The Stars, The Moon, And You

Sidewalk Chalk

A girl stood at my front door. She was a bit taller than me, thin, and had short blonde hair. I could swear she was my age but she was dressed like a child with overalls, a bright red t-shirt and... was she even wearing shoes?

"Hi!" She said "I'm Lee. My mom and I just moved in over there" She motioned to a house across the street that had been empty for over a year. I thought it was abandoned.

"I'm Susan." I said, because there really was nothing else to say.

Lee had a plate in her hands, covered in cling film, that she now held out to me and I could see they were cookies. All of them shaped like little cows. "I made these for you." she said, smiling." Because we're mooving in."

I let out a giggle. For some reason I loved this kind of humor. I took the plate. "Very amoosing." I said. Deciding to joke back.

Lee laughed and her eyes brightened as she looked me over. "I love your hair." She said, pointing at my messy hair I had been dying purple for over a year now.

"Thanks."

It was a weird exchange. Slightly awkward, but for some reason I was okay with that.

When she walked away I closed the door and set the cookies on the counter in my kitchen. To be honest, they were pretty damn good.

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The next night I woke up hearing The Beatles through my open window. I was confused for a minute and then remembered Lee. She must be a Beatles fan. Good taste. I rolled over and fell back asleep.

The next day I stood by the window in my kitchen, a cup of coffee in my hand. A purple crescent moon was chalked on the driveway. My parents had already gone to work and I stood for a second looking at it. How had that gotten there? Was it some sort of joke? It didn't make sense to me but it was just chalk, it would wash away in a couple of days. I logged onto my laptop and promptly forgot about it. Drowning my day in tumblr.

The same thing happened the next day. I stood at the window, tired and a little grumpy, having been kept up by the Rubber Soul album being replayed again and again,( I was going to have to walk over and ask Lee to stop playing her music so loud.) This time a yellow star had been drawn on the driveway next to the moon. What was this? Was someone trying to learn astronomy on my driveway? In the middle of the night? What the hell.

My curiosity was killing me. I was determined to solve this mystery. That night sat in my room prepared to stay up until dawn to catch who was doing this and more importantly ask what their problem was. I looked out my window, watching, and waiting. It had rained earlier which had washed away the last two images and after awhile I started to think that that was it.
Someone had just come two nights in a row to randomly draw a star and a moon just to get on my nerves and now they were done, but around 1am I saw someone moving in my driveway. I walked outside and immediately heard "Love Me Do." playing. No wonder it was so loud. It was right in my driveway.

Next to the radio it was playing from, was none other than Lee.

I walked down the driveway and sat down. She didn't notice me, she was drawing another moon, but this time she also drew the star inside of it. Finally She noticed me and her bright brown eyes stared at me. Into me?

"What are you doing?" I asked. My voice was scratchy and raw from being tired.

A minute of silence passed where she just started at me. It was painfully awkward standing there as she scanned me like she knew every fold and ripple in my soul.

"What's wrong with you?" I said waving my hand in front of her face.

Lee suddenly shook her head slowly. Taking her brown eyes off of me. "I'm sorry." She said "It was a dumb idea."

She got up and started collecting her rainbow of chalk. She looked hurt, and for some reason that hurt me. A lot.

A harmonica interlude started. In the music. "No." I said. "I just." Pause. "I don't know" Pause. "I don't understand." I sat down on the hard pavement.

Lee sat back down The song was starting to end. "When I met you you reminded me of the moon." She said, obviously nervous. Wringing her hands and ghost strumming... a ukulele?

"What?"

Lee pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them. "I don't know what I was doing" She said, it just felt... right."

Hey Jude started to play. "What about the star?" I asked

"Stars have always been my symbol." Lee laughed a sad, dry laugh, that was painful just to hear "It's. so. dumb."

For some reason. Some dumb reason, I felt like I needed to defend her... from herself? "No." I said. "It's... not." I began to trace the moon with my finger.

Again, she looked up at me and I was amazed by how bright her eyes were. They were like lights in the middle of the night. "I felt..." she trailed off, tracing the other side of the moon.
I scooted closer to her. I don't know why, she was a magnet. I was drawn to her the way a bird is drawn to it's nest. "What?" I meant to say but it came out as a whisper.

It was just like the conversation we had a couple days ago. Painfully awkward but also painfully beautiful, and all I wanted to do was talk to her forever.

"I felt like they should be together." Lee barely whispered. I saw the glint of a tear running down her cheek. "I'm so sorry. I'm so dumb. I'll leave you alone. I'm just... terrible." A sob.

The thing was. She had said exactly what I had been confused about. I barely knew her. I could already tell we were both incredibly different, but for some reason... It felt right sitting with her on the cement, under the stars with Paul McCartney singing in the background.

Lee started to get up, wiping tears from her eyes, but I grabbed her hand. I don't know what I was doing but it just felt right.

I kissed her.