Long-Distance Calls

1

It was a very bright and hot day of August in Forest Hills. The sun shined like crazy and the summer was in full force.
Even though it was the best moment of it, you could tell summer was coming to an end, and when those days used to come I would always feel anxious.

I could already feel what was about to come. Clouds covering the sun on a daily basis, days getting shorter, cold hands and noses.

However, it was pretty hard to think of that, as that day was sultry. That very morning I woke up with my shirt glued to my body. Sweaty days like those forced me to wash my hair everyday.

Although it was steamy hot, I still wanted to have breakfast with hot chocolate milk. It was the one habit I could never escape. Even if I lived in the desert, I would still want hot chocolate milk.

"Let's go to MacDonald Park." I met Andrew Hook on the Yellowstone Boulevard junction with Clyde Street; he lived there. I lived right in the middle of Clyde Street. The distance between our houses was like two minutes.

I hated Clyde Street.

I mean, Forest Hills had a lot of nice and spacey neighborhoods.
Clyde Street was all small and narrow, and the houses were all so close to each others, and all the trees, it made me claustrophobic. And, anyway, let me tell you, living in the same house for fifteen years gets pretty boring.

You could tell you were leaving Clyde Street when the sun would appear suddenly as if there had been an eclipse right before.
Clyde Street was anti-sun.

"Why not Yellowstone Park?" I asked referring to the park I preferred.

"I don't want to walk too much." Andrew Hook was overweight. He had always been. As of late, he was starting to lose weight, but he still wasn't exactly fit. That day you could see the sweat on his forehead, as he gasped while walking.

"So, you haven't changed your mind about High School, have you?" he then asked, straight to the point.

Well, Andrew and I used to hang out quite a lot, especially during the summer. I have many memories of me and him going to MacDonald Park every other day since we were little. We weren't, like, bros. We never really talked about our personal stuff, we just used to hang out and have fun.

"I haven't changed my mind, no..." I replied, "I'm still coming to Flushing High."

"That's good! It'll be awesome!"

"I don't know how awesome going to school can be..." I smirked, "but yeah... fresh start... I guess."

Until that moment, I thought I would have never managed to escape status quo.

I had had the same classmates for eight years, from elementary school to that year. And there's really nothing to know about that. I never managed to befriend any one of them.

They all acted like assholes to me, all the time. There was not one nice boy, or nice girl, who would come to me and try to get to know me.
Instead, they used to create those little groups and I always ended up being the outsider.

I had a crush. She was blonde and had big blue eyes. My taste has changed through the years, but, at the time, she was all I could think about.

Unfortunately, though, she was a bitch.

When I, somehow, found the courage in me to tell her how I felt about her, she just walked away from me. And she never talked nor looked at me anymore.