benmartos:
Ben watched her step toward the path and made to follow her when she spoke up again. He huffed a laugh, and nodded. “All right. Totally fuckin’ insane idea—but sure,” he said wryly and cut around her. His heart rate, which had been fast and strong from his run and then stuttered and nervous from when he spotted her, evened itself out as they started back. He pulled his phone out from the armband he strapped on before he left, and closed out Spotify to cut off the tinny beat of the next song that queued up. Explaining Luna and himself to Sister Michael was definitely going to cut into the time he was gonna spend headed to the locker room showers on campus, and he idly wondered if pouring a water bottle over his head would cut it until lunch.
“We’re not more than like, a mile out, by the way,” he told her. He wasn’t uncomfortable with quiet most of the time but he thought the more they talked, the clearer that vague, non-school related familiarity would take shape. It was bugging him, not remembering. He was pretty checked out for awhile, and piecing little things back together was annoying as hell. “I mean, probably less but definitely not more than that. You were lost but not wicked far so, uh. That’s cool.” He paused, and slowed his steps so that they matched stride for stride. “Or ironic?” She looked like someone who would know if he had used that word correctly, like she… read books or whatever. Communing with nature had that kind of vibe. “Is that right? Mr. Schwartz is always giving me shit about that kind of stuff.”
✥
Had she really been this close to the Retreat this whole time? She remembered when she was younger, about ten years old, the first time her grandmother and her had gone camping she had taught her how to navigate the stars, or well, she had tried to teach her but all that Luna could remember about that night was how a bunch of stars seemed to come togeter to form the face of a bear. Had she paid more attention maybe she would’ve been able to find north and walk herself back to the cabins. Luna nodded at his words “Oh, so I’m a first class idiot then.” She huffed a laugh. “Ironically sad, I think would be the right way to put it. Seriously one more hour out here and I was ready to call it a day and take a nap right on the ground.”
A twig from one of the many tress that sorrounded their path was dangerously close to the path and coming closer and closer to her face. She gently pushed it away but not before puckling a leaf right out of it. It gave her something to do with her hands, she started to fold it in four as if it was a piece of paper. “So, I take it you’re one of the runners? I mean, part of the track team, or cross one?” She wasn’t too sure about that last one, Luna didn’t have that much knowledge about what went on in any of the extra curriculars she didn’t partake in, or who did partake in them for that matter. “Or you could just be really enthusiastic about getting up at the crack of dawn and creeping up on people? You know, people need hobbies.” She said with a vague shrug.
