1 Chapter - I

Arlo surveyed the frosted window, his eyes were hovered with dark circles and opened the window, the rain was rushing down in the series of cascades, breeze rushed inside his room and stroked his face, he heard the stirring of leaves and then footsteps as he turned around. "Arlo," Cassia his mother said, "You are here," She had a weary voice. "Where are your results?" The light fell through the window and splashed in the back of him, he turned over and saw the rain falling in the garden. "I got an F!"

"What do you mean?" She asked, "It can't be!" He faced his sad mother with his dampened face, tears streaked his pale cheeks. "I am sorry," he said, "I am so sorry mother but I can't live without her!" The rain had begun to stop and the dim sunlight passed through the window, glinting in her dark hair. "Mother," Arlo said, "I have to go." He walked through the door as she saw him leaving, for an instant she was stung with weariness and doubt, "Where are you going?" She asked. "I will be back for dinner." Cassia saw her son once ebullient but now a 19-year-old impassive boy, she walked inside the tarnished room and stared at a photo on the beige walls, it was Arlo's when he was twelve when everything started! Arlo waddled to the town, a gritty and strikingly beautiful town with ornate bridges, he saw the beach, the stairs intricate, and walked down the stairs and found the litter dispersed and hovered the ocean, he felt the gorgeous breeze of the ocean and sat down. "This sucks," he hummed, "It was so beautiful when I first met her here," the first moment of her flickered in his eyes

"I hate you, father!" Arlo dashed to the door and ran outside the house, tears filled his face, it was already evening, he walked to the beach as it was the place for him to relax, an twelve year old girl same age as him careened past him and caught him by the shoulder, "I am so sorry," her back hunched and her head looking at the tarnished stairs, She stood up with her teary face and found a sad boy in front of her. "Are you hurt?" Arlo asked, she shook her head, he saw a girl in a turquoise skirt and a full sleeve t-shirt with a red hairband on her gorgeous hair, it was a windy day, he felt intimate when he saw her face, a gorgeous face covered with tears. "I have to go," She said, Arlo parted to let her go from the stairs, he stared at her as she walked down the stairs and sat down near the ocean, he walked to her, the breeze twirled around her and made her hair flutter, long blonde hair, he sat down beside her and felt the acrimony of his father shading and appended the smell of her over it, he enthralled by her as she stared at him with her ocean eyes, he felt himself seeping deep inside a ocean with the wind stroking against his skin and the world seemed coherent and yet there was the tears of her. "I have seen you here very often," He said as he pulled himself to reality, "This is my favorite place too by the way," she was bemused. "Why is he talking to me?" she thought, the setting sun's light mingling in her hair. The breeze was gorgeous, as the sun but her heart was wistful. "Okay, it seems like you're not the one to talk," he said, "So I will tell you why I am sad." He looked at the ocean and closed his eyes, he felt the crisp air. "My father," he said, "He promised me that he will take me to the shop tomorrow and buy me a gaming console but now he said that he has work to do in his office, oh I hate him so much!" She felt a surge of anger as she stared at him. "What?" He asked, "Is something wrong?"

"You hate your father because he has work to do? He works for you, dummy," she surveyed Arlo chuckling and then the ocean. "Alright," he said, "Tell me now why you're sad," she pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and said "My father." Rain descended on him, it had started again, "Alright then," he hummed as he stood up, "It's time to go home," he felt his heart dissipating with each step to his house. Rain rushed down again and then thunder flickered in the sky covered with clouds, he ran to the house covering his head with his hands from the rain as he thought about the girl, "My life was so good when she was around me, I miss her so much," he saw his house once filled with the chuckle of a boy and a girl but now utter silence, he walked to the door but fiddled with the knock as he heard his mother, "He got an F! Atticus, I can't see my son like that, you've to go and talk to him,"

"I can't, I wish it was different but... but he hates me, Cassia,"

"We have lost her and now I don't want to lose my son too!" Arlo felt a surge of anger as he opened the door, he waddled inside and found his father Atticus and his mother Cassia. "Stop it!" He said, "You guys don't have to worry about me, I am fine," he added with a fierceness that surprised Atticus, "Listen son," Atticus said, "We care about you and we want you to be okay, I know you miss her, we all do but you can't ruin your life because of it, you have your whole life in front of you,"

