A summers night

It was a warm afternoon, school had just ended and summer had begun. The creek was packed with excited kids who all rushed to the trading tree for an afternoon snack. "Hold on! I can't serve all of you at once!" Kit said, hurriedly pulling ice pops out of her cooler, "alright Jason what do you want, and make it quick! I think these kids might eat me if I don't get their snacks" she said while pushing up her glasses

"Give me a juice box and a choco roll." Jason lisped, and handed over a pack of mint gum and a small handful of almonds (which he couldn't eat on account of his braces).  "You're going to need to give me more than that." Kit said with a judgmental look on her face, "ugh fine..." Jason groaned as he handed her two pieces of hard candy. "It's a deal! Here you go." Kit handed him an open juice box and a slightly smushed choco roll,  which he put in his backpack for later, and then Jason walked past the stump kids: Craig, Kelsey and jp, who were bawling their eyes out saying goodbye to each other.

 "I'm gonna miss you guys so much, I'll send you some shaved ice in the mail!" Jp said, teary eyed and oblivious to the fact that shaved ice melts. "I too shall miss you, but do not fear! For I shall be back in three weeks." Kelsey said dramatically while holding back tears. "Bye guys I'll text you later!" Craig yelled as they walked away. Jason walked up to him and was about to say something when he was interrupted by Craig-

 "what do you want Jason. Are you going to write me up for sitting on a rock?" Craig said sarcastically, "uh.. noo haha" Jason said as he stuffed his note pad back in his pocket "I was just going to ask you to hang out?" He said while trying to prevent an awkward moment. "Uhm sure I guess..." Craig had already made plans for today and was reluctant to go off schedule. "Oh uh ok so what do you want to do?" Jason was caught off guard by the positive answer, "hmm maybe we can go to the horse girl meadow?" Said Craig, pointing at a spot on his detailed map of the creek, Jason gazed at the map, which had practically every landmark of the creek: the sewers, ramp city, the poison ivy grove, angels daycare... 

"Jason? Does that sound good?" Craig asked, snapping Jason back to reality. "Oh, yeah sure... I like your map." Jason said as he continued reading the landmarks "thanks! I drew the whole thing." Craig said as they walked through the creek and reached the horse girl meadow. They ran through the grass and rolled down hills until the fireflies came out and they realized they missed the dinner horn, "oh shoot! I missed dinner, I can't believe it's seven already! I've got to go home, but it was really nice to hang out with you, I had fun a lot of fun." Craig said as he walked home.

 Jason's eyes widened when Craig said it was seven. 'oh no oh no oh no, he's going to kill me when I get home' Jason thought to himself as he walked home. When he reached the door he opened it and was met with his father, a tall brown haired man with messy stubble and a white dress shirt stained with wine. "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN" his father yelled drunkenly. "I was just at the creek! I'm sorry, I lost track of time. It won't happen again!" Jason said, his eyes welled up with tears as he raised his notepad in front of his face as a shield. His dad smacked the notepad to the floor, "GO TO YOUR ROOM! YOU'RE SLEEPING AT THE CREEK TOMORROW SINCE YOU LOVE IT SO MUCH." his father shouted. Jason scrambled to pick up his notepad and ran upstairs, slamming the door of his room shut.

 'I-i can't do anything right... I'll always be a mistake to him' Jason thought to himself as he reached for the Swiss Army knife under his bed, 'he just wants me dead...' Jason cut his wrist with the small blade, and held back his tears as he bandaged his arm 'maybe one day he'll realize how much he hurts me.' He thought to himself as he fell asleep on the floor next to his bed.

When Craig went to the creek the next morning, he saw Jason examining the unstable tree-top territory. Jason looked... disheveled to say the least, his shoulder-length hair was down and messy, and he was wearing a black and grey crewneck shirt and black shorts instead of his usual scout uniform. "Hey Jason. you look different?" Said Craig as he looked up and down at him. "Oh uh yeah... how unstable do you think that is?" Jason lisped as he pointed at one of the creaky old tree forts. "I don't know, but I wouldn't go up there if I were you. Why do you ask?" Craig said with a puzzled look. "I um... got locked out! I might have to stay in the creek tonight, so I'm looking for a good camping spot." Jason said anxiously. "You can stay at my house if you want, like a sleepover?" Said Craig as he pulled out his phone to ask his mom. "Oh, uh.. I guess that would be nice... o-only if it's not too much trouble." Jason didn't want to get in more trouble with his dad, but he really didn't want to stay at the creek all night, and for some reason he really wanted to stay with Craig. "Alright, she said you can sleepover. I'll see you at 6:00 when the dinner horn goes off!" Craig said as he walked away.