Cassie was sitting on the top of a little set of stairs at the porch of her house. While her left arm rested on her bended knees, chin planted firmly on the wrist, her right hand was writing invisible words on the grey tiles. Every once in a while, she flew her view to the old metal mailbox attached to the fence. Forhead creased in the process.

She was not alone. Autumn breeze accompanied her, dancing around her, making her peachy dress sway in the soft rythm. It also seemed to whisper something Cassie was not very pleasant upon as the frown on her face would became more prominent after each blow.

The weather that afternoon was not particularly bad, actually. The sky was painted with sheer shade of gray, and a tinge of orange was bright on the west. It’s just a typical of midautumn day.

Cassie had stopped tainting the cold tiles with her colorless imaginary crayon. Her right arm tightly wrapped  around the knees, fingers clutching on the poor cloth. At the moment, she had let her face deeply burried into her other arm, as if attempting to burried her whole self instead. Trying to dissappear. Little did she know somebody had been watching from afar, witnessing a very sad, vulnerable picture of her life.

***

“What are you reading?” a little girl cutely voiced out her curiousity.

Kris looked up from the book he was seriously reading on the dining table, facing the tiny figure who was effortfully trying to sit on the chair next to him. His eyes watched the adorable action attentively. Only when the little girl finally sat stably did Kris answer the question.

“My biology textbook.” he pushed the book for the girl to see.

little fingers reached and pulled the book, eyes wandering around the open pages, not understanding a thing, “Is it.. fun?”

“Of course. Look. I’m studying about human body. I want to be a doctor someday.” said the boy proudly.

“Wow! That’s cool! You really must be a doctor, Kris, so that..." the girl halted, as if thinking. Her brother waited. "So that... I won’t have to see a bad one if I fall sick.” she said with hope in her eyes and smile on her lips.

“Yeah. Don’t worry. I’ll study hard from now and make sure I’ll get accepted in a good medical school.” He assured, earning repeated enthusiasic nods and a beautiful cheeky smile that showed a row of pearly little teeth from her sister.

Reaching for the girl’s head to caress her hair lovingly, he asked her back, “How about you? What do you want to be in the future, Cassie?”

***

A soft touch on her shoulders made Cassie reluctantly lift her head. Some strands of long straight black hair fell on her face.  She glanced back at the owner of the arms and is welcomed by a motherly smile. She then got up, leaving her secret scribble abandoned on the cold floor.

Her observer still stood there at his hiding place beside a high stone wall accross her house. His eyes were still planted on the now closed door. But not long after that, with a blue heart, again, just like the other days, he left. Head hung low. A soccer ball was wrapped in his left arm. The autumn breeze blew, but his mind was hazy and his chest was too tight to feel the coldness.

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