Terra strided down the hallway. A flare of anger in each of her steps. Her boots slamming down angrily as she fumed to herself. How could she be this stupid? Everything inside of her seethed with wild, unrestrained fury. How could he go out with her? Her own school counselor? She didn’t care if she was an old friend or not. Seeing someone else with her father, Landon, was strange and it didn’t make her feel comfortable. Being lied to pissed her off too. She knew well enough he was right not to trust her, but how could she trust him now? 

She went down the stairs, and figured she would wait for Landon’s “punishment” or whatever his drunken ass could think of. Terra made her way into the kitchen where Silas was lacing up his shoes at the table. She frowned and folded her arms.

“Well… this sucks.” She said bluntly.

Silas looked up at her in surprise. He hadn’t expected her to follow him downstairs, not with her dad so mad at her.

“In more ways than one,” he agreed. “I didn’t know your dad and Ms. Fierro were friends.”

“I didn’t really either. Except I kinda heard about her. Probably should have met her at the funeral…” Terra’s voice trailed off to a faint whisper as she walked up to the window and just looked out. She turned her head over to Silas.

“Wanna take a walk?”

Silas stood up from the chair and tested his shoes to make sure they were fitting tight.

“What about your dad…?” he questioned.

Terra turned away from Silas and walked over to the front door. She turned the handle and opened it as quietly as possible, feeling the cool but warm breeze hit her face. Turning her head over her shoulder, Terra looked at Silas with the light glimmering off of her green eyes. “He’s not going anywhere right now. I’m going to have to come back anyway so why not?” 

The brown haired girl stepped out into the night and kept walking, regardless of whether Silas followed or not.

Silas stood in the kitchen for a moment and helplessly watched Terra exit the front door, knowing full that doing so would only further enrage her dad. With a shaky sigh, Silas reluctantly followed Terra out the front door, closing it silently behind him with minimal creaking. He turned away from the door quickly and caught up to Terra quickly, walking quietly beside her on the concrete sidewalk.

“So…” he said awkwardly.

“Shut up,” Terra said quickly. “Not every silence has to be filled with words. It’s a nice night, why should we distract our eyes from it.” She looked up at the stars and kept walking. 

Back in the house, Landon approached Terra’s bedroom’s closed door. He had asked Katrina to wait in his room because he didn’t want her to see him possibly get angry. Thankfully, that would never happen, as once Landon pushed open the door, he was confronted with an empty room. The window was closed, so she didn’t escape. The only thing that made sense was that she never even went there.

“Great,” he muttered. Without giving a word to Katrina, he quickly went down the stairs and saw that the rest of the house was deserted too, with no trace of Silas either.

“Damn kids,” he said, rubbing his forehead. “It’s gonna be a late night.”

With a sigh, he turned and headed back upstairs.

After some long walking underneath the night sky. Terra glanced over and saw a baseball field, she smiled a bit and usually knew what was probably close by. Her eyes darted over and found a playground with a swingset nearby. She turned to go underneath the orange light of the street lamp. “Come on, follow me.”
She continued on ahead and ultimately turned with a soft smile, standing on the sand of the sandbox. 

“Reminds you of being a kid doesn’t it? It’s the only place I feel like a kid at heart, ya know?” She asked Silas. Feeling oddly sentimental. Terra walked over and sat on the swing. Her fingers curling around the chains hanging by her sides.

Silas followed her lead and took a seat on the swing to her right. He swung back and forth idly using his feet to keep him grounded. He was curiously squinting up at the sky above, trying to see if he could pick out any more stars than were already visible. When Terra asked him something, he turned to her with a shrug.

“I guess so,” Silas replied. “Embarrassingly, I still go to parks with my friends when they come to my house. They’re fun to just hang at… Or to read, if you’re alone.” He picked up his feet from the dark mulch and began to swing more now, using his feet to gain more momentum.

Terra picked up her pace on the swing, swinging up a little further and a little higher. “Nothing embarrassing about it.” She commented. “Everyone has their place they like to hang at. Why should we suffer boring people who only have fun grinding up on people in sweaty, dark basements.” The words came out and caused her to laugh a bit. 

She played around a bit and kicked at Silas, sticking her tongue out at him as she passed by on the swing. “Even more fun when you have someone to hang with.”

