Shattered Blue

“Where have you been? Look at you! Didn’t I tell you that the forest is not a place for someone like you?” His uncle looked at him worriedly through grey blue eyes.

He brushed past him, trailing in mud in his wake.

“Anthony!” his uncle shouted. “At least take off your shoes before you come inside!”

Anthony looked back and then down at his feet. He kicked off his shoes and walked upstairs. He heard his uncle and aunt whispering downstairs and a few words floated up to him, “Always…moody. Wish he’d…more about his…life.”

In his room, the one that used to be his cousin’s, he rifled through a drawer for some clean clothes. On his way to the bathroom he looked outside and saw that the storm had ceased, and fragile rays of light pushed through the heavy clouds. That bright smile of hers pushed past the heaviness in his heart but couldn’t penetrate the dark forest beyond.

Birds rose from the trees and he thought he heard their exultations through the glass.
He flopped down backwards on his bed, only to stare at the ceiling now with its glow in the dark stars and planets. If only he hadn’t been so rude to her, even if she wasn’t HER. He was her new neighbour and he knew that with someone like her as his guide he could explore the forest as much as he wanted. He sighed deeply and levered himself up on his arms, wanting to get another look at the stretching green beast slumbering before him, hectares and hectares of it that was now his.

There was a flash of a gate covered in honeysuckle, and a welcoming stone house in his mind. He smiled faintly through his bitterness. No, he couldn’t claim that as his, at least not yet.