Selenophobia

Chapter 3

   I walk out of the apartment door and walk down the stairs with Ocean behind me. We walk out to our bus stop and wait. I pull out my phone and tried to do something that would make me forget the fact that my friend spontaneously sprouted wings. Because that's entirely normal. As if anything that involved me was normal in the first place. Strange has always been more of my strong suit anyway.

   I get on the bus and watch blank-faced as the houses go by, each with their own individual past, present, and future. Someone in one those houses could be in a really bad place or being happy with their ignorance of the world around them. Makes me think about how they would have reacted at being in my current situation. The school nears and I sigh. The problem with school is that they bother you about stupid shit, Cat Whiskers on your face, hats, make up, yet they don't bother the sluts who have cleavage down to right above their nipples and shirts that show their skinny stomach that they starve themselves to get.I think it would be kinda funny if they bothered Andy for his wings, if any.  

   The school day zooms by and every class I have with Andy he seems so tense, and he looks at me with such fear. He was pretty brave coming to school if he has random back wing boners. At lunch he doesn't talk to me or our friends, didn't even touch his food which is odd because he hates skipping meals. Reyna, a pretty chill friend of ours, looked over at him. Then at me, her eyes showing a lot of concern. I shrug to pretend I didn't know whats up.  Reyna bites her lip and looks away before being whisked away into the meme-filled conversation at the lunch table. As per usual.

   After school finally came and Ocean and I walk back into the apartment. I drop my backpack on the sofa and call Andy. My phone rings for a good minute before he picks up. His voice hesitant still.  

 "Hey Luna, do you think we could meet at the mounds behind my house in  . . . an hour or something like that? I don't know where else we'd be out of sight." Andy said. It was still odd hearing him like that. Quiet and reserved, I don't like him like this. It kinda felt like he wasn't himself anymore and I can see why.

   Andy's house has a lot of land, he needs that much because his family has horses. Around the back edge of their property they have some dirt piles left behind by some abandon construction site that were left tall enough to hide someone. Or their wings.

   "Okay I'll leave now, see you then." I say quickly, Ocean glares at me.

   "And where do you think you're going? Mom hates it when you leave without notice and you know that." She says stepping in front of me as I head towards the door. 

   "Ocean, I'll be back soon. This is just really important. I promise to be back before Mom gets home. you won't get in trouble for not stopping me." I say reassuring her because that probably all she was worrying about. Getting in trouble, such a big deal. Mom doesn't do anything to punish us anyway. Without further wait I grab my bag and run out the door. I get on my bike and make my way over to Andy's house. 

   The ride seemed quite long, most likely because I was in a rush to get there. Houses became less frequent and farther apart and trees and fields began taking their place. My legs were getting slow and tired, the ride just now taking its toll. I get off my bike and walk it for a bit. I gave myself a proud smile after his house became visible. I decided to hop back on my bike for the final stretch. I swerve the long and tiresome drive-way. I see him on his porch with two of his horses tackled up to go to the back of the property. Horatio and Pompeii stand idly by as they also wait for me. They are the horses we usually take out. Horatio is an older bay gelding and Pompeii was a feisty dun, I usually ride Pompeii. 

   Andy looks up and sees me as I slide off my bike. He stands and bites his lip awkwardly.With nothing need to be said, I put my bike away and mount Pompeii. Andy gets on Horatio and we ride off gently onto a trail through the backwoods. Andy and his parents spent quite a lot of time on the ranch and the back trails behind it. Deep down I think the work Andy puts into it helps him gain confidence in himself. Where was that confidence now? He sat slumped over in the saddle almost and made Horatio's gate off balance. The calming smell of the forest helped me ignore the fact that I was probably about to see something amazingly explainable by any of that bullshit they teach you in science class.

   The dirt mounds come into view an we both dismount, briefly tying the geldings to a fence post far enough away so they don't get spooked. We walk away and make sure we are completely out of sight before even looking at each other. 

   "I don't know how to . . . activate? the wings so um" He pauses. "I fell from something so would I?" I think he's thinking out loud because he is trailing off quite a bit. Andy hops up and around a tree. I step back, hes going to jump out a tree. 

   "Andy don't be an idiot, you are not jumping out of a tree to prove a point. You're gonna break your goddamn foot" I say hoping to knock some sense into him. He scowls in a response, and continues to climb up onto a thick branch.

   "I called you over to be supportive not skeptical and salty" Andy growls after settling onto a branch.  He reaches above him to grab the thin branch above to swing off of it, before he puts pressure on the weak tree limb he smiles sarcastically. "Even if I do break something, I didn't jump. I swung."

   "You're too cheeky for your own good" I say and then stop smiling with him as we both realized we were stalling. Neither of us want to have to do anything with it except, I'm probably the only one he trusts with this. Andy grips harder and swings back and forth before hurling himself far from the tree. There was a bright light from his back and I watched him grimace and brace for pain. Angelic white wings sprout and unfurl and flap instinctively. Andy no longer was heading towards the ground but now, he flew. He landed roughly and stumbled. Baffled? We both were.Confused? Of course. Scared? Oh Hell yeah, you'd be the same way.