Chapter Text
“What do you remember Chase?”
Kylie peered down at her friend laying next to her where she sat. His eyes were closed as they rested at a nearby green space close to vista point. The Golden Gate bridge was partially in view, the fog partially obscuring the view over the somewhat sunny day. Chase, at the sound of the question hummed and stared up at her coffee brown eyes. His own barely open, his face looking as if was in pure relaxation save for a small scrunch near his brown eyebrows. "What do you mean by remember? Like do I remember being here before?"
"Something like that" Kylie replied. She stared out at the scarlet bridge in front of her, the wind blowing gently against their hair. Her ponytail blowing in the wind against the white streaks across the grey-blue skies. "How does being back make you feel?"
Chase sat up and looked around from where he was sitting, his eyes eventually deciding to settle on some grass on the hill. His hands fiddling around with the strands. “It’s nice, kinda. But it’s also a little weird. And sad” he said, his voice almost a whisper. His expression looked as clouded as the air around him.
“Sad how?”. Kylie tried her best to look into his eyes, but he was just too low for her to be able to see.
“It’s not my san francisco kylie. I don’t know” Chase shook his head in frustration. “It’s nice walking around and seeing these places I know or that existed before my time, but at the same time I think that’s my issue with it all. You remember when I showed you peir 39?
"Yeah" said Kylie. She remembered when they walked along there, Chase pointing out Alcatraz and the bridge to her. Chase telling her about when he lived close enough to see it from there. Chase telling her about a young family, when a father would hold his son on his shoulders until it felt like that son could touch the rest of the world.
Looking at his downcast face she realized what she was looking at. Not just her friend. In his face was the view of a small child, looking out at a world that was no longer his to hold.
"That’s a tourist place, but my Mom liked to walk there on sundays with with me and my brother." The grip of his hands on the grass tensed. "These places I’ve known my whole life are either not here yet or different. It’s all too new if that makes sense. It’s mine but it’s not." Chase just layed back down on the grass with a 'plop' a few strands of the grass he was holding before now torn apart in his hands as he reclined against the ground. " I guess that’s the funny thing about time though. It’s only there for a split second before everything changes again. Before and after. The present isn’t mine either though. So I guess it’s fair to say that even without being everything I remember, it’s still a comferting presence being here again". He smiled a bit although it was clear there was a few tears near the edges of his eyes.
He tied a strand of the grass around another until they came together in a knot. He held the strands together moving them around in his hand.
"But it's not all bad" he said as he sat up to lean against his legs. He nudged Kylie's arm until he grabbed her attention. Once she looked down at him, his smile widened until his teeth were visible. He pointed at her hand until she opened her palm, where he then pushed the green grass knot into her hand. Kylie looked at it, staring at Chase with a dopey smile, as if asking for context.
"I guess you could say I’m building this time again. But this time instead of being the one I knew, It’s now the one I’m sharing with you, Kylie."