Folded Paper.

She was sitting at the round table drinking a cup of ice tea, soft music radiating from the radio when her best friend, Katie, hung up the phone and began begging her to visit Daniel’s house with her. Hudson stayed silent and pressed her lips together. “Please?” Katie pleaded. “He said that he’s inviting some other friends, too.”

Hudson sighed. “You know how I feel about Daniel. He’s so sickeningly sweet and I hate it. But whatever, Katie, I’ll go. Anything is better than listening to you whine.” Her eyes darted toward the clock hanging crookedly on the wall. It was half past seven and Daniel wanted them over in less than an hour.

“I owe you, don’t I?” Hudson looked toward Katie again, who was now rummaging through the kitchen in effort to find a coffee mug. “What is it this time? I’ll buy you anything under twenty dollars,” she mused.

Hudson smiled softly. “What if what I want costs more than twenty dollars? Like a Ferrari?” Her fingers tapped absentmindedly on the side of her cup and she hummed lightly to the sound of the radio music.

Katie returned from kitchen, her brow furrowed. “Then you’re not getting it. I can’t even buy myself a new pair of heels, let alone a Ferrari.” Silence fell between the two before Katie spoke again. “Thanks, Hudson, for agreeing to go to Daniel’s with me. I know that you two have history, I just hope that—”

“History is history for a reason, Katie. I’m not going to hold a grudge against you because you like him. I’m not that petty,” Hudson stated simply, cutting her off.



An hour later, Hudson was at Daniel’s house. Katie was sitting close to him, so that there thighs were touching. Hudson would be lying if she said she didn’t feel a pang of jealousy. She’d be lying if she said she was perfectly fine with the idea of Kate and Daniel flirting and joking with each other. Hudson moved her gaze to her hands, in which were sitting in her lap.

Here, at Daniel’s house, Hudson felt odd and out of place, like she had when she was still attending high school. I regret coming here, was what she was thinking. Hudson stood up and used her hands to flatten out her floral shirt, lingering around the two a few seconds longer before she escaped to the kitchen. She unlatched the cooler, pushing the heavy plastic lid open.

Inside of the cooler was cold and covered with droplets of water. She rummaged through the clusters of ice in search for a soda. It wasn’t easy in the least, as the cooler mainly consisted of beer alcoholic beverages. “This isn’t worth twenty dollars,” she muttered, shutting the lid with a sigh.

“Huh?” Hudson perked her head up, turning around swiftly. “Oh, I’m sorry. Do you prefer to be alone?” She didn’t know how to answer to the boy standing in front of her, with his dark brown hair and aloof blue eyes.

Hudson shook her head, slowly. She stood up from where she kneeled by the plastic cooler. “No, you’re fine. I just—never mind. I don’t even know why I’m here,” Hudson ruminated.

The boy moved a bit closer to her, his boot-clad feet thumping softly on the tile floor. “Listen. Do you hear the music? It’s quite enjoyable,” he whispered. Hudson complied, falling quiet to pick up the sound of the music playing through Daniel’s home. As she did so, the boy moved closer, propping open the cooler and retrieving a Bud Lite. “What do they call you?”

“My mother named me Hudson. What about you, sir?” she asked, tapping her fingers against the surface of the counter. “You look like you’d have an interesting name.”

He didn’t smile, or show any form of emotion at all. He simply parted his lips and said softly, “Allister Roberts.”