Finding Pluto {riarkle} [completed]

Part Twenty One: The Date?

Farkle
I walk down the sidewalk in an attempt to try and imagine that I'm walking with Riley in Central Park.

It used to be easier to imagine. To see Riley's smile. To see our hands intertwined. To hear her laugh at the birds and squirrels, giving them names. Her laugh is my favorite sound in the whole world.

But now it's been over a month since I've seen her. It's harder to remember what Central Park looked like. To remember the feel of Riley's hand in mine. Sometimes it's even hard to remember her smile, her laugh.

Our Skype chats have been getting fewer and fewer. Riley has finals coming up and I've been hanging out with my new friends a lot.

But it's ok. It really is.

Every time we Skype it's like we've never been apart, well, most times. If being in Germany has taught me anything, it's that I never want to be in a long distance relationship.

I walk into my new favorite coffee shop, order a hot chocolate, take a seat and wait.

It's about five minutes before Blake walks in. She's unlike any other girl I've ever met. She's the hot, edgy girl who, if we were back home, would probably never even acknowledge my existence.

She walks over and sits across from me.

"How's Farkle feeling today?" She asks as she sits down.

"He's feeling a bit homesick. I really miss Riley." I say.

"Of course you do, she's your girlfriend." Blake reaches over and puts her hand over mine in a comforting way. "You know what would help take your mind off of her?"

I've begun to sense that Blake has become more and more dismissive of Riley, lately. Which I understand, she's not dating Riley. She doesn't even know Riley.

So instead of being irritated or mopey, I say, "What?"

"A trip to the space museum."

Another thing that amazes me about Blake is that although she comes off as the type of girl that would be a slacker, she's actually really smart and loves learning and going to museums.

I decide not to mention that space is one thing that will always remind me of Riley. Maybe this will be good. Maybe I could learn some facts about Pluto to tell Riley later.

"That sounds amazing!" I say.

"Great!" Blake says. I finish my hot chocolate and then we head to the museum.

We enter the museum which is full of groups of children on field trips, groups of science-y looking people and even some couples on dates.

Blake and I look at a map of the museum. There are so many different exhibits. There's one for the universe in general, then each plant has their own exhibit. There are also exhibits on comets and stars, moons, and satellites and space travel. There's even a planetarium.

Blake and I decide to go to the individual planet exhibits. She grabs my hand and pulls me towards Mercury.

We take our time going through each exhibit, amazed by how much we've learned about the planets.

We go through Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and then we finally get to Pluto.

I realize Blake's hand hasn't left mine the entire time we've been here, and I don't really mind.

We turn the corner to where the Pluto exhibit is supposed to be, but then realize that the room is empty.

There's a sign in the middle of the room that says: "Pluto exhibit has been moved."