I told Greyson the whole story. It started with two best friends. We met in fourth grade when she moved right next door to me. We walked to school together in the morning, hung out at school all day, then came home and played together until it got dark. We instantly hit it off. We were like long-lost sisters. I thought the friendship would never end until eighth grade hit.
Her dad had to move across town. We’d still each other, just not as much as we would if she stayed. She had the choice of staying at the school she was at for the rest of the year, or going to the one by her new house. Alexa was going to decide to stay, but she met a guy at the other school and left, just like that. We still talked but I could tell it was only because she didn’t want to be mean and not reply to my texts. Then, one day, she stopped texting me altogether. I tried every day to text her, but got no reply. Long story short, she began bullying me. Telling me I was worthless, saying that nobody cared about me. It got to my head, and life became ten times worse. I put on a fake smile during the day, and for the longest time, nobody knew what was happening. It got worse though. Her friends at my school started teasing me. The only friend that lasted was Maize. She was the first person to find out about it. My own parents didn’t even know something was wrong until the school counselor went to them and told them.
I took almost twenty minutes to tell Greyson this in between sobs. “You’re the one who I’ve told that to besides Maize.”
He just looked at me with wide, hurt eyes. I waited for him to say something, but he didn’t. “Greyson, are you okay?”
“You know you have Alli, Cody and I as friends, right?”
I nodded. “I know that now, but when it started, I didn’t.”
“I’m so sorry you had to go through that. No one your age should have to know how that feels.”
I shrugged. “You can’t change what’s already happened.”
“You’re strong, Anna.”
I laughed. “You know, for only meeting you today, I feel strangely close to you.”
He smiled. “I know. It’s weird, right?”
I nodded. “I’m too awake to go to sleep right now. What time is it?”
Greyson took out his phone and looked at the time. “It’s two thirty, which means the fireworks, from a club downtown are about to start. You want to go watch them? They’re really cool.”
I hesitated. “Will your mom be okay with it?”
He nodded. “She knows I go out when I can’t sleep. I just can’t go any further than my backyard.”
I smiled. “Okay, that would be cool. Let’s go.” I was careful not to step on anybody. I looked down and noticed something. “Greyson!” I whispered.
He looked at me and looked to where my hand was pointing. There was only one body on the floor. It was Alli. Cody and Maize were missing. Greyson smiled and held out his hand. I grabbed it, stepping over Alli. He led me to the back door and opened it. Sure enough, Maize and Cody were out there, cuddled up on the grass looking at the stars, laughing. I smiled. Maize loved watching the stars. She always screamed when she saw a shooting star. It was her dream to go to the darkest place on earth and see how many shooting stars she could find. She was thinking maybe somewhere in Antarctica because it was so cold, which, to her, meant the sun was really far away at night and there’d be millions of visible shooting stars. Greyson led me over to a small hill where some chairs were set up. There were two of them. We sat down and looked out toward the city. There were lights everywhere. All of the sudden we heard a voice behind us. Maize had walked over with Cody on her heels to see what we were doing.
“What are you guys doing?” she whispered. I could still hear the giggle in her voice.
“We couldn’t sleep,” I replied. “Greyson said there would be fireworks, so we came out to watch them. What are you guys doing? You looked pretty comfortable over there.” Even in the darkness of the night, I could see Maize’s face go bright red.
“We uh couldn’t sleep either.” Cody answered.
I nodded. “Cool, well go back to looking at stars now.”
“Anna, you just want to be alone with Greyson.” I looked down and bit my lip. She nodded her head like she won. “Yeah, two can play at this game.” She brushed her hand across my arm to show she was just playing.
Greyson looked at me and smiled. “You want to be alone with me?” I could hear the smile in his voice.
I sighed and avoided eye contact. “Well, I can trust you, ya know?”
He nodded. “Anna, you’re beautiful, you know that?”
I could feel my face turn the color of a ripe tomato. “Um, thanks” I heard a pop and looked up. The fireworks had just started and sky lit up in hundreds of different colors. I gasped and Greyson looked at me, smiling. “It’s so pretty. I mean I’ve seen fireworks before, but not like this.”
“I know. I love them.” We ended up falling asleep out in the backyard. It was almost eleven when I woke up the next morning. I suddenly remembered what Maria had said. “Crap! Greyson get up! I’ve got to get home.” I got up out of the chair as Greyson slowly woke up. I ran across the yard into the house and grabbed all of my things. “Morning.” I turned around to see Maize standing in the doorway of the room everyone was supposed to sleep in.
“We’ve got to leave. I’m sorry to rush you. I woke up late.”
She shrugged. “I’ve been up for awhile. How are we getting to your house?”
“Good question. I’ll call my driver.”
Just then Greyson walked in and said, “No you’re not. I’ll give you a ride.”
“What if Cody and Alli come too?” I suggested.
“It’s your choice.” Maize said.
I shrugged. “Why not? My mom won’t care.”
Maize smiled and walked out of the room to go tell Cody the news. In fifteen minutes we were all piling into the car to drive to my house.
Sorry I haven’t posted in awhile! I’ve been super busy. I’ll try to post later this week if I can, hope you like it! :)
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