Strangers in the Night ▸ Javi Rivera

1

Sitting on the front porch of her family home, Luna smiled as she watched the sun set over the valley and the fields surrounding the area, arching down and dipping behind the horizon slowly and peacefully as another day drew to its close. She'd been watching it happen for years now, every sunrise and every sunset reminding her of pushing on another day and living through it.

"And off to sleep she goes." The voice echoing from the other end of the phone call she was simultaneously on, brought Luna out of her thoughts and made her laugh. Her brother repeated the words every night, his decision that the sun was a woman made nearly a decade ago, and he hadn't let go of it since.

"Glad you could catch this one, Boonie." She said into the speaker, shifting around on the porch swing as she pulled a blanket over her legs, already feeling the chill of the breeze now that the ball of light was no longer spreading heat around her.

"Ay, I should start getting' better at catchin' all of 'em." Boone grumbled out into the phone. With being on the road and so busy, very often Luna watched the sunsets on her own, even though the tradition had started between the two of them together. "Sunsets, I mean. Ain't no way I'm waking at the crack ass of dawn to watch them sunrises anymore." His words had her bursting out laughing again.

"Don't worry about it, I know how much you love bein' out there." Luna reassured him, and she did know. It was why she rarely asked him if he'd ever be able to watch with her when they were in different places, him chasing storms out there all throughout the south while she sat on the porch in Arkansas.

Hearing a slight commotion on the other end of the line had Luna growing quiet as she smiled once the familiar voice became more prominent. "That Lu?" She heard Tyler ask, assuming he'd come out to join Boone at the sunset who was quick to confirm the man's suspicion. "Hey Luna!" Tyler called out, his voice growing louder as Boone must've brought the phone closer to him. "Boone ask the question yet?"

"Howdy, Ty!" She called back out to him, shaking her head in amusement at his question. "And no, he hasn't. But thanks for remindin' him." She quipped at him, not that she was really mad at him for reminding Boone of the question he asked her every single time they talked. Even if it was multiple times a day, he'd always ask it. So, she knew it was inevitable this time around too, with or without Tyler bringing it up.

"But I am gonna now!" Boone yelled back at her, Luna hearing a small struggle and just imagining as he and Tyler fought over who got the phone for a few moments before her twin ultimately won out. "When you comin' with us, Lu?" He dropped the question without hesitation once the phone was in his hand.

"I don't know Boone, you know I got a job-" She started to use the usual excuses.

"Which you've been thinkin' of quitting for, what, a year now?" Boone interrupted her with a shutdown. "I don't need to hear ya complaining about it as much as I know ya wanna to know you hate it there."

"There's also ma and da." Luna added on.

"They survived me makin' chasin' my life, they'll survive you doin' it too." Boone hit back again.

"Boone-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. It ain't the same." Boone grumbled out, and she didn't have to see his face to know the sad look which was coming over it as he spoke. "Harder to let go of the favorite child than the one who's been a lost cause for ages."

"Hey!" Luna exclaimed, hating hearing him talk like that. "You ain't a lost cause and don't you dare say shit like that, okay?"

"Yeah..." Boone's voice trailed off, making Luna sigh as she kicked herself for stepping in it again. She kept doing it, always feeling like she was choosing one over the other, her parents over her brother. And she owed them all equally as much. But with such different views, it was hard to make it up to everyone. "Listen, there some repairs waitin' for us and I gotta help. We'll talk tomorrow." Boone said after a silence stretched on between them for a few moments.