Kari sighed, her breath coming out in a warm cloud in the chilly winter air. She rubbed the sides of her arms in mitten hands. Tkay was nearly an hour late, and he'd not contacted her yet. Far off, a bell bonged the time. Four peals resonated in the air, and she sighed again. Just a half hour more, then she'd leave.
The park where she sat so uncomfortable was a familiar one, one that she and Tkay had been visiting for years, and the bench she retested on had been their meeting place since they were twelve. Not much had changed in those five years, since their first meeting here. It had been their first, and, come to think of it, last date, she remembered bitter sweetly, as well as the place of her first kiss. She shivered spastically, though not from the cold. His feelings for her where as then as they were now: mixed chaos. And her feelings for him were also the same. In love, but but fading fast. After all, you could only wait for so long.
Speaking of waiting, she had had enough for this winters day, and decided to leave. She past by old haunts, memories floating from them, ghosts of the the past, the good days. and she smiled. In the fuzzy white distance, she saw movement, and decided to investigate. Once she identified the source coming from the soccer field, she knew who to expect, clad in a red adidas jacket and pants.
"Hey Davis," she said, smiling.
"Oh, hey Kari," he responded, not taking his eyes of his ball, bouncing it methodically against his knee, counting.
"How are things?"
"Good".
"How's June?"
"Fine".
"You?"
"Okay".
"School?"
"Fine".
"You still into soccer?"
"Guess so".
"You gonna give me more than one word answers?" she asked cheekily. His grim, silent response put her smile out.
"Are you mad at me or something?"
WHAM!
The soccer ball lay imprisoned in the metal mesh of the field, inches away from where Kari stood, jaw dropped. Davis walked away with hands in pockets as the ball fell out of the net and into the snow with a plop. It was this sound that awakened Kari from her stupor.
"Wait up!"
She jogged after his, though kept her distance.
"What did I do!"
He did not answer her and speed up a little more. She had to jog to keep up with his furious pace, even from a few feet behind.
"Davis, please stop! We used to be such good friends, I'm sorry we haven't talked in so long!"
He stop suddenly at this, and she ran into his back, falling back onto the icy ground.
"What gives you the right to talk to me after all this time," he said coldly in a voice so unlike the one she remembered fondly from her eight grade class.
"Davis . . . "
"What".
"What happened?"
He spun around, and she was shocked to see his face. It had lost it's cheerful demeanor, baby chubb, and good humor. It was now replaced by a chiseled grim expression, and she could have sworn she never knew him.
"Nothing, that's what changed".
He walked away as she sat there, stunned. He was right. 'Nothing' had changed all of them.