"Would you like to go on a date with me tomorrow for the summer harvest festival?" I asked her.
"I know that I'll be leaving soon, but I feel that if I don't take the chance to ask you now then the opportunity might not come again."
"I would love to." she said with a tearful look in her eyes
'why is she crying?'
"Great. I have to help with the preparations a bit and run my family's stall but after we will have the whole day to ourselves."
She nodded back to me a smiled. Things went well so I decided to head back home less I screw things up, not knowing that at the time it wouldn't have mattered whether I messed up at that moment or not.
When I got back home Mrs. Jean had already left and my mom made no mention of me and Stella, likely already knowing everything that happened. The rest of the night was uneventful. I ate dinner and washed up like usual before retiring to my room.
I lied awake for a bit thinking about the past. I remembered that small frail girl who always needed me.
"how did things turn out this way?"
At first I only helped her because no one else volunteered to take her home. All the other kids were too worried that they would get blamed for her injury. I did for thing to go the way they did. I found myself drawn to her and that curiosity turned into a much deeper feeling.
Yet I couldn't be honest with myself. My body told the truth while my mouth spouted lies. I verbally made my dissatisfaction clear with harsh remarks, yet made sure I was there if she needed me. Until she didn't. Over time she changed and her antics became less and less. She started maturing and no longer needed me to take care of her. It saddened me when we grew apart but I still couldn't bring myself to be honest
*sigh*
"I guess I'm partially responsible for what happened." With that final thought, I drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, I grabbed an axe from our barn and made my way to the town plaza after my morning routine. Me, my dad, and some other adults from the village were responsible for setting up the bonfire that is going to be used tonight. We are heading into the forest to gather lumber. We hauled back my logs and stacked them in a square formation, gradually building it up.
By the time we finished, quite a bit of time had passed and I decided to take a lunch break before starting my next task. It wasn't anything fancy since I did not have time to cook a proper meal and consisted of a loaf of bread, some cheese, and some dried meat which I quickly finished.
Afterward, I took some leftover wood to build a small merchant stall and then headed off to meet my mother. I'm supposed to carry some bread and vegetable soup which I will be responsible for selling.
"Here you go Rune, this is everything at the moment."
"Right, I'll take it over right now." I replied. Norma will be staying behind to make additional batches of soup since that can not be prepared a head of time like bread and we will be getting many visitors today.
I made my way back and set everything up. The fragrant smell of the creamy vegetable soup had already drawn over some customers. I spent the rest of the day selling food from our stall while occasionally going back to my house to pick up fresh batches of soup.
I wiped my brow and looked around. Things had died down at the moment and the sun was starting to set. The scenery of the plaza had changed quite a bit while I was busy. Lanterns that were hung up started to turn on. There were now various food stalls set up as well as ones offering games and even some rental clothes for the festival. While I was still looking around, my dad walked over and called out to me.
"Hey rune, why don't you take the rest of the evening off to enjoy the festival. Your old man will take over the stall for you."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I think you have something more important to deal with." he said while look in another direction. I turned my head that was and saw Stella walking in my direction.
"Here" my dad said as he tossed a bag in my direction
"A change of clothes. A mans gotta make himself presentable to his admirers." he said with a grin
I nodded and ran off to one of the rental clothing changing rooms.
"Hi Mr. Argentus" she said walking over to Bo.
"Little Stella, aren't you all dressed up"
"Mm, have you seen Rune?"
"He just ran off to go change. he should be back soon. You can wait for him here if you like."
"Ok"