Caught

Chapter Thirty-One

The cold wind whistled, blowing through the trees as I walked through the city. Snow covered rooftops, balconies, really everywhere. People were crawling the streets as rush hour began.

This time, I was dressed a bit more appropriate for the cold. My black winter coat hung on my shoulders, though it wasn't zipped up. I felt the snow crunch under my weight with each step I took.

Originally, I was heading home. My actual home, in the small neighborhood in the city where I grew up. Where so many of my memories took place, yet I couldn't remember any. Or most. There was still that night, where mom basically killed me.

Okay, not kill. But she did put me in that coma.

I questioned whether or not to go talk to him. Spencer. He surely had his reasons for acting like this, like Kassandra and I talked about earlier. If mom somehow got to him - threatened him in any way, I wanted to know.

Yet, after walking for a solid forty-three minutes, I still diverted the house whenever I walked passed by it.

The city was still an unfamiliar place to me, so I decided to walk around for a bit, seeing what needs to be seen. There wasn't much - mostly buildings. Cool, different buildings but just buildings. I saw my old school, the high school, the places where Spencer showed me last time.

It was when I reached the local park that I stopped and looked around. Even on this cold day, people were there. Young children played in the snow, making snow angels and snowmen. Parents and siblings watched them, glancing up from phones to smile at their actions.

Families were together, keeping each other warm on this cold day.

"Lauren!" I heard my name being called over the now howling wind. I looked around and found a familiar face sitting next to a snowman.

"Hey... Cole," I yelled back, stuttering, trying to remember his name. He was the boy who randomly kissed my cheek at the ball, I'm pretty sure. Walking over, I noticed he was with a little girl, maybe three, who was trying to stab the snowman with a stick.

"Who this?" The little girl asked, tilting her head in confusion at the sight of me. She waved the stick around violently, threatening to poke someone's eye out.

I laughed as Cole tried to remove the stick from the girl's hand. "Laura, gimme the stick. You're gonna kill someone's - OW!" The boy covered his eye after the young girl probably poked him in the eye. She dropped the stick and ran a few steps away, falling into the snow to make a snow angel.

"Sorry 'bout that," Cole apologized, standing up. "Laura doesn't like it when I bring girls home."

I chuckled. "Cute kid. She's your sister?"

"No, she's just a random kid from the street that dragged me out on this cold day," He replied with a sarcastic tone. "'Course, she's my little sister. And she always likes coming to the park at seven in the evening, for some reason."

"Maybe the snow is better at this time of day?" I suggested.

"Maybe, or she just likes torturing me to come out in this cold," Cole said. "That clever little child, two years old yet knows how to annoy her older brother."

The wind blew strands of my hair in front of my face, also smacking Cole in the face. I let out a small laugh as a look of annoyance spread across his face. Something told me he really didn't like winter.

"So, heard you're started school tomorrow," Cole continued the conversation. "excited? Or not, you always hated the idea of high school. Said you'd try and fail grade eight as many times as they'd let you."