Clouds were rapidly overtaking the setting sun, at a pace most couldn’t think observable outside of time lapse footage. Was time moving faster, or did it only seem so? The answer was of little concern to him, the young man watching the clouds. Late October air numbed his face, blew his brown hair around, and chilled his fingertips. He was geared up in hockey equipment from the waist down, and a jersey with a six on the back with the name Mitchells covering his upper body. He was standing outside of a hockey rink as people were leaving, among them was a fellow teammate who waved at him. “It was a good game, Chris; you’ll get them next time” he gave a half assed wave back, then went back to watching the clouds.
He hadn’t a clue as to why the clouds entranced him. Maybe it was a way to block out the noise of chatter, footsteps and cars driving out of the parking lot, maybe it was a distraction from the recent loss of his game, maybe the clouds represented a deeper conflict within himself, or maybe he just thought they were pretty. Whatever the reason, he kept looking until all the people and noise in the parking lot dissipated into nothing else, but the sounds of crickets, wind, and the occasional car driving by in the distance.
As his trance deepened, it looked as if the clouds were swallowing the sky whole. Were they swallowing the earth? He did not know how to feel about it, but he did have plenty of thoughts. What would happen? Would it be the end of the world? The start of a new world? Was there an afterlife?...... Nah couldn’t be. Concepts like heaven, hell, spirits, the afterlife and anything else referring to life after death, triggered an instinctual laugh from him.
Clink!!!
Snapping Chris out of his trance was the sound of footsteps traveling side to side, light humming, and the continuous clinking of metal. The sounds came directly from behind, from a young energetic girl, with blond braided hair and wearing faded skinny jeans, a yellow pull over hoodie, and a blue fanny pack. it was his younger sister Liah. She was pacing back and forth, swinging her key-chain on a lanyard which was hitting the back of the bench he sat on.
Liah seemed blissfully unaware of her surroundings, as she swung the lanyard freely, carelessly. Shaking his head, Chris pulled out a phone and a pair of earbuds from his duffel bag, then blasted 90s grunge tunes. However, this only did so much to drown out Liah, as she got more aggressive with her swinging, and occasionally let out long, frustrated groans. If the clouds made him feel as if time was shifting forward, she made him feel it was stretching out increasingly; he just wanted her to stop.
Whack!!!!
A sharp pain shot into the back of his head, knocking out his earbuds. “What the hell?!” He felt for bumps and gashes.
“Shit sorry…..., keychain slipped from my hand, totally my bad” Liah had rushed over, clearly flustered and embarrassed at the scenario; however, this didn’t make Chris any less upset.
“My bad, my ass.”
“It was an honest mistake, I swear. You’re not seriously gonna hold this over me, are you?” Liah asked.
"It's always mistake with you, isn't it?" Chris replied.
"Again, I'm sorry. What else do you want me to say?"
“……...whatever, please just stop swinging that thing around and sit down, mom should be here soon.”
Liah sat down on the bench next to him and stared at the ground; letting out a sighs, which eventually turned into groans, then into foot tapping that picked up pace with passing time.
Chris pretended not to notice but he did, out of the corner of his eye. Just ignore her. He picked up his headphones and went back to his music: still, he could not tune Liah out.
“UUUGGGHHH…... What's taking mom so long?” Liah groaned
“Not sure. Must be busy at work.” Chris replied.
“Well then why didn’t she call us? I mean isn’t that why she got you a phone in the first place.”
“Because she is probably too busy at work!” He was progressively getting more annoyed with her.
“But like, she can’t ask her boss for 2 seconds to make a phone call.”
“First off, that's not how jobs work. Secondly, would it change anything? You’d still just complain that she’s taking too long.”
“Also” continued Liah, as if not hearing him “Why do you get a phone and I don’t."
“Oh, that’s an easy one, because you’d put us out of house and home.”
“Ahh yes, I’m going to rack up millions in phone debt talking to my one friend I hang out with every day. Great logic.” Liah said sarcastically.
“Eh, wouldn’t surprise me.” Chris muttered under his breath. Liah and her friend Anna were practically joined at the hip outside of family obligations.
Liah shrugged, got up, and was about to go back to pacing when she noticed her key-chain was missing. She frantically searched her pockets and the inside of her shirt, she then noticed it, in Chris’s hand. She tried to grab it back, but he swung it in a circle, almost hitting her on the hand.
At first, Liah pouted and sat in silence, as if at once accepting defeat. The fun was quickly running dry. Why'd she have be like that? He was only giving her a taste of her own medicine. An awkward silence followed, with the occasional glance at each other. Then, with little to no telegraphing, she snatched his phone from his lap and circled around the bench; He was ready to strangle her.
Despite Chris's athletic abilities, he could not keep up. Liah was small and had the agility of a track runner, though she had never competed on a sports team; the hockey gear was not helping him either. At one point, he had briefly got hold of her sweater, but she slid out of it and leaped over the bench. Instinctively, He tried to hop over as well but instead tripped and toppled onto the other side, much to his embarrassment and her amusement.
For several grueling minutes this went on. That was until that trusty old station wagon, the one that picked up Chris from every hockey game since he was 6, pulled up honking its horn at them, ceasing their game of cat and mouse. Inside the car was a familiar face, their mother, but everyone else of course called her by her name, Evelyn. She was middle-aged, blond and was wearing circular glasses and a light blue cardigan.
Evelyn leaned over to the passenger side, and rolled down the window. “So, who started it this time?” she asked, giving them both an exaggerated stern look. The two of them drowned each other out, trying to explain their side of events, something she'd let play out for fifteen seconds before honking her horn again. “All right, now… both of you get in the car and we can try this again, minus the shouting over each other part. Ok?”
Both of the teenagers reluctantly agreed and started heading to the car. Upon reaching the doors, Liah handed Chris back his phone. He knelt to put it back into his duffel bag, and when he stood back up, he saw that she was in the front passenger seat, smiling at him, taunting him.
“Grow up” said Chris, before hopping in the back seat.
By now, the sky had darkened considerably, and the beginning signs of a storm were all there, from the roaring of thunder, to the gradual but steady buildup of rain. Taking one last look, he saw a sky engulfed by dark clouds.
