan

Chapter 35 - Time for a Splash

It is so friggin' hot!

School is out, and we're all hanging around at its gate, trying to make plans for this afternoon. To be honest, I don't want to do anything except take another nap, preferably with Kira as my teddy bear.

She asked me if I wanted to go for a swim at the waterfall, as Jet just suggested, and maybe that is a good idea, but I really only want to be with her... wherever... however.

We've made up, and everything is okay again, but I just cannot shake this yucky feeling. It's like my brain needs a toothbrush... a brainbrush with toothpaste... some brainpaste.

Why doesn't that sound right?

It's like when you've watched an upsetting movie, and your insides are just all over the place. None of your organs knows where their home is anymore.

I guess I need some Kira time.

"Ethy?" her voice brings me back to where everybody is hanging around, looking at me. Some are amused, and some seem worried, and I feel stupid. I glance down at Kira's fingers, twined with mine, and a rush of joy makes the stupid melt away in a smile.

"Dude?!" Barn barks a laugh and slaps me on the back hard enough to jostle at least half my organs back into their right places. "Are you sleepwalking?"

It kinda feels like it.

I blink my eyes, grinning, when I realise that, apparently, they're all waiting for me to answer a question I've forgotten. Is it about swimming at the waterfall? Oh, right, Kicks was asking me if I wanted to go for a swim. The water is usually pretty good after some rain.

"Do you wanna go, Kicks?" I ask since I just want to do whatever she wants to do. I really don't care what it is, as long as I can be there too. Yeah, I'm that pathetic right now.

"Sure," she smiles, squeezing my hand.

"Okay," I grin at Barn, suddenly looking forward to some cold water to wake me up and douse the flames this brutal sun is lighting all over my body... and the ones burning up my brain.

"Yeah!" Lurch laughs happily. "Are we going home to change, or are we skinny dipping?"

Dream on, Dude!

"Actually, Brian, after the kind of rain we've just had, the lighting in Scarlet Park is just perfect for drawing the sculptures. I really want to go draw them now," I hear Tonia tell Lurch, and I'm surprised. Usually, they're stuck together as if they were welded in place.

"You... want to go to Ghosties?" Lurch sounds completely confused and disappointed.

Scarlet Park, also known as the children's sanctuary or kiddie park... and a bit grossly as Ghosties, is a huge, overgrown park in the shadow of the mountains. Botanists love the place because of all the plants, trees and flowers. It's pretty with monkey vines and dripping moss, partially wild and partially maintained and managed.

About a hundred years ago, there was a scarlet fever outbreak in Summerfields, and a lot of children died. Their parents had life-sized sculptures made of them and put them all over the place to remember them. When you walk in there, it's like the kids were playing among the trees and flower beds when they suddenly got trapped in stone.

The place freaks me out.

The first statue was of seven-year-old Lily Richford, placed there by her mother, Eleanor, because her little girl loved to play there, sitting amongst the flowers with her dolls. Now, she sits there for all eternity. It's so friggin' sad!

Deli and Kicks often go there, my sister to draw and Kira to crawl around in the mud. I like to go there to mess with them and to make sure Kicks doesn't fall into the creek and drown or fall off the mountain and break her neck... stuff like that.