Purple Jacket

I sit at the edge of the quiet playground and contemplate why I left the way I did. Noel will be mad at me, I know, but at the moment I don't feel bad about yelling at her and then slamming our front door shut in my anger.

She deserved it. With her smug face and her hands placed gracefully on her delicate hips. The stance of a girl who thought she was in the right.

No. I don't regret leaving like that, but I do regret leaving without a jacket. I stare down at my worn sneakers that I had pulled on in my hasty leave, and sigh. The cold seeps through the holes in the bottoms of my shoes and my bare arms have goose bumps running up and down them.

A bird lands a few feet from where I sit on the plastic curb surrounding the playground. I whistle at it and it flies off to join it's friends in the trees. The sky is growing dark as the sun sets, leaving the apartment buildings in front of me in a gloomy shadow.

Maybe I was wrong. Maybe Noel didn't deserve to be shouted at like I just did only ten minutes ago. She was drunk anyways and the other guy was the one who was flirting with her, not the other way around. And she called me right away when she realized what was happening.

It was my fault for letting her go to the bar alone. My fault for getting jealous when she was obviously not encouraging the dude. And now, sitting out here, alone and freezing, it is my fault for running off like I did.

And I didn't even bring a jacket.

I sigh again and look up at the gloomy apartment buildings. No way I can go back now. Noel will only be angry at me for yelling at her. But the sky is getting darker by the minute and the wind blows over my already cold arms.

Maybe if I tell her I'm sorry and that I will sleep on the couch tonight...

"Hey."

I look up, startled by the voice breaking the quiet around me. Noel stands a few feet away, right where the bird had landed before.

"Hi," I mumble, shuffling my sneakers on the bare ground. "I'm sorry."

"I know. It doesn't take long for you to realize when you are in the wrong."

Noel smiles softly and I grin back, glad that she isn't mad. She holds something up and I smile even wider when I realize it's her purple hoodie.

"Maybe next time you stomp out in the middle of fall, you should bring a coat," she says with a smirk.

"Yeah, or maybe I should stop stomping off, and face my problems instead."

"Sounds like a plan."