The Broken Crystal

Chapter Eighteen

Ding dong!

The sun awoke along with the bell, but its heat was nothing compared to the one inside Dean's and Crystal's tent. Their hands had been glued together for so long they'd turned into an unmoving sculpture. Their gazes smiled at each other, creating a mosaic of a pale, pale sky above freshly grown grass. And then there were the kisses. Three kisses.

Unfortunately, they couldn't have more, not since Ricky had marched into their tent and they had all sat down by the river, ready to eat.

"Someone's got themselves a girlfriend," Ricky chanted between mouthfuls of berries, which made his words sound rather like: "Smone ot esels a irlfend."

With her free hand, Jane adjusted her far-too-big, far-too-round glasses to rest on the bridge of her nose. And as she did, her tightly-pressed lips sent two daggers in her brother's direction. "Stop it, Ricky. You're embarrassing him," she said, sounding any age above her own fifteen.

Dean only smiled. "Man, I remember your first girlfriend."

"Penelope," Charlotte said. "Gosh, that girl had some serious hair issues, let me tell you that." As she combed her own purple bob, her eyes darted to the mess that was Ricky's curls. Brown and big and untamed and everything his sister's strawberry strands weren't. "Even your hair, Ricky, isn't worse than her's was!"

Ricky's eyes narrowed when his laughter came out ragged. Betrayed by my own vocals. Awesome! Even the sun worked at his disadvantage, lighting his already flushed cheeks on fire. "Well," he said after clearing his throat. "Now I'm single like a pringle, which is... not so awesome after all." A pause. "Anyway, let's let past be past okay? 'Cause it is in the past."

Jane took a sip of her water. "No shit, Sherlock."

"Guys, guys, do you remember..."

Crystal cast a glance at Dean as he began to speak, his hands thrown in the air in an almost child-like excitement. It was a quick glance, a harmless one. At him and the water dripping down the mountain, soundly bouncing from stone to stone, before falling in the form of clear, flawless tears as it cried into his hair, like she sometimes had. But then came a longer one, a whole look. And then one that quickly transformed into a full on staring contest between Crystal and the dimple in Dean's cheek. She lost when she closed her eyes. Angel won when the girl opened her mind again.

Crystal's hands went to her head, but stopped in mid-movement. Crystal's lips parted to speak, but realized there was no use when all of her friends had been transferred to a land of Jokes, Laughter and Remember When's.

So, without looking back, she stood up, and walked across the river as she made her way towards Evanna's cave. Towards the sun in a hope that, if she just stared at it long and hard enough, she would become one with the shiny ball and disappear forever.

♢♢♢

The cross was lying on the ground.

Nate looked at it, blinking, endlessly blinking, his vision out of focus, his eyes nothing but two glass windows, broken by the lack of sleep. It wasn't whole anymore, the storm must've gone too far. It had taken him away.

His fingers shook as he crouched down to retrieve the bits, trying desperately to fit them together. Their puzzle pieces had broken off, no longer complete with just each other. The jagged tree stabbed his tightly closed fists, almost drawing blood.

He heard a sound and immediately his heart quickened. Please, god no, not you. He was so sure it was her, but when he heard the paws and not the footsteps, he thought different.