Talents On the Run

The Smiles

“Star! Wake up. Wake up! Wake the freak up! Daren was freaking murdered last night!” I heard in my about-to-wake up state. My eyes split open immediately, only seeing the blanket that covered my head. Daren was murdered?

I pushed the covers off as fast as possible just to find Brant jumping on my bed, trying to wake me up. It was still Friday. Ten o’clock at night to be exact. Brant looked so frustrated and mad as he continued to jump on my bed. I only looked up at him until he noticed I was awake. He quickly lay down next to me. I took him in, his midnight black hair, turquoise like eyes, tall stature, his gray sweatpants and plain white t-shirt. The others were asleep. How they stayed asleep through Brant’s freak-out I have no clue.

“He died, Star.” Brant whispered, fear all over his face. I just looked at him.

“What do you mean? Daren isn’t dead we just saw him today.” My voice was groggy and I rubbed my eyes over and over again. When I re-opened my eyes, I saw pink and blue dots everywhere and Brant’s big sad eyes. Then it hit me. Why would Brant lie about something so serious? Sure, I knew he never liked him but he just wasn’t one to lie. We never lied to each other. “He was murdered?”

Brant shuck his head ‘yes’.

My eyes filled with tears and I put the covers back over my head. I only saw Daren again after a year and he’s dead. The only thing I could think at that moment was: I must be a bad luck charm. Brant lifted the covers over my head and got under the covers beside me. I only closed my eyes again. “How do you know?” My voice cracked with every word I spoke. My throat closed up and the words that I wanted to hear come out of my mouth never came.

“It was on the news. They found him-” I stopped him and he gave me a ‘right, you must be too sad to hear that’ look and continued on. “The loonies from the insane asylum killed him. Apparently, he was out tonight to buy some drugs and Daren knew something they wanted to know.”

Tears came like a stream. Daren was dead. Daren, apparently, did drugs. Daren knew something that I didn’t.  

Brant pulled me in to give me a hug and I wished he hadn’t. It only made me think about how I was having weird feelings about him. Hopefully he didn’t notice. I prayed that he didn’t.

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

It was so cold. And on top of that it was raining. The sky was gloomier then the day before and the clouds hid the sky, not a single bit of blue or gray showing. Most of the people in the city ignored it because they were probably used to it. Brant’s jock jacket wrapped around my shoulders and stopped my shivering a bit. Rain hadn’t been a part of my plan. But I was somehow smiling.  Brant held his big orange umbrella over my head as well as his as we hurried to the theater. Tonight was the actors’ first performance.

Tomorrow would be the musicians’ first performance.

Brant’s umbrella proved to be the only bit of color in the whole city. My eyes only detected one other color: black, if that even counted as a color. Mr. Lovet walked behind us with Sherri to her delight. Again, she had fought hard among the others who didn’t have umbrellas, James and Rima, to get where she stood. From above me I heard a little gasp and then a snicker. “What’s going on up there?” I said. Brant was a good four inches taller than me and while sometimes it bugged me, then it really made me smile a little more.

“Did you notice that we’re the only people her with a colored umbrella? And it’s an orange one!” Said Brant with a twinkle in his eye I hadn’t seen in a while. We smiled at each other and then continued to walk towards the theater.

Why did I smile? One of my friends, my high school mentor, was murdered and for a reason I did not know. I should’ve been in the hotel room watching Toy Story from my laptop and singing “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” with a mouth full of Chocolate Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream. At the same time, I felt bad that I was not fulfilling my duty as a friend; I smiled yet again at how pathetic I would look to be doing that.

“I know, I make everyone smile don’t I?” Brant beamed with sarcasm. Of course that made me smile a bit wider. Cars zoomed past and the sound of splashing water filled the air. It smelled like rain, however you could describe that. I was enjoying every second. And getting madder at myself the next. Why was I so happy?

“Of course you do Mr. Conceded.”

“Whatever, Star ‘I have the prettiest smile’ Bengel.” I rolled my eyes at that.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, I guess I have to change that to Miss Sass.” I punched him in the arm and started to move faster, the theater visible in the veil of droplets from the sky. This was a night none of us would forget.

Vivien was especially excited. She had a smile on for the first time in a while that wasn’t directed at or for Christopher. And we all knew how Christopher loved her smile. He would describe it with his dramatic hand-movements and big words with small meanings every time Vivien went to the bathroom, or went to throw away some trash. Christopher didn’t want her to hear his stalker like rants but she did and it made her smile more and more every day. But that smile then and there was for her career and for her passion.  

Maybe that was why I smiled. But I knew that it wasn’t.