Adopted by Rilex (Jalex)

17

"Hey." I smile back happily.

"How come you wanted to meet here?" She asks as she adjusts her sitting position to be more comfortable.

"My parents have just been fighting." I sigh as my smile falters.

Her smile falters as well, "I'm sorry, I know it isn't fun to have to listen to that." She explains, "You're always welcome at my house if you ever need an escape from everything."

"Thanks." I smile at her.

She gives me a was look almost as if she's inspecting me, "When is the last time you paid any attention to your hobbies?" She asks rather accusingly.

I think for a moment, "I don't know, I guess it has been a while," I think on it a moment, "I guess I've just been so caught up in everything going on recently, all I know to do is hang out with you and Lydia and hide in my room doing nothing." I sigh.

"You need to start doing things that make you happy that doesn't involve someone else being your only source of happiness." She explains.

"It doesn't help that my Papa told me he would teach me how to play drums but he's been very preoccupied too." I shrug as I look down at my hands that are resting on the picnic table.

"Your dad drums?" She asks.

"Oh, uh, yeah, I haven't mentioned that?" I ask as I look back up at her.

"Not that I remember." She replies.

"Oh, well, yeah he's a really good drummer." I shrug, "I'm just really worried, ya know?" I change the subject, "I can't remember the last time they even said I love you to each other."

"I'm sure everything is going to be okay, sometimes couples fight, and sometimes it's not just a quick fight, but I'm sure they really do love each other, and I know they love you." She explains.

"Yeah," I sigh, "maybe," I pause for a moment, "They always think I can't hear when they are arguing." I roll my eyes.

"At least they try to hide it." She shrugs.

"I'm not too sure about that anymore, they were being very cold towards each other this morning." I explain.

She sighs, "I'm sorry," She looks down at the table for a moment, "We should get ice cream." She tries to lighten the mood.

suddenly I remember something, "Oh!" I say excitedly as I fish my wallet out of my pocket, "I have," I say as I open my wallet, "A gift card!" I shout happily as I pull out the shiny plastic that was given to me months ago.

"Oh nice, how much is on it?" She asks.

"Uh," I try really hard to remember the day I was given this, "Ten? I think?" I was not sure since it has been months but that was honestly my best guess.

"Nice." She says with a smile.

"Wanna go there?" I ask.

"I'm down." She replies.

"Okay let me text my papa." I say as I pull out my phone.

"Gonna get ice cream with Dakota" I send the text.

"Okay, we can go now." I say as I stand up from my seat on the bench.

We start walking in the direction of the ice cream shop, "So you're still going on that vacation for like all summer right?" She asks after a couple of minutes of silence.

"Uh, yeah, we're gonna be traveling a lot this summer I guess." I know I was lying to her, I felt bad, I was just really worried about outing my parents.