Déja Vu

Sixteen

Maya snapping her fingers before my eyes pulls me out of the daydream I've been swimming in for a good few minutes. Everyone is talking and laughing around me, but their voices are faint whispers to me when Adam is sitting right in front of me, on the opposite side of the bonfire engaged in a conversation with Sam and Andy. A small smile neatly drawn across his lips. The small curls of hair doodling his forehead with the fire's light reflecting on his face makes it impossible not to stare at him. Dain is nowhere to be seen, actually haven't interacted much with him since the one moment fight between him and Adam. It deescalated quickly honestly all it needed was Naomi jumping in the middle and telling both of them to stop being childish. Kind of hit them right on the spot and I'm glad it did. It's crazy how Adam's eyes went from a beast to holding the stars in the same day. I guess him and Dain just hate each other, or Sam has told him something to piss him off from Dain. Either ways I need to have a proper talk with Dain, but I still can't get myself to do it. Imagine dating someone for a year and then they suddenly show up saying they're in love with someone else. I hate myself for doing this to him. But the way my heart beats for Adam is like it's meant to only beat for him, it's his own rhythm that can never go in tune with someone else.

"Where have you been?" Maya asks me as she takes a sip of her strawberry smoothie. The smoothie bar here is by far the best one I've ever gone to throughout my nineteen years of living.

Twenty in a month.

"Nothing," I sigh, hands wet from the banana smoothie I've been holding for a while without even taking a sip out of it "Just my mind is kind of a bit messy."

"Coming here didn't help?" Quite the opposite, didn't know that coming here was going to make me lose my heart once more. I give her a small smile as I shrug "It just made me want to reconsider a lot of stuff."

"Like your super awesome choice of majors?" She sarcastically asks "Or the super stylish way you wear your hair?" I narrow my eyes as I playfully punch her shoulder "My hair looks great."

"Yeah not when it's straightened." Good point. She shakes her head as she turns to stare at the blazing fire before us. Something isn't sitting right with her, or Naomi. I know my sisters from one look at their faces. But Naomi is busy with Olivia so I turn to Maya "You're not doing well."

She looks at me in confusion as if I've dug her right out of her brain. I tilt my head in wait for a response as she sighs "Stuff happened in school and at home, I kind of hate being fifteen." She squeezes her eyes shut before opening them once more "You know, Eden asked Lily out." My heart drops as her head does. The tears forming in her eyes are glittering as the night sky blanketing us. I jump off my seat and on the ground before her "I'm so sorry." I tell her as I rub her knee "I know you liked him so much and-"

"Ashley, it's okay." She interrupts me as she wipes away a tear with her blue jacket's sleeve "I understand he was just a first crush and I'll find someone better. Trust me I know all of that and I don't wanna hear it again."

"I wasn't going to say that." I give her a faint smile "I was going to say that it was going to hurt, so much, so bad. But only to grow you stronger." I take her hand in mine as I look at her small face "The wounded heart is the sturdiest of them all." She squeezes my hand in hers as she returns my smile "So I'm going to be like you." I look at her with a thousand of question marks rotating over my head. I was about to open my mouth before Sam jumped of his seat and dashed his way to us "Aegiya!" He yelled as he dropped down beside me "Didn't we agree no more tears over this jerk?"

"I know," She sniffs "It's just I thought at least one day he'll notice me." Sam shakes his head aggressively as he jumps to his knees "I'll ask you a question." He says "If a star fell right beside you, will you be able to look at it?" She shakes her head so he continues "Exactly. You shine hard enough for him to not be able to look at you." I want to drop a comment or make fun of him but I can't. I mean he was right to the point that he gave no one space to annoy him. He rises his hand to wipe away Maya's streaming tears as she tries to force a smile.