What happens when you're just a story written under the moonlit sky? What happens when the only boy you love becomes a faded memory of just someone you used to know? What happens when you can't get your heart back, but that boy left you tattered and...
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By the time summer had rolled around Zachariah and I had spent countless nights sharing my room. Not much was ever said, but I would clean his busted lip or get him ice for his swollen eyes. There was a silent acknowledgement that what I saw wouldn't leave the dark tincture of my bedroom.
We didn't talk much outside of those four walls. He was a sophomore in high school, and I was only in eighth grade. But by summer, he was seventeen and heading into his junior year. And I was finally a freshman. I watched from my window as he came and went the first few weeks of summer. Sometimes there would be a girl perched on the back of his Harley. Sometimes his friends came over. But in those first few weeks of summer break, he never bothered me. Didn't even look at me when he pulled into his drive.
"Why do you keep looking out there? Who are you looking at?" My friend Mia had asked me. She was painting her nails a bright pink on top of my bed. We had plans to go swimming at the creek down the road from my house.
Looking over my shoulder at her, I gave one last glance out my window before responding. "Nothing." I whispered. I wasn't sure if Zachariah and I were even friends, and I wasn't about to go off on a rampage about our late nights lying in my room.
No. I would just wait until the next time he needed me when no one else was around. I didn't mind being his secret, because in the dark of night he was my secret as well.
I decided to change the subject. "Are you about ready to go swimming?" I pulled out my blue two-piece bikini that had white polka dots on it. It was new. I liked the blue because it reminded me of his eyes.
Mia sat up and smiled over at me. "Let me change really quick. I think these are dry."
We made our way out of my house. Mia's brother John was driving us to the creek. When got to my front porch, John was in their driveway across the street talking to Zachariah. My heart stuttered in my chest. I wasn't sure how to respond to him in the light of day. It was the night after all that held our ghosts.
I knew he felt me as we made our way across the road towards Johns beat up white chevy truck. As soon as we came up behind them, they both turned to look at us. "Woah Mia, put some clothes on!" John told Mia. He wasn't very overbearing of her, but he didn't want any guys looking at her either.
"Shut up Johnathan." She sneered back at him, as I lightly chuckled at their banter.
I was looking down at my white painted toes that were peeking out of my flipflops, when I heard him clear his throat. When I looked up Zachariah was looking at me in a way I had never been looked at before. I became very aware of what I was wearing and began to wonder if he was going to tell me I didn't need to wear it, as John did to Mia.
Pushing my black hair behind my ears, I finally gained the confidence to just say hi to him. "Hi..." I started but was then cut off.
A leggy blonde with bright red lips, and a matching red bikini came walking up the drive and threw her arms around Zachariah's shoulders. "He baby! Are you ready to go swimming? The girls can't wait to work on our tans."
