2 – new in town

He slowly lifts the rusty bedroom window trying not to make any noise as he silently climbs out of it. She pulls the backpack with her, closing it again behind her.

He lifts the bicycle that is lying on the dry grass in front of the house, picking up momentum and starting to pedal on the sidewalk of the silent streets.

As he walks in a zig zag down the street, he passes his old house (the same one he lived in with his parents last year). That sounds depressing doesn't it? But it's as if he no longer cares about the past.

"Robert!!" he lets out a muffled cry, as if only his friend will hear him.

"I'm on my way!" returns the cry in the same tone.

"What are we doing today?" she asks as Robert approaches dragging his bike.

"I found a cool place by the creek, we can go there and enjoy a swim." adjusts the backpack while getting on the bike.

"All right." starts riding with his friend.

"Dude, what happened yesterday that you couldn't stop by the house?"

"Didn't I tell you?!" tone up.

"You told me what...? Are you by any chance dating?!" screams.

"What?!" loses balance for a moment "that's not it! Yesterday I was helping Amelia with the boxes, but then a man appeared and bumped into me..." 'sighs' thanks to that the box fell to the floor and the vases broke.

"Gee, and you got fired?" calm question.

"No! Luckily not... Amelia said she wouldn't take it out of my salary or fire me if I painted all the crap in the pantry." she screams again without realizing it "and on top of that that man left without even apologizing!"

"Who was the man?" he asks quickly turning his gaze to the path after almost falling.

"I don't know…" he laughs awkwardly.

"What do you mean you don't know? Everyone knows each other around here. I don't think there's any way not to know who it was."

"Well... It's just that my lenses were smudged so I couldn't see his face, I just saw that he was very tall and crazy, he looks like he was wearing a SWEATTER" he shouts "in 50 degree heat." (Apparently your limit of figurative examples doesn't work very well.)

"A sweater this time of year?" 'laughs' "I think you bumped into an old man, considering his height, he couldn't have been even 1.70 to be taller than you." starts laughing out loud.

"You really are very annoying you know?!" tries to kick Robert with one foot, knocking himself off balance again.

"Who wants to hit with those little legs" the two begin to laugh.

They brake sharply as they reach the creek's edge.

They look at each other for a moment before throwing their bikes over the rocks and starting to smile as they take off their clothes.

Elliot unties his overalls, dropping it onto the rocks. He quickly unbuttons the buttons on his plaid shirt, revealing his freckled shoulders and his chest covered in a thin white shirt.

"Last one to the other side pays for lunch" Robert yells, jumping headlong into the water.

"Wait a second!" he yells, throwing his glasses onto his backpack and jumping up behind him.

The two start swimming as fast as their legs can handle, until Robert manages to cross.

"I won!" he shouts in celebration.

"It wasn `t fair!" she jumps out of the water, leaving her wet curls thrown over her forehead, still highlighting the freckles under her brown eyes.

"Let's go..." your heart flutters at the sight of Elliot so...attractive...?

"Where are we going?" asks euphoric for a little run.

"I'll show you the place I told you about earlier." he looks away, turning toward the pile of rocks beside him.

"Help me here." reaches out for Robert to help him up the rocks.

"Come, this way." continues to hold Elliot's hand tightly as they enter the forest.

After exactly five minutes, which for someone as sedentary as Elliot was more than two hours, they finally reached a waterfall in the middle of an apparently abandoned garden.

"That's it..!" he says excitedly as he runs towards the water.

"Isn't it amazing?" get closer.

"Yea!" 'smiles' "how did you find that?"

"I was just coming from-" is interrupted by a sneeze from Elliot. "Do you have the flu?"

"No. It's cold here and I don't have enough clothes on so…" he crosses his arms to keep warm.

"I forgot that your health is like that of an old man..." 'laughs' "And it's still very early so it's cold."

"Just so you know…!" says in the thickest voice possible "My health is very good!"

"Right right..." He walks away "I'm going back to get our things, wait for me here until I get back."

In just two minutes of waiting Elliot gets tired of sitting and starts walking around the waterfall. (Intelligence is not really one of his virtues.)

"If I were you, I wouldn't be so on edge." a voice comes from behind him.

"And you are..?" asks turning towards the boy.

"I'm Alex." responds with a neutral expression turned to Elliot.

"Alex..? Are you new in town?" get closer.

"Yes, I moved three days ago." remains motionless.

"To this town..?" looks at the black sweater the boy is wearing "Ah..." are they the same person? "Are you by any chance yesterday's customer-"

"Yes, I'm the one who made you drop the boxes yesterday.." remains neutral "I apologize for that"