stars & moons - jean kirstein

part 12

Jean

I'd seen her before. 

There's no way I could forget her. 

Back when we were in Marley, the last day that all of us felt real happiness, eating ice cream and drinking more wine than I could ever have thought possible. 

I saw her. 

I couldn't help but stop in my tracks, immediately feeling a blush creep up my neck to my cheeks. I had played off that it was the sun when Armin asked why they were so red. 

She sat with her left leg crossed over her right on the wooden bench along the water, a book perched in her right hand, her left arm crossed against her chest. Her eyebrows were knit slightly in concentration as she continued to turn the pages.

I felt it in my chest, something that had never come over me before, a feeling I still can't describe, but I knew one thing.

She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen in my life.

Connie had come up to my side, slurping up ice cream that was dripping down his fingers. He wrapped his right arm around me to my dismay, "You look like you've seen God, man. What are you staring at?" He asked me, trying to follow my gaze that had not averted in an embarrassingly long time.

A grunt had left my throat as I shook his arm off, folding my arms across my chest and tearing my eyes away. 

"Is it that babe sitting on the bench over there? Because gawd damn," He continues to eat the cone in his hands, "She's hot." Because of his mouth full of icecream his words came out slightly muffled. My cheek flared up more at his words, which he noticed. 

"You are, I knew it! Sasha, get over here!" He ushered to Sasha who was devouring her third ice cream in the last five minutes. 

"Connie, stop it." I had hissed to him, my eyes swaying back in the the mystery girls direction.  Her eyes were still attached to the book that had moved to her lap. As if by muscle memory, she was pulling a cigarette out of her jacket pocket without taking her eyes off the pages, bringing it up to her pink lips and lighting it. She inhaled slowly and let a cloud of smoke into the air above her, tilting her head back. My knees felt weak. 

"What's going on Connie, I was waiting in line." Sasha had pouted, taking one last bite of her ice cream.

"Nothing is going o-" I had begun to say.

"Jean has a crush!" Connie had said, slightly too loud for my comfort. The blush seemed like it was permanently spread across my face now. 

"Connie, shut up." I jabbed at his side. 

Sasha had squealed, clapping her hands together, "On who?!" She asked, looking around the area for the muse of my interest. 

Connie had not so subtly pointed to the blonde haired girl on the bench, "Over there." He had whisper shouted to Sasha. Luckily there was a crowd of people around them so I wasn't too worried about her hearing them, but with these two it was never guaranteed.

"Jean! She's so pretty!" Sasha had said, "Why don't you buy her an ice cream? I know that if someone bought one of these delicious treats for me, I'd probably marry them on the spot." She licked her lips. 

"That's actually not a bad idea, Jean." Connie wrapped his arm around me again slouching down, "Cmon, you've got game." He said.

I remember thinking that maybe they were right, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea. What did I have to lose? 

I looked to them, both having encouraging looks on their faces with shiny eyes like goddamn puppies, then I looked back at her. 

My heart sunk as I saw the emblem on her jacket.