"Oh I don't want to hear about it, please leave me the way I am, I don't care!" He rushed to his room and slammed the door, the tantrum of a 19 year old had ended and the house was silent once again, Atticus noticed the tears on Cassia's eyes, "Please," he said, "Please don't cry, I know it's hard but we should leave him alone for some time, I know my son, he won't do anything to harm himself," he hugged her, startled with his own thoughts "Would he really not do anything like suicide? I just wish that he can be just like he used to be!" Arlo lay still on his bed in dark room of his, the patterns of light and shadow pouring by the setting sun through the window, he stared at the mosaic ceiling and felt the nostalgia as it was the same time as it's now when he first talked to her, "My father," she said, "He's marrying someone else,"

"And you don't like your new soon-to-be mother?" he surveyed her as she sat silently, tears poured down from her eyes, "I miss her," she wept, "I miss my mother," "She's dead," she added and looked at him, he observed her and then felt the cold breeze, he noticed her hands, they were shivering, "Don't you feel cold?" he asked, "Yeah," she answered, "Soon, I will be on my way to my house where that bitch is staying,"

"Here take this," he said as he took off the sweater and offered to her, "I am fine," she said, "I will be gone soon," he felt the cold air again, "Take it, I am a strong boy, I won't feel cold so much," he insisted again, "Okay then," she hummed, "Don't blame me if you catch a cold," she wore the sweater and felt warmer, the cold breeze felt akin to crisp air now, the sun had drowned fully and the moonlight splashed in the ocean, "It's beautiful, isn't?" he said, observing the ocean, "Yes," she said, soon they both heard a car, he saw the two big lights behind him and found a damsel, the moonlight highlighted in the auburn braid hair of her, she walked to them, "What are you doing here?" she asked, "C'mon let's go,"

"No, I don't want to go with you!" she said as she was in a defiant mood, "Stand up, your father has told me to pick you up from here," she said stubbornly and clenched her arm and made her stand up, a locket dismantled from her neck as it scattered on the floor and glinted with the moonlight, "And you! You don't have to come anywhere closer to her, you understand?" She said to Arlo, "No, my locket!" she begged as she noticed her locket, "Don't worry, we will get a new one for you, now let's go!" he saw her crying as the damsel took her to the car, he stared at them getting swallowed by the dark and collected all the pieces of the locket and clustered them into his pockets. "I will give this to her the next time I see her, would I see her again?" the sound of a door knock helped him to wake up, the sunlight surpassed the curtain and flickered in his eyes, "Its open, come in," he saw Cassia, "Good morning, dear," her hands were filled with the plates and there was a smile on her face, "Your breakfast is ready," she said, "You want to eat it here or at the dining room?"

"I will be there in a minute," he said, Cassia nodded, "Come quickly, your father is waiting for you too," he felt exasperated with his father and didn't want to go out of his room," Why the fuck is father here? Don't he has work to do?" he said tempestuously, Cassia saw him haughty and didn't get surprised and gave him a smile, "He's here," she said, "He's here for you, dear," he stirred to the other side of the bed, "Food will get old, come quickly,"

"Alright, I will be there," he said dismissive, Cassia walked out of the room and found Atticus standing stricken there, "He will be there soon," she said, "I think I should go to my work," tears on his eyes shimmered, "Don't worry, he didn't mean to say something like that," she said, "He loves you,"

"I know, it's fine, it's just I have some work to do,"

"Okay, take care and return home as soon as your work is done," Atticus nodded and went to his work, Arlo heard the engine starting and rose, he looked through the window and stared at his father leaving in his car, he waddled out of the room and found a dining table adorned with flowers, there was a plate filled with the food for him, he walked there and sat down and saw Cassia coming, she sat down with him, "Where is father?" he asked

"He went to his work," Arlo gave a derisive laugh, "He will be back soon," Cassia said, "I was wondering that we should go on a trip, how does that sound to you?"

"These tulips are beautiful," he said, "Thank You for the food," he rose and began to walk to the room to shut himself, to the solitude again, Cassia sat there being hushed, somehow this was too much for Cassia, her ingenuity, her hard work to mend the relationships around her, despise her effort, nothing was going good, "I am hopeless, these days are making everything worse, no matter what I do, it just keeps getting worse and worse day by day, when will these days pass on? I just wish everything can get back to normal, I don't want to see my son like this!"