What Now ⇔ Muke ✓

[12] Trust me, Michael

LUKE

My cheeks feel dry and stiff from my tears as I blink slowly, watching as the morning shifts into late afternoon. I'm still in the same position, my bones locked into paralysis as the water rushes up to my feet, stopping just at the tip of my converse each time. Michael sits silently beside me, his hip pressed up against mine. He hasn't uttered a sound for a while, his mind drifted away into its own little world. I want to stay here forever, the sun warming our skin as we listen to the calming waves in front of us.

We need to get moving though, so I coerce my arms and legs to push me up into a standing position. I see the top of Michael's fluffy head turn to the side, and I watch his pale eyes glint in the sunlight as he gazed up at me. He carefully stands up, brushing some dried mud off of his hands before joining me at the edge of the stream, watching the water froth at our feet.

"So, how are we going to get across?" I ask, breaking the thick silence between us. I squint at the intense light reigning down from the huge mass of energy that is the sun, fighting the urge to cower beneath the trees. I haven't ever been an outdoors person. Only a couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in front of my X-Box playing FIFA, wearing a pair of boxers and a ratty t-shirt promoting some festival I went to when I was ten. I hadn't seen the sun in two weeks and I hadn't talked to a human being that wasn't blood related to me in months. Now here I am, standing in clothes I haven't changed out of in a disgustingly long amount of time, and analyzing the width of a river.

"I'm not sure. I've never tried to cross it before." Michael admits, his small body standing still against the slight wind. His purple hair ruffles up and his eyelashes flutter as he blinks. A small sigh releases from his pink lips as he observes the familiar river.

I purse my lips. "You could get on my back."

"What?" Michael whips his head around to laugh at me, but I shrug.

"Yeah, hop on." I turn around and bend my knees, lowering myself to his level so he could climb on. Michael just shakes his head, the smile disintegrating from his face.

"I'm too heavy." He says, and I straighten up, turning to him to scoff.

"No you aren't, what are you talking about?" I say, touching one of his skinny arms. "You're tiny. You're like a cute little firefly."

"A firefly?" Michael laughs.

"Yes," I say, and chuckle a little as my vision returns back to the stream. "Let's walk down and see if we find a bridge or something."

So we start walking again, heading to the left and following the endless river as it rages past us. I take a moment to stare at Michael. His small feet glide over the sticks and rocks under him, and his eyes flit around to gaze at the nature thriving around him. He constantly lifts a thin finger to touch the rough bark of a tree, the smooth surface of green ivy, the delicate pedals of a flower. He looks so at home here in the woods, far away from civilization. He looks so content, so at ease with being apart from the judging eyes of the town he's grown up in. I can tell he loves the geographical design of the trees around him, sprouting from random spots as though they could care less where they end up. I wish I could be like that- free. Waltzing with my own conscious, oblivious to the world flourishing around me.

I am studying the intricate lattice designs on a piece of tree bark when I hear Michael's soft voice float back to me through the clean air.

"Luke, look!" he is saying, and I look up from the wood to see Michael standing and pointing to the river, where an almost perfectly straight line of rocks have been placed into the water, creating a somewhat stable bridge to cross at. Although they are placed at an uncanny level of preciseness, it is easy to see that this was nature's work, not man's. I join Michael at the edge of the water, staring at this glorious discovery. Michael turns to give me a cheeky grin, joy clear in his eyes.