Meet Me Past the Stars

Chapter 2

"I guess you can hold my dirt until we split ways." I try to be polite. I mean, he did ask, and it is pretty heavy.

The night air was warm, and light. Although there were a few street lights on, the moonlight was bright enough to dress the streets up so we could see.

"I- I promise I'm not stalking you. I just live over yonder, and the main roads are safer." He points to some section closer to the woods no one is supped to enter.

That part of the woods is supposed to have some giant living there. Supposedly, there are a bunch of Giants that eat people and animals, which is why a lot of town people stayed away from that area. I never heard of other townspeople even living remotely near it, but then again, he's probably a city folk so he just didn't know.

There are cheaper houses to rent over there due to how dangerous the Woods are over there but most people don't really take the offer.

"Well, pointing towards the banned Woods section certainly doesn't make your point better." I snide as I see that he tried to catch up to my pace.

He huffed but was trying to hide a smile, as I try to walk even faster.

"My name- my name's James." He catches up and smiles. "You know, I have never seen someone hold a bag of dirt and walk home. Are you a big gardener or something?" He carries the dirt over his shoulder, not caring if a little bit slips onto his own suit.

I'm not sure why, but this feeling of someone watching me faded away. I'm still not going to give him my name though. He's literally a total stranger.

"Just FYI, you should be careful. The Woods near your place are pretty dangerous. If you go missing, and they can't find anything, people are just gonna say that you've been eaten by Giants," I peer into his eyes and he looked back at mine. I could have sworn for a moment that he looked at me with a stone-cold face, but it quickly morphed into a small smile.

"There's no need to worry about all of that." He says, looking into the sky.

"...This is for my mom's store. She needs it for something." I kicked a small pebble out of the way. "I live down this street, so you can hand it back-"

The walk wasn't as long as it was in the morning, and we were already heading down the street. The street split into two pathways, and of course, I wasn't going to show this random handsome guy where I live.

He moved the dirt off of his shoulders and realized that half the dirt was actually on the ground. Like, he left a trail of dirt from the open side for a good distance.

We both stood at each other, in shock. I can't believe my mom's going to kill me.

"Don't worry, I can just give you money for the dirt." He scrounged around his pocket for possibly his wallet as he holds his other hand on his stomach.

His face began to contort in a gross way like he was using a portapotty for the first time at a busy fair.

"I'm sorry to leave like this, but I must return home. I didn't realize it was this late." He looked at the sky and then back at his watch. He tossed both the almost empty bag of dirt and some cash at me before waving goodbye with his free hand and quickly walking to the other pathway.

He turned around while walking that pathway, "It was truly nice to meet you." He turned right back and continued his pace.

I almost looked dumbfounded, the only thing that snapped me back to reality was the fact that he gave me cash. It was almost double the amount I had for groceries in general.

I opened the door to the house, where my mom was sleeping on the couch. She had 'What's the Tea on the Sea' on the radio, a radio show about the drama going around the town. Sometimes if her girlfriends are over, she has something to gossip about with them.