Heart | N.H.

seven - stay

That Saturday, the cloud of gloomy weather that'd been hanging over our town all week broke. According to Harry, the only acceptable way to celebrate this occurrence was with a picnic in the park. Even though it wasn't actually anywhere close to picnic weather; it was just not raining and cold. But whatever. 

So it was that I and Annika found ourselves strolling past the sign welcoming us to Ivory Park, with an overgrown, curly-haired baby skipping in front of us, an enormous picnic basket slung on his left elbow. Never mind the fact that there was no one else at the park, save a few geese, and that all the trees had already lost their leaves. He was irrepressible. "Harry, slow down!" Annika called, laughing and hurrying to catch up with our gangly friend.

"Had to catch up with the others," Harry explained unapologetically; he was now standing with the rest of our friends, who were all armed with their own picnic must-haves. Liam had a stack of Frisbees in every color of the rainbow. Zayn had a cooler that I sincerely doubted contained simply water and sodas and drinks Principal Norridge would approve of (like juice boxes). Louis had a packet of "colorful glow-in-the-dark gooey feet". I didn't even want to know the what or why of that addition to our pile.

Niall had brought blankets for us to lay the food on, and the biggest smile I'd ever seen, one that warmed me to my toes. 

We wasted no time; the quicker we were up and moving, the quicker we'd warm up. The boys started a game that involved about a dozen Frisbees, zero rules, and an every-man-for-himself mentality that was downright vicious. Annika told them we'd join them in a moment before dragging me off under the shelter of a nearby oak. "Have you heard from Callie?" 

"FaceTimed her this morning," I said, nodding. 

Annika cursed. "I woke up late today; could've talked to her too. What'd she say? How is she?"

"Well, she's not exactly enjoying New York," I said, biting my lip as I remembered our conversation earlier. It was strange, seeing Callie so gaunt and pale; the computer screen couldn't hide the bags under her eyes or the tremble that crept into her voice when she forgot to consciously push it out. Annika clearly shared my concern, and we had good reason. Callie Hyong was usually the bravest, most effervescent person I knew. When I thought of her, I thought of her doing a series of perfect back-flips across a mat, or happily dyeing streaks of her hair blue, or laughing way too hard at a joke that wasn't funny at all. 

I didn't think of her crouched in a lonely hotel room, miles away from her best friends, waiting for her parents to drive her to an unfamiliar hospital so that she could see her brother. I didn't realize that she could be broken that way.

"Well, what about Ted? Is he getting better?" asked Annika. 

"Yes," I said. "It'll take a while for him to fully recover, but the doctors say that the true danger is passed. He was really lucky, though. He wasn't found right away, and if he had been found just a little bit later..." I shuddered. "He was really lucky."

Cupping his hands around his mouth, Louis hollered, "Are you two coming or not?"

Annika raised an eyebrow at me. I grinned and shrugged. "You go on. You know how great I am at sports: I'll probably seriously injure myself or get a Frisbee implanted in my brain."

"Suit yourself," she said, giving my arm a light squeeze before racing over to join Louis.

I took the time alone to wander down to the edge of Ivory Pond. The water was still and dark, surrounded by a cape of dead ferns and yellowed reeds. I sat down on the smoothest rock I could find, my feet crunching on the brittle grass.