We never took the time to appreciate our surroundings. The stubble of the grass, unable to tickle our ankles as we dashed up the hill, but more than capable of leaving large, splotchy stains on our dresses and shirts, battle scars of our march to the well. The sprinkling of trees, placed like God used a salt shaker to dash a smattering of trees along the landscape, instead of a full, lush forest like the one south of our village.
None of that mattered to me or Elise. All we wanted was to get to the top of the hill, gather up some of the rocks that had accumulated from the mountainside, and start furiously tossing them down the well until we heard that familiar, satisfying plop of stone against water. This was one of the days where we were aggressive in our run, scuffing knees and looking skyward, hoping that the sky would yield for just a little bit longer and let us throw our frustrations down the well before the rains came.
"Isabel! Wait! I hurt my ankle!"
I turned around, a few steps from the well, and saw Elise, gingerly walking up towards me. I sighed and walked down to her, taking her hand to help tug her up to the top of the hill. "You're so careless sometimes, El. I don't understand how you always seem to end up hurt."
Elise frowned. "You act like your my mother, but you're younger than me."
"By like, what, three weeks? I don't really think that has much merit, anyways. We're eighteen, we've pretty much formed our ways of thinking at this point, y'know."
Elise dumped a pile of rocks at my feet, with one taking a single bounce then landing directly on my bare foot. "Ow! What the hell are you doing?"
"Setting the rocks down? They're kinda heavy."
I inspected my foot, and saw a tiny dot of blood on top of my big toe. I stuck my foot out and wiped the blood on Elise's leg, eliciting an immediate screech from her. "EWWWW! SERIOUSLY?"
"I think you kinda deserved that." I stuck my tongue out, trying to let her know that my blood transfer was in jest, but Elise now looked completely grouchy. "C'mon, let's throw some rocks before we get soaked."
Elise nodded quickly, picked a particularly long, flat rock, and held it over her head, before dropping it down the well. Five seconds later, the familiar plop sound greeted our ears, and before long, we both were throwing our rocks, giggling and laughing away as the rain clouds approached.
It was the last time we saw the first well together.
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