"Hey Irene."

"Hi."

"How you been? I haven’t talked to you lately."

"Fine."

"Can we talk? I don't like texts."

"Sure."

"Phone or park?"

"Park."

Twenty minutes later, there she was. She was sitting on the swings, not moving. She was in running gear. It was the only way she could get out of the house.

The park was empty excluding the two of us. It was 7:30 pm on a school night. A cold breeze was blowing through the park. Winter was coming for sure.  

Drained, I walked towards her. Irene wasn't paying attention. She had her headphones in and her eyes were closed, trying to drown herself in the music.

I sat on the swing next to her. No response. I tapped the chains of her swing.

Irene opened her eyes. She didn't look at me initially. But, she sighed and looked me in the eyes. She looked drained. The bags under her eyes and the look in her eyes told me so.

To tell you the truth, it had been two months since I had seen Irene outside of school and weeks since I talked to Suelgi.We hadn't talked more than the occasional times at school. I had given up a long time ago. She never came to me so I never talked to her. V and Eric began to suspect something was between us was wrong, but it was easy to lie that I was tired. I was taking 4 AP classes. It was easy to lie I wasn't worried.

School had taken over my life, as it should. Bio was living up to my initial expectations. Gov was picking up. There was a chapter every other week, along with some sort of write-up. Lit was kicking everyone’s and we were beginning a new book. Stats began to have no math. Things were more conceptual, not my favorite.

And music I hadn’t been paying attention to it lately. New music was coming out. I couldn’t keep up with it. In my spare time, I’d just lay on the floor. I couldn’t fall asleep or I’d oversleep, ending in an all- nighter to finish my work.

Irene broke eye contact after a few seconds, but didn't take her headphones out. She just stared at the darkening sky and closed her eyes again. I ended up doing the same.

We didn't talk for a while. We were in our own worlds. I was tired; she was unresponsive. What was I supposed to do? I had detached myself a long time ago.

I focused on calming down. Until it was nothing. My body became relaxed and let everything become nothing. The breeze was nice. It wasn't too chilly. Everything was calm. It was relaxing. The other swings moved with the soft wind. I could hear them, along with the wind that blew through the trees. Falling asleep. It took all my strength and energy to cut my meditation to push out words.

"Irene." I slowly opened my eyes and turned to face her. She must have not been listening to music or had it low enough to hear me because she opened her eyes, taking out her headphones. She sighed and looked down. Her hair was blowing in the wind. I can't explain it. It was perfect. Her sitting there was something more. It meant something more to me.

She didn't look at me and looked ahead. Meanwhile, I was staring at her. I didn’t want to scare her off. She looked like she couldn’t handle much. Vague.

"Have you been ok?"

She hummed and nodded in response. Irene lifted up her head. The light was hitting her perfectly.

“Good,” I replied, nodding and looking forward. The sun was setting in front of us.

“Keeping up with homework?” I asked,  looking down at my knees.

I was met with the same response.

“You’ve missed a few days already. Has your side been hurting you again?”  I tried to meet her eyes again, but she wouldn’t look at me.

“Yeah, it has actually.”

“Oh. Did you go to the doctor’s?

“Yeah, it should be fine.”

“Ah.” I didn’t know how to follow up with it. I couldn’t get to the point. I didn’t want to push her. Naturally, because of the awkwardness, there was silence. We sat there again because I couldn’t carry the conversation nor did she want to.

"Why did you call me out here?" Irene said after a while. It scared me a bit, expecting that she’d stay quiet. She shivered. She crossed her arms.

. “Well, I wanted to catch up. I haven’t seen you much outside of school and we haven’t been able to hang at school.”

“Oh.” Irene paused. Her eyes quickly moved, like she was searching for something to say. “I’ve been busy lately. Need to catch up on volunteer hours.”

“That makes sense. I have to catch up too. The counselor has been bugging us about it.” I chuckled nervously.

We continued to make small talk, mainly about school. I still couldn’t get it into the conversation. The goal. I tried to keep up, tried to focus on the current conversation while listening to Irene.

"Wendy?"

“Hm?”

“Your eyes glazed over again.”

Oops. “Sorry. I’ve just been tired lately.”

“If you’re tired, I can go home.” Irene stood up.

“No no no. I’m totally fine. I’m sorry.”

She sat back down and opened . She hesitated and closed it. Despite how exhausted she must have been, Irene began to look like she was working something through her head. Maybe she was catching on.

“Why did you call me here? You seem to be working around something.”

. Well, that’s Irene. She never speaks her mind. But, I must have been bothering her.

I sighed and chuckled a little.She had caught on. That’s the Irene I know. I was still a bit disturbed she had read me so well. I could hide it more, but it hurt me to hide it. I needed to tell her what’s been on my mind and what’s been bothering me.

“Well, wow. What a loaded question,” I managed to let out. “Um, truthfully, I’ve been a bit worried.” God, finally. “Suelgi, now don’t hurt her, told me you fought with your parents.”

The color drained from her face and she turned away. No, Irene. Don’t pull away again. Please. I know you’ve been acting strong but just tell me.

“Can you tell me why? You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” Her eyes filled with tears but she wouldn’t let them fall.

I let her have her space. I couldn’t blow up at her, though that’s what I’ve been wanting to do. For a long time.

“I- I.” She couldn’t talk. “My parents and I… disagreed.... on some things. I was trying to talk to them.”

I nodded and was a silent support. She needed to let it out on her own.

“It didn’t end well.”

I kept silent. Irene couldn’t take it and she let it out. I was wondering whether to comfort her or not for a minute.

I got up and squatted in front of Irene. Her face was in her hands. For a second, I looked at her. She was broken. All this time she must have held it inside because of her parents. It had never occurred to me that this could happen.

I gently grabbed her hand and she let me pull her into a hug. She let me hold her for comfort and cried into my shoulder. I closed my eyes to focus on her, on this moment. She needed help. I was there to comfort her.

It must have been a while because the sun had set, the lamps had , and the houses in the distance. Irene had motioned that she was done. So, I let go.

I returned to a more comfortable sitting position and looked up to her. Her eyes her still watery. She was wiping away the last of the tears and the hair that was stuck to her face.

I looked at her empathetically. She was having a hard time.

She composed herself before talking again.

“Wendy.”

I hummed. I smiled. I felt good and warm inside. Her beauty was captivating. The moment was perfect.

“I came out to my parents.”

Oh.