Chapter 1~Crazy Girl

Six months previous

March

I ran out toward the flock of seagulls, as they started to fly away I started jumping in the air, squawking.Then I started turning in circles, my arms still held up. Sam laughed as I stumbled and fell into his arms.

"I want to be a bird." I said, panting.

"Maybe you were once upon a lifetime."

I looked into his eyes. "I'd fly everywhere. And I'd sing to people in the morning. I'd be free."

He smiled. "Doesn't sound too far from the truth. You wake up every morning singing, and you are one of the most free people I've ever met, as for flying, buy a plane ticket."

I let that register, my eyebrows knitting together before I finally shook my head. "Not like that. I want the wind in my hair, I want to be able to look down and see the cars, like ants, driving on the roads. I want to be able to fly anywhere I want, whenever I want."

He smiled softly. "Have you ever heard of the story of Icarus?" The look on my face must have portrayed my complete lack of knowledge of this person's tale, because he laughed outright. "Google it."

I smiled softly. I loved how Sam always had some story locked in his brain to share. He was so smart. I suppose it could have been that he had cancer at the age of five, and spent the better half of the next five years in the hospital, with virtually nothing to do except read. Becoming someone else was the one comfort he had had then. He hadn't many friends to speak, and his parents didn't say much. I suppose they had been too afraid to say anything real, or lie and say it was all going to be okay when it hadn't been okay. Not even close to.

I guess that's where I came in now. I was really lucky that he had beat it. If he hadn't, I wouldn't have my best friend in the world. He looked at me and smiled. I think that he has been God's greatest gift to me.

Present Day

September

I saw him in the hallway and grinned. "Hey Sam!"

He closed his locker and looked at me. He smiled, like he always did when he saw me. "His Aislynn. You ready to go?" I just smiled, and flung my backpack over one of my shoulders. He took my hand and we walked out to his car. "I have a surprise for you," he said, opening the passenger side door, taking my pack, helping me in, putting the bag in the back seat, and getting in on his side.

We drove over to his house, and he parked in the driveway. He turned and looked at me. "Stay here."

I had opened my mouth to protest, but he had already gotten out of the car and was closing the door. He disappeared into the house. I sat back, pouting softly, feet up on his dash board, arms crossed. He reappeared in a few minutes, with a basket, and a blanket. He put them in the back, next to my book bag, and got back into the car.

He started to pull out of the driveway, and I looked at his side profile. He had his dead face on, portraying no emotion, no hint of where we were headed. I looked back to the road between my legs.

"Aislynn sit up and put your seat belt on."

"Where are we going?" I asked almost simultaneously.

We both paused before he repeated himself. I hesitated for a moment. "Aislynn! Seat belt!" I heard from the driver's side. I got my pouty face on again, but I did as I was told.

This time it was my turn to repeat myself. He just kept his eyes on the road. "Sam."

"Yes?"

"Where are we going?"

"We're going to go pet the unicorns."

"Sam."

"What? You don't want to pet the unicorns? Too girly?" He looked at me with a smile. "Damn, if only I'd had a back up plan!" He said, turning to go to the lake.

"Why are we going to Como? It's September."

"Yeah. Early September... It's still warm. And school just started, like, three days ago, so you can suck it up."

I looked at him. What was going on?