Daydream Believer

lxxxi. wishes and lucky stars

lxxxi. wishes and lucky stars

 

Dad had finally decided that I was old enough to walk around our neighborhood by myself. Of course, I had been doing that secretly for a few years now, but it was nice that it was official now. In general, Dad liked to give me my freedom. That had always been the main difference between him and Mom: Mom was more strict, while Dad was more laid-back.

 

It was just starting to get dark when I headed over to Aaron’s for a sleepover. The sun was setting. Instead of explosions of color, the sunset was rather dull. It just faded slowly into purple and then black. The one thing that was interesting were the stars. By the time I got to Aaron’s, the stars had lit up the sky.

 

I knocked on Aaron’s door. “Hi McKenna!” he exclaimed. “How are you?”

 

“I’m okay,” I said. It was nice that it was summer. Summer relaxed me, but it was just too short.

 

“Well, come on in!” he said.

 

I took my sleeping bag and started setting it up in his living room. “Is Justin coming?” I asked.

 

“Nope. It’s just us,” Aaron said. He turned on the TV. “What do you want to watch?”

 

I didn’t really watch that much TV, so I didn’t care that much. “Whatever you want to watch,” I said.

 

Aaron turned on some stupid reality show, but I didn’t pay much attention. Aaron’s mom had brought out some popcorn, and I ate some of that, but I mostly watched the stars.

 

“What are you looking at?” Aaron asked me.

 

“Nothing much. The stars are pretty cool.”

 

A shooting star flew across the sky. “Oh my gosh, it’s a shooting star!” Aaron shouted. “MAKE A WISH! MAKE A WISH!”

 

“Aaron, that won’t do anything. You know that’s just a meteor, right? We learned about it in science.”

 

“Shut up. I’m trying to decide what to wish for.”

 

I honestly thought it was all pretty stupid, but I decided to wish for a million dollars. It was pretty shallow and selfish, but it would sure solve a lot of problems. “What did you wish for?” I asked Aaron.

 

“I’m not going to tell you!” Aaron shouted. “Then it won’t come true.”

 

“It won’t come true anyways, unless you wished for a sandwich or something,” I replied.

 

Aaron’s mom came in with sandwiches for both of us. “Ha. I did wish for a sandwich, and my wish came true,” Aaron said, even though he was obviously lying.

“I’m getting tired,” I told Aaron.

 

“Already?” he replied. “It’s not even that late.”

“Just let me sleep,” I said. I curled up into my sleeping bag, and Aaron was the last thing I saw before I fell asleep.