Silas smiled and kicked back at her on the swing, but eventually, the returned to their respective swinging paths. For a few moments, Silas didn’t think. It was easy to get lose in simple, repetitive muscle motions, like swinging. It was relaxing and considerably meditative too.

“I don’t know if I’m cut out for the party life,” Silas said finally. “Even these little high school parties are too much for me… I mean you were able to tell right away that I didn’t belong.”

She nodded slowly. “Yeah, you had that look on your face. And the vibe. I don’t know. I guess maybe I’m better at reading others than most. Landon said my mother was pretty good at it, maybe she passed it on to me.” Terra looked at him while swinging.

“Besides! A party is only as fun as the company you have while you’re partying. And you’re definitely not quite the stereotypical lax bro.”

“I guess not,” Silas agreed. “I’m not much of a douche. At least, I hope not… But, I mean, Eric and everyone have been pretty good friends to me. Maybe they’re a little bit fake, but we all still look out for each other, I guess.”

He paused and turned to look at Terra while he swang.

“So, what’s the real story between you and him, anyway?’ he asked.

Terra smirked at him. “Maybe you two should get married.” But then she got a little more serious when he asked her his question.

“We dated for two months. I don’t know. We never had sex. Things got heavy at times. He was a bit of an asshole, sure. But, I don’t know. I guess I wasn’t ready for a relationship and freaked out on him. There’s no chance of getting back together, that’s for sure.”

“What did you see in him?” he wondered.

“He was sweet, kind, and fun to be with. Completely the opposite with his friends than when he was alone with me. I guess I just figured out that I couldn’t trust him.” She shrugged.

Silas thought about that for a moment. It wasn’t an unfamiliar idea to him that guys acted completely different when they were around their friends and when they were alone with their girlfriends. He supposed he understood in a way, probably because he was a guy and they all thought alike.

“I’m sorry things didn’t work out better,” he offered honestly.

Terra nodded and smiled over to him. “Thanks…” She looked up to the sky at the bright stars and luminous moon. Always a breathtaking sight. 

“It’s not that I don’t want a guy to act the way he does with his friends. It’s that he changed his tone, and his friends changed with me around. I don’t want someone to change for me, if that makes sense. Makes me think you have something to hide, like perhaps Eric talked about me like a piece of ass behind my back?”

Silas shrugged. He understood Terra’s point of view.

“Well, that certainly seems like something he’d do,” Silas answered. “But I wouldn’t know. I didn’t know him then.”

With a grunt, Silas jumped off the swing. He flew a couple yards, leaned too far forward, and ended up falling to his hands and knees after trying to catch himself on his feet.

“Shit,” he grumbled, standing up and brushing the moist mulch from his knees and forearms. A small scrape was forming on his upper shin on his left leg.

Terra stopped swinging and started cracking up in fits of laughter. She covered her mouth with her hands but couldn’t contain herself entirely. Muffled giggles squeaking through her hands.

“Why would you even try that?”

Silas frowned at her laughing and wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.

“I’ve pulled it off before, that’s why,” he answered bluntly. He made his way back to his seat which was still swinging slightly and he sat down on it heavily.

“It’s kind of embarrassing, really…” he said quietly. “That that was the farthest I’ve ever gone with a girl.”

“That was the farthest I’ve gone with a guy. Nothing to be embarrassed about. We’re literally not even out of high school yet.” She said to him.

Silas raised his eyebrows.

“What about Eric?”

“I thought I told you… He’s never had me out of my shirt before, and actually thinking about having sex.”

“But I thought things got heavy at times?”

“Heavy, make out. Under the shirt touching, that stuff. You’re really as far as he got. Why are you so worried about what me and Eric did?” 

“I’m just curious,” he replied simply, looking down at his feet, deep in thought.

“Well take your curious mind and start thinking about the right things.” Terra moved next to him and turned his head to hers. She looked into his eyes for a short moment before closing hers and crashing her lips up against his.

Feeling his heart flutter with excitement, Silas kissed her back, and for that moment, when time froze, everything was just… right. Perfect. He felt like the image of them, kissing each other on the swingset, was the perfect cover for some cheesy romance novel. Except, this wasn’t just a cheesy romance… Maybe it was something much more.

Silas pulled back from this kiss but continued to stare Terra in the face. It was difficult to tell what exactly the expression on his face was saying. Was he worried? Happy? Confused?

“Do you like me or something?”