19. Hug it out.

                                    

                                          


                          
We'd started getting closer to the end. 
                          
The sky was pink. It was 5pm. The stars weren't turning up. The forest was getting darker, every tree forming dark shadows.
                          
Again, we were starving. Soda was our only refuge. 
                          
At the end, there was a barbed mesh. We peeked out from behind it.
                          
Finally, I thought. Civilization.
                          
The Northern Colony.
                          
Out of all the five colonies in Alekshia, the Northern colony was famed for the rich people who inhabited it. The iconic neon lights in every tall building reminded me of our home, back in the Central Colony. People were going on hover boards and space ships whirled around the sky. There were billboards with celebrities. The people were walking down the subway with hybrids; huskyXwolf breed. Some people had coffee in their hands. Cars were touring around the roads. It was so bright.
                          
"Wow," Mike said. "Earth is so cool,"
                          
"Let's try not to get noticed," Kyle said.
                          
We crept out of the mesh, and strode along the subway like three ignorant teenagers. Looking down at my attire, it had red stains all over it. The fabric was soaked in sweat. The people on the road were to pre-occupied to care. I should've had a sign board on me; this girl is in desperate need of a shower. Get close at your own risk.
                          
I looked at the oxygen meter. It was in the medium level. The air was filled with smoke, and burning tires.
                          
"That way," Kyle pointed to the right side at a junction. 
                          
We walked across the street, which was luminous with neon lights. The sky was still pink, but the surrounding was dark.
                          
"Here," Kyle said. His hair looked shiny in the twilight. "Grandma's house,"
                          
I gasped. House?! Did this freaking boy call that a house? It was a apartment! Not actually.... A huge mansion. It was a four storied building; probably the biggest in the street. The wide-view windows illuminated in yellow light. The gate was huge and black, but plain. 
                          
"I'll talk to her," Kyle said. "She'll freak or else,"
                          
He signaled us to wait near the gate, while he went in.
                          
"I love grandma Jo," Mike said. "She's the most stylish woman of her age,"
                          
"You've been here before?' I asked.
                          
"Yeah, but that was a long time ago," he stared at the house's roof top, his hands in his pockets.
                          
"Were you and Kyle," I started. "I mean- were you friends since.....?"
                          
Mike smiled. "Since we were eight. Since the school started. Since Kyle's mom-" he broke off, and frowned looking at the ground.
                          
Kyle's mom, I thought.
                          
All I could've thought about Kyle was his nature. But I never thought of his backstory. Maybe his mom was why he was so unhappy at times. And the way Devon reminded him of his mom..... His reaction.... It was as if his heart was broken, when she was mentioned; you could tell from the way his lips parted and eyes started to get watery all of a sudden. Maybe there's a very reasonable cause for the way he acts.
                          
"C'mon," Kyle said, opening the gate while sliding a card through a hole. 
                          
It opened.
                          
The yard wasn't huge, but it had roses and pansies grown on it. The white flowers on the front porch were glowing in the twilight.