Laye
I reopen my eyes, watching as my breath forms into a little cloud. A light sheet of snow covers my hands, and I brush it off. I rock my feet back and forth, shivering in my light sweater. I knew where I was. The air smelled like French fries and car oil.
"I'm sorry Serenity." I whisper to myself.
"It's okay. I had a minor freak out. You wanted to protect everybody. It's perfectly okay." She says, intertwining her fingers with mine.
"How can you say that? I killed you! You're supposed to be pissed. You're supposed to want to break me to pieces." I say.
"I had issues, Layeanne. Far past fixing. I wanted to hurt those people. Wanted to. So this isn't your pity party, it's my own." She hung her head, tears running down her smooth dark skin. She was so pretty, and I broke it.
Minutes pass before I break the silence.
"Do you remember this place? It's the roof where we spent our last time together in this dimension." I ask, but there wasn't a reply. I look over, and Serenity was gone.
I sigh, standing up. The door behind me opens, and a man walks into the roof. He had dark skin and dark buzzed hair.
"Hey! You aren't allowed up here!" He shouts.
"I was just leaving." I say.
"Tell that to the cops!" He says, marching up to me. He grabs my forearm and starts to drag me to the door.
"Hey! Let go of me!" I yell at him.
He takes me downstairs, where there was a little convenience store and gas pump. The last time I had been here it was run down and old. He walks behind the counter while I look at gum and candy.
"My girlfriend's dad used to own this shop." I say mindlessly. "Though back then it was like an unused garage. You fixed it up nice."
He seems caught off guard. "Who was your girlfriend?" He asks.
"Her name was Serenity." I say. He looks at me as if he just realized something.
"Are you," He clears his throat, "are you Laye?"
"How do you know my name?" I ask.
"I'm Tyler." He says, looking at me closer. Ty was Serenity's older brother, who used to take us on trips to the beach with his short Italian girlfriend when his parents were fighting.
"Oh my god! Ty? Last time I say you, you had dreads!" I say, baffled.
"I shaved 'em off. Last time I saw you were in missing child posters." He says, pointing at the wall where a tack board was nailed. I walk over to it, where there was a couple advertisements and missing signs pinned up. On one of the missing signs was a picture of me in the eighth grade when I was just a normal half Korean half white fetus. My hair was still black then, and it went down to my waist. I used to French braid it into pigtails then. If anybody was looking for me, they definitely shouldn't use this picture for reference. How much time has passed since I left?
"Huh. Who put this up? My dad?" I ask.
"I dunno. They just showed up after I locked up the station one day." He says.
"Oh." I sigh, only partly disappointed.
"So, where have you been?" He asks.
"Um, just around. It's been hard without Serenity, so I figured I'd look for her." Lies.
"Oh, really? I didn't think they still had the case open." He says.
"Well, I don't think they do. But I looked anyway." I say, scratching my arm awkwardly. "So how's Mia?" I ask.
"I don't really know. We lost touch since Serenity- yeah. Last I checked they moved to get away from all the drama of the two of you going missing."
"She just left you alone? During such a horrible time in your life? I thought you two would be together forever." I ask.
"Well, I wasn't the nicest to her, either. We fought a lot. She'd just start yelling in Italian, I wouldn't understand what the hell she was saying, and that kind of pissed me off. Can we change the subject?" He asks.
"Yeah, okay.. how long has it been since I left?" I ask.
"You don't know? It's been four years, Laye." He says, leaning against the counter.
"Holy crap. It's been four years now?" I say, taking down my missing child's poster, crumpling it in a ball, and tossing it in the trash.
"Yeah. I've been legally allowed to drink for three years now." He pauses, looking at me up and down. "You don't look twenty. You still look sixteen, actually."
My mind focuses on the time zones, how much time is passing by me staying here.
"Crap, I have to leave here. Now. Sorry." I say, heading back up to the roof.
"What? Now? Aren't you going to go visit your dad?" He asks.
"Already have." Lies. I pause in the doorway. "Goodbye, Tyler."
"Bye Laye."
And without looking back, I leave.