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There was a windmill.
It stood outside of town, above the treeline and on a hill. The white stones were gray and mossy, the black roofing tile bleached by the sun, and the metal far rusted.
No one knew what to do with it, leaving its rotting corpse there for nothing and no one. It spun weakly on windy days, its arms creaking and whining from old age.
Cecilia never visited the windmill, never saw the purpose. It was an old thing that needed to be replaced. An eyesore and annoying to hear as she walked the dirt road on the edge of town to her home. She didn't like how it spun, slow and broken, like someone dragging themselves by the nails. So she never went to that hill. She never went to the windmill.
Until the day she had to.
“You have to come!” Raora stretched across her friend's desk. “Even Liz is coming!”
“Why would I go to that husk of a thing?” Cecilia sniffed. “I'll probably get some disease.”
“Because it might be our last chance!” Raora pouted. “We're graduating soon…”
“That doesn't mean anything. I'll still be here.”
“But I'm not! Liz isn't either.” Raora rolled over and sighed dramatically. “And what will you do once we're gone?”
“There's always the internet.”
“That's not the same! Why are you staying here, anyway? I thought for sure you'd want to get into one of those fancy music schools.”
“I'm not Liz,” she grumbled. “I don't wanna do all that work for nothing.”
“It's not nothing…” Raora frowned and sat up. “I'm just worried about you… You don't have to chain yourself down, Ceci.”
Cecilia wanted to huff, to roll her eyes, but her exhaustion simply made her sigh and nod.
“What time?”
They decided that they should get there before sundown. After that? Who knew.
They settled at the bottom of the hill, making a fire pit somewhere safe for everyone to huddle around, even if they stuck to their usual groups. Elizabeth was smiling into her drink as Nerissa chatted beside her, Shiori was weaving some tale that made the twins shiver, and Raora and Bijou were talking about school. Cecilia was by herself, roasting marshmallows over the makeshift fire pit and frowning as they came out burnt. She was about to give up, tossing the black shape into the fire, before something moved outside of the smoke.
If she listened past the bugs and birds and crackling of the fire, she could hear the wood creak underneath the girl as she stood there, side by side with the windmill.
Cecilia had never seen her before. Never seen the frayed hoodie and tattered shorts. Never seen the messy dirty blonde hair with streaks of brown. Never seen the pink eyes that widened as they met hers.
The girl froze there as Cecilia stood. They watched each other for a moment before Cecilia began walking up the hill to the windmill. The few steps leading to the porch groaned painfully under her feet as she walked up to the girl, who had stepped away from her, looking around as if she wanted to run.
Cecilia paused before opening her mouth:
“Kinda weird, watching people without introducing yourself.”
The girl blinked before laughing.
“What about you?! Are you guys even supposed to be here?”
“Are you?”
“I'm Gigi!” The girl beamed. “What about you?”
“Cecilia.”
“Cecil-ia! There! We know each other!”
Cecilia snorted and rested her arms on the railing.
“Why were you watching us, you weirdo?”
“‘Cause no one else comes here.” Gigi shrugged. “So I was trying to figure you out.”
“Graduation,” Cecilia simply stated, only pushed forward by the creaking of the windmill. “They're all moving soon so…”
“They are? Not you?”
“Nah.”
“Why not?”
Cecilia frowned, opening her mouth to snap at her before Gigi ran up and jumped onto the railing. She quickly sat down, her legs dangling off the edge.
“I'd like to move,” Gigi said. “I'd like to see new things.”
“And do what?” Cecilia raised an eyebrow.
Silence in the wind answered.
“... Hey, if you're not moving…” Gigi turned to her, grinning. “Are you gonna come back here?”
Cecilia laughed.
“Are you lonely?”
“Nooooo! But won't you be lonely when they move?”
Cecilia frowned, looking down at her friends at the bottom of the hill. The windmill sat, watching over them.
“If you do, can you bring snacks?” Gigi chuckled. “I'm kinda hungry.”
“... sure.”
She didn’t go back to the windmill immediately.
It lingered there, on that hill, overlooking the town and her. It was in the back of her mind, and so was the girl. The way her wild hair flew in the wind, the way she smiled at Cecilia like a long-lost friend.
She came out of the convenience store with a plastic bag, fighting against her as she brought it down the road and up the hill.
Once she finally arrived and stepped over the treeline, the wind played with her hair, forcing her to fight it as well. Regardless, she kept moving with a grumble under her breath, towards the towering windmill and its creaking arms.
She rested the bag on the porch before leaning against the railing. The whole town seemed so distant, even more so than the city her friends were moving to, so far away. Her heavy sigh didn’t even reach past the wind.
It was just the broken windmill.
“This is stupid,” Cecilia grumbled. “Why didn’t I just ask for her number? I don’t even know if she’s here today.”
“If who?”
She jolted, spinning around to find that Gigi already had the bag in her hands and was looking through it.
“When-?! Were you here?”
“Yeah! I saw you brought snacks!” She grinned directly at her and Cecilia’s heart spun drunkenly. “Thanks!”
“Yeah, well… who said they were for you?”
“Are they for me?”
“I brought them to share.”
Gigi’s grin somehow grew.
