How Many Stars

❖ Fine Dining ❖

"THEY'RE HERE!" I hear Wilbur call from the living room. Tommy bolting past me, making a bee-line for the front window in the hopes of getting a quick glimpse at who these people were. 
"Ooooo, Tommy look! There's a girllll!" Wilbur cooed, slightly mocking the younger boy who'd hurried to take a stance beside Wilbur. Tommy hadn't had the best of luck when it came to dating and well talking to females. Most of them would take him for being awkward, or weird or annoying at first. I guess not many of them truly took the time to sit down and get to know him. But then again I don't really blame them, Tommy's like an endless ball of energy, something you've gotta match if you really wanna befriend the boy.
"Oh shut up Will!" Tommy snarled, punching Wilbur's arm playfully.
"Well are you lads gonna just sit there or are we gonna let 'em in?" Phil chuckled as he emerged from the kitchen, an arm wrapped around Kristin's waist, pulling her closer to his body.
"C'mon Tommy, why don't you go open the door," Wilbur teased, once more glancing back over at the door and then back at Tommy and then the door once more. Trying to signal to Tommy for him to take the lead.
"Well if neither of you are gonna get it then I will," I say nonchalantly. The idea of it even possibly being Clay evaporating from my mind. A girl. I was almost certain that Clay hadn't been a girl. Unless that was something that I'd missed upon our first encounter. Hurrying over to the front door to prevent our new guests from having to wait any longer, I swing open the door.
"Holy-" I gasp. My breath hitching within my throat. No way. There, stood only mere inches from my face was none other than Clay. The same Clay that I'd met earlier that afternoon. On that beach. With the wavy hair.
Beside Clay stood a slightly younger girl. So this was her. She looked around Tommy's age. Short curly, dirty-blonde hair, that barely made it past her shoulders, braided into two plaits. Her piercing blue eyes studying my figure, almost as if she was trying to analyse me, like how a computer would analyse data. Behind the two stood their parents, they seemed like nice people, although to be honest I wasn't paying too much attention to them.
"U-uh come on in, t-thanks for coming." I stutter, stepping aside to allow the family of four to enter our small home. By the time it took me to welcome them in I hadn't even noticed Wilbur and Phil had moved to stand behind me. Wilbur shuffling to now stand beside me, crouching down slightly.
"Goggy.. do you... do you know him?" Wilbur whispered, a perplexed look appearing across his face, as his eyes travelled across my frozen expression.
"Mhm." I say slowly nodding as I watched Kristin lead him and his Mother into the kitchen, dishes wrapped in aluminium foil.
"How in fucks name do you know him... I- I thought you didn't know anyone here George." Wilbur finished. Eyes wild with questions, confusion and various other thoughts.
"I met him. Down on the beach today."
"What doya mean you met him on the beach? I didn't see him."
"Well, no shit."
"Yeah, but how'd you meet him Gogs. You met him on the beach, okay. How though? It was just us wasn't it, I didn't see him there."
"Well, I went to get Tommy's stuff, well tried to."
"Yeahhh..." Will drawled.
"Well. That's when I met Clay."
"So mystery-dream-boy has a name huh?" Wilbur teased.
"Shut up."
"Okay, okay sorry. Continue on with your little love story. Hahaha."
"Oh- oh fuck off Will it's not like that." I said, a warmth rising on my cheeks, staining them with a soft shade of pink.
"Oooo! Does little Goggy have a crushhh!" 
"Shut up, he's right there he can probably here you ya know Will." I say through clenched teeth. A forced-ish smile on my lips as I peeped over Wilbur's shoulder at the handsome boy who now stood in my very own kitchen. I was sure he couldn't hear us, but it was still an unsettling thought.

Tommy had grown a liking to Clay's younger sister, her name was Dorothea. A very old name to say the least, so they all really just called her Drista for short. Nonetheless, the pair had sat themselves down by the hearth on small plump cushions, conversing about god knows what. The adult's had busied themselves away, talking amongst themselves in the kitchen. Their muffled conversations softly echoing throughout the house. Wilbur and Clay had taken a seat by the old record player that sat in the corner of the room, music softly flowing throughout the room as the two of them flicked through the crate of old records. Pointing out their favourites, to least favourites. They were off in their own world. It was good to see that Wilbur had found someone that shared a similar passion in music that he had. I kinda just stood there watching on as the world continued to whir on by me, unsure exactly of what to do here. I didn't have much to contribute now coming to think of it. I didn't share the same passion for music that Wilbur did, and I wasn't young and as naive as Tommy and Drista, their conversations would only bore me. And I wasn't like the adults, I wasn't grown up just yet. I was really just some kid that had become the outcast in this situation. Standing their, watching on as everyone simply continued on with their night. Without me.