The days when people could go outside and laugh their hearts out without a single care in the world…I was like that once. I remember the air feeling lighter back then, before the sky turned into a bruised, heavy gray that would haunt everyone.
"JAY!!"
A voice pulled me from my thoughts. From the corner of my eye, a boy came charging toward me, his face glowing with pure, uncontained energy.
"What do you want now, Leo?" I asked. My voice was soft, carrying a tone that was serious but secretly playful.
"MOM SAID WE HAVE TO EAT NOW!" Leon cried out, his expression so warm it could have melted the coldest heart in the Stronghold. "Hurry up, before your mom comes and takes you away from meee!"
A wave of comfort washed over me, feeling like a hot bath after being trapped in the freezing weather.
"KAY!" I yelled back, finally giving in.
I turned toward the house where Leon and his mom had lived for as long as I could remember. I started jumping up the massive front stairs,the ones that troubled me every single day because of my stubby toddler legs.
"HEY!"
A sharp yell erupted from behind us. I looked back to see the rest of our group, joined by two towering men.Seth and Arthur. They were former comrades of Leon's mom, and they looked like walking fortresses.
"You better not eat without us!" Maya shouted. Her thick British accent cut through the air. She had long, brown hair that seemed to catch the sunlight whenever it came out to play. Even back then, she was the "mom" of our group.
"YOU HEARD HER!" Maverick laughed, grabbing Aaron by the head and shaking him playfully. They were the closest duo in our group… well, besides me and Leo, of course. They both had sharp black hair that made their eyes pop,one a piercing blue and the other a brown so dark people used to have massive fights over whether it was black or not.
Leon's mom stepped out onto the porch, chuckling as she waved Seth and Arthur over. "Oh my… there are a lot of you. I guess we won't be having any leftovers because of you little midgets!"
"GODDD… I'M SO HUNGRY!" Leo's voice boomed from the dining room. We could hear him thumping around the massive table they kept just to fit all of us. "IF ALL OF YOU DON'T HURRY, I'M ABOUT TO EAT ALL OF YOUR FOOD!"
Maya rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. "Ugh, come on guys, before Leon gets impatient."
We all scrambled through the door, laughing and tripping over each other. None of us wanted our food to go missing, but more than that, we didn't want to miss a single second of being together.