Talents On the Run

The Heart

Sure, I had been to New York before but it never seemed so beautiful. Star had been so jealous when I went one summer. She begged her parents on end if she could go with my family and me. In the end, Star and her family went to Japan. She liked it there well enough but she still wished she could go to New York. The Bengel’s refused to go to the upper East Coast. We lived in Georgia but we were south of Savannah and closer to Florida. The beach was ours. Seeley was a private town, a small one with an even more private beach. No liter. No beach bums. The sun and waves only; it was Paradise. And then we arrived in New York and Star made everything even more beautiful, fun, and vibrant. Her eyes brimmed over with passion.

“Sorry, girls. We have to get back with the group.” Said Star as she pushed me away from the group of girls that pulled me over when I stepped out of the taxi. Well, it’s not like it didn’t happen to me a lot. First they saw my ‘amazing blue eyes’ and then they saw my guitar case. ‘Ohmigosh he’s so hot’ I hear from the sides of me. But I can hear them just as well as they can see me. So I know what they’re trying to do from the moment their clammy hands wrap around my forearm to the moment when Star rescues me. Lately I haven’t been too interested in the few dumb blondes (no not the intelligent ones) that try to ‘flirt it up’ with me as Star would say. I mean, if you’re going for a girl you don’t want her to be as annoying and dumb as freak.

Only players do that. I was not a player.

The first thing I saw when we rounded the crammed city blocks was a medium sized building, for New York, lined with clear and sliver panes of mirror like objects. The high rise building across the street from it reflected against the surface as did the sun.

The ‘specials’ waved from across the street in front of the doors. Star and I looked both ways before quickly sprinting or jay walking across the street when the close was clear, her hand now in mine. I struggled to keep my guitar case strap on my shoulder with one hand while it was shaking up and down with the pace of my running. A few cars honked as we got by, but we made it to the other side just in time for the light to change to green and the on-coming traffic to come our way.

“Kenya?” said a heavy breathing person from behind Star and I. Well I knew that wasn’t my name. Actually, it was-

“Daren? Daren Maldonado?” Star shrieked. She instantly let my hand fall from her grasp when she skipped and ran over to the mystery bystander. His own guitar case released from his grasp, his like a brief case, mine like a backpack, as Star ran up to hug him.

I combed through the archives of my memory to see if I would remember a Daren as I walked over to the two. It felt weird to think of them as ‘the two’, as if they were together. The thought left a bitter taste in my mouth.

There was a Daren. Yeah, it was this Daren. He was Star’s big sibling at school when we first entered high school two years. Since then, he had graduated, fleeting to New York by the looks of it. With his guitar and the bit of a dream, he made it here in the city. Alone.

I made my way over to ‘Daren’ and Star. Star knew I could be over protective at times yet she still choose to do whatever she wanted. Ultimately I was shooed of by Star although the guys she talked to reeked of trouble.

“Hi.” I said as I approached them, about four feet away. Star and Daren both looked up to identify the greeting from my mouth and found me. Daren looked puzzled. Star looked happy.

“One sec. . . . . . You’re that guitar rookie from my Senior Year, right. Bryan’s was your name.” Said Daren in a thoughtful and, what I thought was, an annoying voice. I had already forgotten why I hated the guy but of course that meant we had a clean slate. Hooray. I get to be mister Daren’s friend.

“Actually, it’s Brant. I was not a rookie. I have been playing guitar since I was eight.” I said in reply.

“Impressive,” He said and then turned from me to Star and back, “so your still in the gifted program.” From then on I decided that if what Daren said appeared in a bubble from thin air, there wouldn’t be question marks where there should be. Just periods. 

“Yeah, that’s actually why we’re here. Tell him Brant.” Said Star as she elbowed me in the stomach. By then I could hear our names being yelled.

“Mr. Lovet seems to be calling the two of you over. Here is my number. Call me later.” Daren said pronouncing here, ‘heeear’ as he wrote down a ten digit number on a scrap of paper. He waved good bye and walked away into a crowd of people, jacket high against his neck, guitar case held low. Star looked up at me as my eyes followed him. She didn’t see it, but Daren had looked back.

And when he did he looked at me, right in my eyes, challenging me to something. Actually, someone. Her name was Star.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~

Inside the art gallery, we looked at the modern art mostly for Gale’s purpose. Although she was a photographer, she enjoyed the other paintings as well. Sometimes during out Gifted period, she would present a paint piece instead of a photograph that she had taken sometimes during that week. I personally thought that she would be great in both of them and we all rooted her on every week. I guess it was easier for her with her talent but I had to learn a different guitar piece every week on top of my job at the local book store, football, and my little sister who I constantly had to babysit. Star and Sherri helped me out a lot. It was a good thing we could perform together or I would have permanent workaholic syndrome.

“Look.” Craig said pointing to a large mural. He was on the football team with me. Although at first the others thought it was really lame that he was an actor, they soon accepted it. Our coach even made us see every production that he stared in.

The mural took up the largest wall in the exhibit we were in then. The colors were so light, like cotton candy and marshmallows but at the same time, harsh like moldy cheese or rotten bananas. All the colors of a one hundred twenty pack of crayons were splayed out for the observers to see. The shape was massive, in red, pink, yellow, and orange. The background displayed light blues and purples as well as greens brighter then grass after eight days of rain.

It was a heart. To put a label on what it reminded me of: My Heart. Because there was a little crack at the very top, the seams of all that was right in my life about to break lose. It was incredibly breath taking that I had realized it then and there.

My heart was beginning to break bit by bit without my Star.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Dedication to ReadMeToSleep because she's a super fly girl :) Thanks everyone reading!