Taylor

A Chapter by alyssss

A swirl of oranges and browns and yellows flutter around me. I comb through my hair with my fingers and extract flakes of fallen leaves. He grabs my hand and twirls me around, kicking more crunchy leaves into the air. They stick to my tights and my scarf, and lodge themselves in my hair- again. The musty smell of damp earth fills my nose as we fall down, linking our fingers together and looking up through the half-bare branches reaching out above us.

A waving leaf on the spidery branch above us gives up on hanging on and flutters down towards me, landing on my heaving chest. It falls off as I turn to face him, putting my knee between his parted legs and leaning over him. His chest rises and falls with each breath, his blonde hair is spread over his damp forehead, falling into his bright blue eyes. I brush it out of the way with my fingers parted, running them through his hair as I lean down and press my lips against his.

He tries to talk but I silence him by pushing my lips against his harder and harder, until he gives in and kisses me back. I pull away and relinquish my hold on him. “I love you, you know.” He smiles up at me as I tickle his nose with the ends of my scarf.

I pull him to his feet and drag him off the field, down the path across the park to the gate. “We don’t want to be late meeting the guys, do we?” I grin, linking my fingers with his and swinging our arms. We climb the steep steps up the hill to the gate and start walking down the little lane by the school, him looking down at me as I look down at the floor. I don’t know what it is- it’s just so hard to look at him.

We come off the lane and reach the main road. The cars zoom past in a blur of shining white lights and red, whipping up the leaves at the side of the road and sending them swirling around my ankles. Carter lets go of my hand and it falls to my side, my fingers suddenly cold without his alongside them. He flashes me a grin and runs across the road, dodging the fast moving cars like a ninja. He bows when he reaches the other side and I feel this kind of pull towards him, propelling me forward. My breath leaves my nose in a plume of white steam as I take a step back and brace myself, then I run.

Horns blare and lights whizz past me on either side, and it feels like I’m playing the real life version of Frogger. Time slows down as I jump across the lanes, winding between the cars and running through clouds of pollution. I meet him on the grass verge in the middle of the road and we collapse into each other, laughing with the thrill and the adrenaline of having beaten death. He reaches out and takes my hand again, then winks at me, squeezes my fingers and steps out into the flow of traffic on the other side of the road. I follow, running after him through the oncoming cars. His fingers come loose and I see him reach the other side of the road, but the cars are coming too fast for me to find a gap. A pair of headlights appear out of the corner of my vision, but before I can turn to judge how far away they are or try to dodge them or drop to the ground, something hits me.

I fall in slow motion, surrounded by darkness. The squeal of brakes fills the air, the smell of blood. Pain ripples up my body in waves, radiating over my ribs and down my arms. Carter calls out my name as my head hits the icy tarmac.

next chapter