“How do you feel? Right now.”
Picking a piece of grass out of my hair, I continue staring up at the night sky and then fold my hands on my stomach. “Right now?”
“Yes,” Natalie replies, turning her head to the side to me lying next to her. Even now, she wears a smile; but it’s a small smile that doesn’t show any of her teeth, not her usual wide face-splitting grin. “Right now.”
“Hmm,” I say as I turn my head back to the sky. There aren’t many stars out since we’re just in a small park in a city, but there’s definitely way more than I could count. “Happy. You?”
Her smile grows the tiniest bit bigger. “Same.” Then we both return to star-gazing for a bit before Natalie speaks up again. “Laurie.”
“Yeah?”
“What do you live for?” I turn my head to look at her, but she’s looking straight ahead at the stars.
“Music,” I murmur softly, not wanting to disrupt the cozy, lethargic atmosphere that surrounds us. “That feeling that you get when you're lying in your bed at night listening to that one song and you feel it... it’s amazing. There’s nothing like it. I guess that’s what you live for, huh? The amazing things.” I take a deep breath of the crisp night air. “What about you? What do you live for?”
I watch her brown eyes flutter as she blinks and her pale pink lips move as she says, “Little things.” She pauses for a second. “Like the smell of rain, or peeling glue off your fingers after it’s dried…”
“Ripping off the ends of price tags,” I added to her list.
Smiling, she interjects, “Surprise ice cream.”
I laugh and shake my head. “Yeah, that’s the best.” She laughs along with me and eventually we both drift into a contented silence.
“You know what?” I ask, turning towards Natalie. She takes one look at the excited gleam in my eyes and a smile immediately works its way onto her face.
“What?” She replies curiously.
“Let’s go get some.” I suggest.
“Excuse me?” One of her light brown eyebrows were arched in a disbelieving manner.
Reddening at what she thought I’d said, I hastily stammered, “I-ice cream! Surprise ice cream I meant…” Mortified, I averted my gaze to my shoes. We were both sitting upright by this point.
Natalie giggled before lightly punching me in the arm. “It’s so fun to tease you, Laurie. You get all red!”
“Hah… Hah… That happens…” I’ve suddenly taken an intense interest in the well-being of my shoes. “Well,” I started, changing the subject. “Let’s go, I know a place.”
“W-will that be a-all?” The cashier sobbed, her watery blue eyes red and puffy.
“Uh…” Okay, a crying girl. How to act, how to act… Oh! Napkins! “Here,” I hastily shoved them at her.
“T-thank you,” she wailed into her tissue, blowing her nose. I subconsciously recoiled a bit. Germs were not my friend. “So, just t-two mint-chip c-cones?”
YOU ARE READING
The Adventures of a Scrawny Musician and a Compulsive Liar
Teen FictionThere's not much that's special about Laurence. His grades are average, his athletic skills are average, his social skills are nonexistent, and his muscles? Psh, don't even start. However, he does have one talent: music. Scrawny ol' Laurence can pla...
