The Key Chased the Blade

I didn't sleep well. I kept dreaming about a person screaming and wailing. In it I couldn't see anything, but I knew I was running; I was basically running from the screaming the entire dream. It really freaked the hell out of me. When I woke up I was all sweaty and crap, but not like hot sweat, like cold sweat, like I was chilled to the bone. God, it was freaky.

I got dressed that morning in a T-shirt and jeans, and then I headed out before anybody could get at me. Rico kind of looked at me with his stupid caring face and Dad grumbled a few words, but I couldn't deal with them. I left without even eating breakfast. I'd lost my appetite anyway. My family would probably assume I was PMSing or something. Jesus. Then I texted Simon to meet me at the old park.

It was cold outside and I regretted not getting a coat, but I figured I could tough it out. The sky was as grey as the concrete beneath me and looked sickening. It was less crappy than the concrete though, the concrete here was really bad. It was cracked and I swear had unidentified new life forms growing out of it. The sky only looked ready to dump rain on me at any moment. I slouched over myself and crossed my arms to retain heat.

I made it to the park in about ten minutes; it wasn't too far away. Then I sat down on the old, rusted swing-set and waited for Simon. God. Simon showed up a bit later. He was dressed for the cold weather, unlike me. His sweatshirt was all fluffy on the inside and he had gloves on too. He was also carrying his backpack. Jesus. He didn't need it, but then I thought he had it because his mom would flip out if she saw him go out of the house without it. He smiled slightly when he saw me. It wasn't his stupid dorky grin.

"Here, I'll call you in and excuse you from school," I said, and I pulled out my phone and dialed the school's number. I had to bail out my brother a couple times pretending to be our aunt, so this was no problem for me. I swear Simon turned as white as a ghost. I ignored him and waited until I got the school's voicemail.

"Hi, this is Valerie O'Neill, and I'm calling in to excuse my son Simon O'Neill from school," I said in my best mom-voice. "He's home sick today and will be gone all day. Thank you." Then I hung up.

"Noah!" Simon's eyes bugged out. "Did you really just do that?"

"Well, the other option was to wait until your mom got a phone call from the school saying that you skipped," I said and put the phone back into my pocket. "I didn't think you'd want to deal with that."

"But-but-but-"

I cackled. "Don't worry, you don't have to pretend to be my dad for me. I'm not worried about getting in trouble."

"But Noah!" Simon ran his hands through his hair and fluffed it up terribly. "Geez! You can't just do that!"

"I just did. Whoo, I can already hear the police coming to get me."

"Noah, ugh!" Simon turned away, but a wry smile broke out on his face. That was Simon, laughing when others would glare. "I don't even know why I put up with you."

I stuck out my tongue at him, and in return he made a face, but it wasn't genuine like I'd hoped it'd be. It kind of bothered me. He really wasn't all together still.

"Let's go walk, okay?" I said and I wrestled out of the awkward swing. I swear it creaked so bad I was surprised it didn't just fall off. God. Simon actually made a move toward me as if to catch me if it did.

"Okay," Simon said, and he looked at me and then eyed the swing. "I think they should really tear that down and replace it."

"Jesus, this place is a death trap," I said, and then I started down the street. Simon followed beside me, his hands in his pockets.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"Anywhere but here," I said, and we kept on walking.