“Oooo, you like me~”
“Shut up.” Cecilia grabbed the bag of chips tossed at her. “I just met you.”
Gigi hummed in agreement, though her smile said something different, and she wandered over to sit down beside Cecilia as she sunk down.
The sound of the bags ripping open cut through the noise of the wind and rustling of nature. For a moment, Cecilia felt weightless, even with the snack residue on her fingers. There was just her, Gigi, and the windmill turning in the wind.
She didn’t even realize her newfound friend had paused in eating.
“I’m always here on days like these,” Gigi laughed, answering Cecilia’s previous worry. “It feels nice.”
“Mmm… a bit cold,” Cecilia commented, still smiling as she ate more. “But it is. Nice, I mean.”
“Better with company!”
She laughed as Gigi’s voice rang out on top of the hill, with nothing but the windmill to answer her.
“Yeah. It kinda is.” Cecilia shoved the trash in the bag and nudged Gigi. “Next time, you bring snacks.”
“Aw, hey-” Gigi blinked, watching her. “Next time?”
“Yeah!” Cecilia smirked. “I’ll be here on days when there’s snacks.”
“Then you’ll have to come every day!”
“Yeah, no.”
“You hate me,” she drawled and Cecilia laughed again.
“You’ve been going up there a lot lately. Any reason why?”
Cecilia jolted awake, her seat squeaking against the floor as she sat upright. The moment she realized she was still in the classroom, she slumped, only to pause as she caught Elizabeth’s eyebrow raising. Asking silently, “You fell asleep in class, again?”
“Yeah, yeah,” she mumbled sleepily and yawned before remembering the original question. “Mm, yeah.”
“... And that reason is?”
Cecilia paused, remembering watching her friends interact without her while she sat with Gigi.
And she shrugged.
“It’s just nice up there.”
Graduation came and went and Cecilia’s feet hurt from standing all day.
Still, she walked to the windmill in her stuffy outfit.
“You look like a nerd,” Gigi greeted her with.
“Thanks,” croaked out of her throat and she quickly removed the robe to let herself breathe.
The tank top and shorts she wore underneath had her shivering against the cold, but it was better than dealing with the robe floating her away. The windmill creaked above them, spinning lazily and Cecilia wondered if it would be funny to get her robe stuck on it.
“Hey, Gigi-” She laughed and looked over, only to find Gigi staring at her, face red. “Uh…? Do I have something on my face, or…?”
The girl beside her swallowed before grinning and grabbing her hand.
“Come with me!”
She practically dragged Cecilia along, not waiting for her to say yes. They went up past the porch, up to a second floor of wood paneling that surrounded an old wood door.
“Wait!” Cecilia swore her feet were about to fall through the floor with how hard she stopped, crashing them both to a halt.
Gigi stopped and looked back at Cecilia as she fought for words.
“I…” She laughed nervously. “Can we stay out here, please?”
She didn’t dare look, didn’t want to see how hurt Gigi looked. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Gigi’s nod.
They sat there for the rest of the day, just them and the windmill turning above them until the sun went down.
“... Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Cecilia laughed. “I just… don’t want this to end just yet.”
“It’s not the end…” Gigi whined, “Don’t say that it is.”
“I don’t know what else it could be.”
“... You should go home. Before it gets too late.”
Cecilia does, lingering on the page of the college website until her eyes eventually close.
The interior of the windmill looked like everything and nothing she expected. It was probably nothing like reality either.
Gigi was laying in the hay, still grinning and still waving her over until Cecilia rolled her eyes and joined her, sinking into the fluffy pile.
They don’t say anything for a while, until Gigi says what she’s been thinking.
“You should join them,” she whispered as they stared up at everything moving, turning the arms of the windmill outside. “You should try.”
“Why?” Cecilia groaned. “It’ll just be the same.”
“And staying here won’t be?”
“I have you now,” she said honestly. “You’re different. You’re new.”
There was nothing but the creaking of the mechanisms above until Gigi rolled over in the hay to look at her. Looked at her with love and adoration and pain.
“I’ve been here. I’ll always be here.” She smiled, because that was who she was. “You should start moving again, Ceci..”
Cecilia woke up, sweating.
She grabbed a coat, her shoes, and ran out despite the morning mist and despite the dogs barking in the distance. Everyone was still sleeping, but she wasn’t. She had to see her; she had to.
She ran and ran until she saw the windmill. The old windmill that no one understood.
It was moving again, pushed forward by the wild wind that had always been there. Always had been combing through her hair and tickling her and kissing her goodbye.
She refused to do anything but laugh.
“You jerk,” she croaked to nothing but the wind.
Cecilia walked back home, clutching the coat around her as she stopped by the mailbox. Looking inside, she found a few letters, but one had her name written on it.
There was a windmill.
It stood outside of town, above the treeline and on a hill. The white stones were gray and mossy, the black roofing tile bleached by the sun, and the metal far rusted.
And yet it still moved, still pushed on, still watched over everyone.
It was still there, years later, as Cecilia walked the old road home, briefcase in hand. Summer break had just started, and she honestly wanted nothing more than to go collapse in her bed.
But there was someone she had to greet first.
Even if she had always been there.
Gigi smiled back at her and waved.