Down End Road

Alexander Griffin

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Friends. Just friends. I could handle that. Even if Myra Remington scared the living daylights out of me. I thought back to my mum and how I hadn’t talked to her in a couple months. A part of me felt like I was a horrible person. For befriending a Remington. For not being there back then.

However, the other part of me, the part that was terrified of losing Myra, felt less guilty. I focused on that part instead, and promised myself that I was going to call my mum when I got to Harkness, Colorado.

Me and Myra walked back to the manor together, although she was pulling along the dodging sled. There was a peaceful silence between us, until a very obnoxious and loud voice drifted over to us.

“Why hello, hello. What brings you out into the woods this early in the morning?” Henry asked, as he took long strides toward us. He had a condescending smile plastered on his annoying face, his eyes alighted with curiosity that would cause more harm than good.

“I was just training and Alex is my alleged trainer.” Myra mocked. I scoffed at her attempt at humour. Henry grinned like a Cheshire cat. I saw Myra shuffle her feet as the air grew thicker and a heavy blanket of heat covered us.

“Right...Well we’ll be on our way then.” I interrupted right as Henry’s mouth formed the beginning of a sentence. He saw my obvious evasion tactic and accepted it for what it was.

Henry and I had never been on peaceful terms not since our freshman year... altercation. Ever since, he had avoided me and I had avoided him. Although, he had begun to avoid me less and less those days. In fact, his sudden change of behaviour coincided with Myra’s arrival. Coincidence? I thought with sarcasm.

We shuffled past him, Myra dragged the dodging sled behind her, until he grasped Myra’s arm and pleaded in a whisper for her to stay. She looked at me, her uncertainty shining brightly in her deep blue eyes. I huffed but took the dodging sled from her and, with one last suspicious glare in Henry’s direction, trudged past the two.

I caught a snip of their conversation and what I had heard enraged me. A small cavern formed in my stomach, all my worries and anxieties about what they were talking about sank into the hollow space.

I felt my chest tighten and my head whirred with suspicion, anger and most of all sadness. The sorrow of betrayal. The sorrow of isolation. The sorrow of losing a friend. It all crashed into me and I felt my lips purse in an attempt to cover my emotions.

Why had they been talking about the order of Adams?