Beautifully Broken

ONE

~ARDEN~

You know when you were a kid and would make up all these random stories and explanations for what the stars were? Like how they were portals to different lands, second star to the right and straight on till morning. Or maybe they were all fairies, each one waiting for you to wish upon them. Or, in my case, they were friends to a lonely little girl. They listened quietly, and they never told me that I was silly, or to be quiet, and they were always there...until the sun came up of course. Those were the days when things were simple.

Back then I didn't care that the only friends I had were balls of gas and space dust. I didn't know about becoming an adult and caring about what people thought. And I didn't realise that when someone died, it meant they weren't coming back. But sadly, I had to grow up. The stars turned into something we learnt in science, and now wondering what people thought of me was on my mind eighty percent of the day. 

And my best friend died, and he didn't come back.

I signed, rubbing the back of my hand over my eyes, and wondered how my thoughts had turned so gloomy. I didn't normally like to think about stuff like this, stars and growing up and death, and what any of them had to do with each other, but I guess when one is driving home at night after a long day, gloomy thoughts tend to tread close by. A small red light blinking in the corner of my vision snapped me out of my thoughts, and then the only thing I could think of were at least a dozen unprintable words.

"Shit." I whispered, my eyes flashing from the road to the empty gas light on my dash, and back again. I honestly don't know how I could have forgotten to fill up on gas before leaving my Grans house, which was two towns over from Andovers Cove, the town in which I'd grown up in. As my car shuddered to a stop by the side of the rode on a patch of dirt and gavel, I slammed my hands against the steering wheel. It was 8.30 on a Saturday night, and my car had decided to break down just outside on town, where the only things around for miles were trees, cows and the occasional farm house. Just fantastic. 

I sat back in my seat, hands still griping the steering wheel, and tried to resist the urge to scream until steam was coming out of my ears, because as well as my car being a petrol hog, my luck had to go the extra shitty mile and make sure that my phone was dead, which meant no pick up calls. Which also meant that I'd have to walk the 10 miles home in the dark and probably get eaten by some rabid animal or molested by some creeping tom. 

Sighing again, I reached over the console and shoved my stuff into my bag, before grabbing my keys and throwing my door open. Just as I'd gotten out and made sure every door was locked, bright head lights rounded the corner, and for a moment the terrifying thought of being run over crossed my mind. But that was stupid, since I was still with my car in the ditch and not on the road. I considered that maybe my luck wasn't so shitty after all when the car pulled off the road in front of my car. It was hard to tell in the dark, but I was pretty sure it was a black Jeep. 

The Driver's side door open, and someone stepped out, and moved around the car towards me slowly. Like a sudden tidal wave, fear gripped me, and for the first time I thought that maybe thinking that some random pulling over was lucky, was the stupidest thing I'd ever thought. As if sensing my sudden tension, the person stopped a few feet away from me, and pulled something from their back pocket. A second later a phone's flash light was turned on and angled towards the road, throwing enough light over the both of us for each of us to see the other. 

I was a little surprised the find the owner of the Jeep was a guy around my age. He was tall, standing at least a head taller than me, and his dark messy dark hair fell over his forehead, like he ran his hands through it quite a lot. He lacked the usual adolescent chubbiness around his cheeks and jaw, which made me think that he was older then just a teenager like I'd originally thought. But with the skinny jeans, black Tee and converse combo it was hard to tell.