The Blue Kite

Real Caden

We trudged out of the garage and into the large field of a backyard I had.

There we stood, kite in hand, waiting for a plan to drop out of the sky. Then it hit me.

Instead of sounding like idiots and yelling his name randomly, (especially when his parents were next door), we'd simply fly it.

Then we'd at least look normal.

Yeah, a couple of teen boys outside at four in the morning, flying a kite around for hours.

Perfectly normal.

"Let's just fly it, yeah?" I addressed the idea to Caden and of course he only shrugged.

I sighed and handed him the string end.

He just glared at it in my outstretched hand. I waited.

His eyes finally shot up to meet mine.

"Uh, what exactly do you expect me to do with that?" He sasses.

"Fly it, duh."

"I don't want to. You do it."

"There's gotta be two people, one holds the string while the other flys. You just have to hold, I'll run." I explained.

"Nah, I'm good." He said casually, then slumped down in the grass.

"Ya know, why are you being such a jerk? I'm only trying to do what you wanted. It was you who figured we'd give it back." I was getting annoyed. He wasn't usually like this.

"I'm not a jerk. Okay? I just don't want to do this right now."

"But why?"

He stopped answering and began plucking at the grass. I knew something else, much bigger than the general topic, was picking at him.

I slumped down beside him, laying the kite in the grass next to me.

"You wanna talk about it?" I asked.

"I just keep having this dream. A dream about him. Sean. It's just him, like laying there. Blood coming from every possible exit of his face." He looked over at me. His face was pale. "It won't go away, Hunter. When I said you should give it back, I didn't realize we'd both have to be here for it. I just don't wanna see him again."

I finally, after all of this, I finally figured him out.

Finally, I understood how he felt and what happens in his mind.

For the first time, I knew my best friend.