An Easy Friend

Chapter 3

It's been three days since the start of school and it is now Saturday.

Everyday, Kurt and Krist stopped by my tree at lunch to say hi. It's nice. There's always something to talk about. Well, for me and Krist. Kurt doesn't say much, but when he does it's something short but intelligent. I was surprised at first by how eloquent and articulate he was. He was also who didn't mind saying what was on his mind.

It kinda bothered me that he didn't speak more than he did but I wouldn't pressure anything out of him. It's better to let people come out of their shell themselves that to force them to.

During our math class together he almost never payed attention but he always seemed to have the right answers to the teacher's questions. How did he do it? I really didn't know.

Sometimes I thought I saw his blond head turn to look at me out of the corner of my eye, but I never turned to see if I was correct out of fear that I wasn't. I wouldn't be able to justify my staring.

Thoughts of him constantly filled my mind. Who really was this quiet genius?

-

Saturdays were always boring. My dad was never home. Normal people might take this opportunity to throw a bitching house party but there's no way in hell I'd do that. I'm just not the party type. I was always the lame one who never went out with their friends to parties purely because I despised the idea of so many people in one place with dangerously low inhibitions.

Sorry, but getting wasted in the basement of a business-major college student's house and then being abused by said student is just not my idea of fun. I'd much rather spend my never-ending free time reading The Dharma Bums and photographing Aberdeen.

Today, I resorted in keeping myself busy. So I cleaned the house. My father wouldn't do it so I had to. What a wild, fulfilling life I had.

By 2 in the afternoon, I had cleaned up pretty well. I was finally able to see my reflection in the dark wooden floors again and the house seemed considerably brighter, given I spent an hour scrubbing dirt and cobwebs off the windows. You would've thought the Addams family themselves inhabited my house.

I decided to get out of the place. It was cloudy and it looked like it might rain, which I thought perfect conditions for a walk. I grabbed a coat and my cassette player and headed out.

  I unintentionally ended up wandering around aimlessly for hours listening to a mixtape my mother made me before she died. Luckily, we had similar tastes in music. Featuring in this mixtape were the works of Harry Belafonte, The Beatles, The Smiths, Chopin, and many more. The genres differed drastically with every song and while it was a roller coaster going from the soothing piano of Beethoven to a kicking drum solo from Motley Crue, it was my favorite mixtape.

The sky was as gloomy as ever. Stormy weather had always been my favorite kind of weather, since I could remember. Everyone seemed to think that rain was some dismal event but I enjoyed it. I loved the smell of wet pavement, loved the feel of fresh water on the skin, loved the quiet sense of rebirth after a long celestial shower.

The town was peaceful, which was surprising considering it was Saturday. This was usually when everyone did their shopping for the week and got their cars fixed and went out to eat. All the generic affairs you would expect an average American family to take care of. I supposed everyone was trying to get home before the inevitable rain.

Since the city wasn't eventful enough I decided to go out to the less inhabited areas outside of Aberdeen. The forest animals always seemed to be much more alive than human civilians. Sadly those animals seemed to be in some deep slumber today, for none of them were in sight.

I had just about decided to turn around when I came across a bridge in the foggy horizon. I'd never been this far out of the city limits before. However, the bridge intrigued me. Anything would be more interesting than the boring world I had seen today. As I approached it I began to notice graffiti everywhere. Strangely, it all looked alike, as if it were only one person who graffitied. Intrigued, I walked underneath the bridge.

  Stupidly, I was paying too much attention to the graffiti and not enough to where I was going. I walked straight into a rock on the floor and lost my balance. As I was falling, a strong pair of arms caught me seemingly out of nowhere. I let out a small yelp from the suddenness of it all. Whoever caught me must have amazing reflexes.

"Allison?" came a voice above my head. I turned to look at my savior.

"Kurt?" I said just as bewildered as he was.

"What are you doing here?" we both spoke at the same time. He laughed. "You go first."

"Well I was just walking around listening to mus-" Then I remembered the cassette play. "Oh no!" My hands rushed to my pockets. To my surprise, the player was spared from the fall. "Aha, still intact! What was I saying? Oh yeah, I was just exploring. Why are you here?"

And that's when I realized that Kurt was still holding me. I lifted myself off his legs and opted to sit on the floor next to him. "Sorry." I apologized, blushing like mad.

Kurt had a smirk on his face. "It's fine." Thankfully he doesn't dwell on the subject and answered my question instead. "I just like to hang out here. No one ever comes around here so I thought I'd be fine to lay around but that's just proved to be a safety hazard so.." he chuckled as he trailed off.

"Gosh I'm so sorry." I shook my head.

"You apologize a lot, you know that?" Kurt said.

"Sorry." I said involuntarily.

Kurt looked at me with wide eyes. "There you go again!"

  "I didn't mean to! I guess it's a habit. Being polite, I mean." I said with a shrug.

"You don't have to be though." Kurt said with a serious look. "Sometimes it's alright to give the world the finger for fucking you over. Like just now."

I thought about that for a second. "Alright. Just know I'm not going to get violent. But I'll be sure to let the world know I hate it." I smiled at him. He smiled back.

"I should get going." Kurt says slowly. He hesitated in standing. Did he not want to leave?

"Okay. I should leave too actually." I said.

We both walked out from underneath the bridge only to find out it was raining. "Shit. I don't have a hood." I complained. I was pretty sure I had chosen a coat with a hood before I left.

Kurt began removing his coat. "What are you doing?" I asked. "It's pretty cold I don't think you should be doing that." Kurt took my jacket off of me and replaced it with his. His had a hood. He put mine on.

"There." he says with a smile.

"Thank you so much." I say, astounded. Could he be any nicer?

We parted ways without a word and I walked home in the jacket that smelled of Kurt Cobain.