Revamped!

[I AM OFFICIALLY ON CHRISTMAS BREAK WHICH MEANS MORE FREQUENT UPDATES!] [2019: Girl, don't lie, you were updating frequently even when you weren't on vacation].

Courtney Brown: My Imaginary Friend

After about five minutes, I realize that I've been dragging Landon behind me like a dog. I let go of his hand and he takes a few extra steps to be at my pace. I put my hands in my jacket's pockets.

"If you were a wandering teenage girl, where would you be?" I ask Landon as I turn around to face him.

Judging by his wrinkled nose and eyebrows, I can tell that he's confused by this whole situation. I just realize that he really has no idea what we're doing here.

"Possibly with a wandering teenage boy?" He guesses.

I roll my eyes and continue walking, not because I'm giving any attitude, but because I didn't need an answer like that. At least not now. But he has a point: maybe Britney hasn't visited in a while because she's busy with her boyfriend. I hope he's not as unstable as her.

"Courtney," he calls, "where are we going?"

I stop on the stop and immediately look around us. I take a few breaths and think for a bit. I look back at Landon and turn around running my hands up through my hair. I think I can feel my head spinning again. I drop my hands and my hair lands on my shoulders and back. I turn back around and face Landon once again.

I shrug my shoulders and shake my head. "I honestly have no idea."

"How can you - ?"

"I don't know what exactly I'm looking for. I mean, I do, but I don't at the same time. That means that I have no clue where I'm going because if I don't know what to find, then I don't know where to go. Do you get that?"

"Not really."

At least he's being honest.

"I'm searching for Britney Braun," I say. He nods his head, finally understanding. "The only two times I've seen her was at my place. She was in the courtyard. It was almost as if she was waiting for me." A part of my brain clicks. "Like she knew exactly where I was going to be at that time."

"If she really is a mystery, I highly doubt that she'll reappear at the same place," he says.

"What's your plan?" I ask him. "I clearly don't know what to do. What's your plan, Landon? Call her name a billion times and hope she hears it?"

He blinks a few times. "Britney isn't a dog."

"Britney!" I begin yelling loudly on the streets as if she was. "Britney!"

I hear Landon calling her name too. I turn to smile at him before I continue screaming that crazy girl's name.

-o-

Eventually, Landon and I reach the park. It's pretty empty this time of year. Well, it's getting colder and there are not that many kids in San Sebastián. I don't really blame the park for being empty. I think it's only here for ecological purposes.

"This has been a failure," I state disappointedly.

I really don't get it. Britney's my aid - or supposed to be my aid - from Loki. Maybe because she's from Loki, that's the reason I can't find her or she isn't showing up? Loki is the god of mischief and lies, after all. I try to think back as to what I did to make Britney appear. I had a panic attack which I am not going to do in front of Landon. What else can I use to draw her attention?

Let's see, the panic attack is definitely off. Unfortunately, that's all I got. My mind is literally blank at this point. All that I really remember from that one Britney Braun encounter was the violence, crying, and questions with no answers.

Wait. I finally got it.

"We're more alike than you think. Just don't say that 'magic' word so much."

Magic. That's it. That's how I met her for the first time. I was using my magic to play with leaves and she just showed up. Oh, but I'm not going to say the word, I'm going to do something far more dangerous and stupid. I turn around and see that Landon is looking the other way. Excellent. I close my eyes and focus on my magic. I can feel it tickling my fingertips, but then I feel someone clasp both of my hands together with cold metal. My heart stops as my eyes shoot open. I'm about to scream but I turn to see that the person is Britney Braun and the cold metal is all the rings she wears.

Once we're looking at each other, I can see her face as a mix of anger and disappointment. I must have pulled her away from her boyfriend. Whoops.

"Did you not understand what I said?" She asks rhetorically. It's like one of those questions people ask when they already know the answer and just want to prove their superiority. "People and I mean bad people, will come after you."

"I was looking for you," I tell her. "You didn't exactly give me your number."

"God, Courtney…" Britney mutters, sighing a little out of annoyance. "We just met. How long has it been since I last saw you?

"Six weeks!" I scream at her.

She pauses, realizing that she was wrong. "I could've sworn that it's been a day. In my eyes, it's been a day."

Suddenly, Britney looks off and her anger gets replaced with sadness. I can see her bite her lip and some tears form in her eyes. Then, a small smile forms. I swear that in that span of ten seconds, she went from wanting to kill me, wanting to use my jacket as a tissue, to seeing a newborn baby smile for the first time. Britney changes moods so often, I have noticed from the two times I've seen her.

"What is it?" I ask her.

"I - I just remembered something," Britney says wiping her eyes.

I give her a face. "Why does everything remind you of something or someone of your past?"

Britney looks at me. "Sometimes, you feel like you want to take your past, crumple it up, and throw it in a fire. What you should actually do is take your past and visit all that you can about it. Make some good memories for when your life gets in deep shit. At that point, it won't look that bad."

I understand how that applies to me because I think some aspects of my life are better off forgotten but most of it I would love to relive. I smile a little and look at Britney. It may look like she knows nothing about what I'm going through or that she doesn't care about me, but I think she's full of a lot of wisdom for a young woman of her age.

Landon runs up to us. He's shocked to see Britney but, for some odd reason, doesn't ask where she just appeared from. Landon repeatedly looks at us as if he's seeing double.

"Wow," Landon states, "just...wow."

I don't react. Britney smiles at him like a mother seeing her baby walk for the first time with tears of joy in her eyes. I don't get what she's being so sensitive about because she's never met Landon nor have I mentioned Landon to her.

"Landon," I start, "this is -"

"No," he cuts me off, "I can already tell who this is."

Britney continues smiling as she holds out one of her hands with many rings. "I am Britney Braun, Courtney's imaginary friend."

I look at her shocked. I have never told her that Landon and I joked about her being my imaginary friend.

"Now, let's talk before you do something stupid," Britney states.

"Are you going to vanish?" I ask her. This determines whether I will tie her down or not.

"I don't plan to. Lucky for you, I had nothing planned."