Elizabeth here: this story is a little shorter than normal. I wrote it during a two-day bout of bubblegum cravings. I hope you enjoy it!
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Jamie, a senior college student, decided to go to Rose park to relax. Because Sanguine University was crammed no matter where he went, he had no place whatsoever on campus to be alone. Especially since his dorm roommate was always home.
It was the very start of fall, and the trees had not yet begun to change color. Although Sanguine University was in a large town--Sanguine, Illinois--there was ample nature all around it. It was far away from the biggest roads and cities in the state, leaving many massive wooded areas.
Jamie was slightly shorter than average, wore glasses, and had short, black hair. He was wearing jeans and his black hoodie, for the cool weather. Rose park was the largest by size in the town, but one of the least used. It was a relatively new, yet underfunded nature park, and had no benches, lamps, drinking fountains, or other infrastructure, except for thin dirt paths leading through the thick park canopy.
The dusk sky was quickly darkening. Sanguine University had a low crime rate, and Jamie was comfortable walking alone in the dark. To his left and right were tree trunks, and behind him, hanging branches blocked his view of the outside world. Ahead, the dirt path winded and twisted, and Jamie was eager to see what was ahead. The dark green forest surrounded him on all sides, and he was starting to feel at peace.
He hadn't seen a single other person at the entrance of the park, and there was nobody else on the trail. He trekked onward, already feeling himself relax. Crowds, like the ones all around his university, made Jamie anxious. This was the opposite of a crowd, and he loved it.
Jamie spent fifteen minutes delving ever deeper down the trail. There was nobody there, and nothing to interrupt his relaxing, lonely walk. He planned on staying until... ten, eleven maybe? Midnight? He wasn't sure. But he didn't think about when he would return. He just let his mind wander, thinking about books, games, and nature as he wandered the path.
He came across a fork in the dirt path. The right side was more of the same forest, while the left was dotted with red, yellow, and purple flowers which Jamie couldn't name, because he was raised in a city. Jamie absentmindedly traveled down the left path.
There was another fork. The right had more of the same flowers, yet this time, the left was even more colorful, with thick, lush rose bushes on the sides of the path, and flowering vines drooping from the trees above. He absentmindedly wandered left again too. The dirt path was replaced by pure grass, and Jamie was too lost in thought to notice that the packed dirt walking sounds had been replaced by the lovely crunch of grass. Even though he wasn't aware of it, the grass crunching noise relaxed him.
And just when Jamie snapped out of his train of thought and noticed all of the flowers suddenly around him, he heard the distant sound of a woman's giggle ahead. Disappointment. He wasn't alone anymore, and he wasn't happy with it. But then he realized that since he hadn't seen her earlier, they probably weren't going the same direction. She was likely sitting down somewhere, or headed the opposite direction. She wasn't a problem anymore. He could tolerate ten seconds with someone.
Jamie looked down when he finally noticed the crunch of grass, and realized there was no dirt path anymore. He walked forward anyway, eager to pass this woman, whoever she was.
He started to notice an odd, sweet smell in the air. It relaxed him. Was it the flowers? Or had the woman brought some kind of warm pastry to eat? He couldn't pin down the smell as he trudged through the grass. The woman giggled again, right behind a bush that was in front of him. They were twenty feet away. The sweet smell got stronger: Jamie finally identified it as bubblegum, and thought it odd that he could smell it from here. Part of him wanted to smell it more. Maybe he could get a good whiff as he passed.
He parted the bush in front of him. Indeed, just fifteen feet ahead, there was a pink-haired girl his height. She was overwhelmingly pink. Straight pink hair, pink hoodie, pink sweatpants, pink tennis shoes, a pink rose tattoo on the side of her neck, and she was chewing something. Jamie knew it was bubblegum and knew that it too was pink.
"Mmm! Good stuff," she said. "Sweet, bubbly, bubbly... heya, want a piece?" She fished through her pink pocket and pulled out a small, pink paper wrapped block of gum.
He didn't normally take candy that had been in other people's pockets. He never knew where it might have been. But the bubblegum smelled so strongly, and he thought maybe it was worth it this time.
"Sure," he said. She stuck out her hand, and he grabbed it as he walked by.
"Not even a thank you?" she said with gum still in her mouth as he walked past. "Come on, I gave you gum, we oughta talk and get to know each other!"
Although Jamie wanted to be alone again, the guilt of leaving her behind shot through him. And she was one person, not a crowd. How bad could a few minutes of conversation be? And there was that sweet bubblegum aesthetic to her.
