A lone figure's eyes scanned absently over the stars that flickered like a distant candle in the far away, night sky. The bed of shadowed jade grass she laid upon had been flattened a long time ago, and held enough space for two, though the open space next to her was empty and cold. Her eyes held a distant look themselves as she silently counted the stars from horizon to horizon in every direction, it had become a nightly habit. She only counted the visible ones, though, the ones that twinkled distinctively against their ebony background, their light desperate to reach their world light-years away. A bright, painter's stroke of blue enhanced the sky, more lights glowing within it, it seemed to be the only color that night.
The usual silver smile that graced the world was missing from this painting, its back turned to her, just like the rest of the world. Whether it was out of pity or spite, she had yet to know. It no longer bothered her, though the emptiness seemed to be hollowing her out, making her numb. The loneliness of being turned away from was consuming her in a darkness, not unlike the night sky without the stars, cold and blank.
The lonely girl turned her head to the empty bed beside her, as if expecting someone to be there, her raven black hair falling onto her face in the process, but she didn't bother to move it. But no one was there except the cold, empty cushion of pale grass that sat beside her. But it wasn't always this empty or cold, in fact, a person quite dear to her, like the stars to the moon, would lie here alongside her to keep her company, and just like the stars to the moon, the stars were unreachable. They had met in the most peculiar way for little children to meet, and because they were complete opposites, it was surprising they got along as well as they did.
She distinctively remembered the firecracker 7-year-old armed with oversized nerf-guns and crooked glasses sitting on her freckled, button nose. Her dirty blonde hair choppily cut, pulled up in a ponytail. She also saw herself then, empty-headed and unable to understand anything not cited in a textbook and as emotionally broad as a river stone. She had afterward become animated by this spark, and her head filled with things no textbook could teach. She'd had fun.
But now she was many years older, and she glanced around the clearing she was lying in from her position on a small slope of a hill. The clearing was at least ten acres large, with a soft jade grass covering most of it. Down below her at the base of the hill, fireflies danced about, creating a serene picture. Behind her was a road that crossed through the clearing, leading back towards where she lived. The whole clearing was outlined in the darkened silhouettes of pine trees that blocked out the lights of the town not so far away. It was the clearest place within biking distance that the stars could be seen.
Her sober and often distant personality clashed completely with the blonde supernova's reckless and adventurous one. Any plans they made would be they had, she would make a mastermind's plan for it, and it would be a clean getaway. They would constantly get in trouble for the most ludicrous things, like getting a bike stuck up in a tree. She smiled at all of the ridiculous things they did together.
The field she was in was actually discovered on one of their adventures when they had tried to hunt down Bigfoot and ended up lost in the woods. They had found this clearing and had to walk back to town to meet their frantic parents. She had gotten grounded for an entire month after being fed a bowl of ice cream. They had snuck out again, about a year after they first met, to watch the sunset in their field, and the sky had opened up to them, showing everything it had to offer that night, a sky not unlike to the one she currently gazed at.
"Hey, (....)? How many stars are there in the sky?" A distant, child's voice echoed just through the curtain of silence enveloping the jade hill, undoubtedly her closest friend's.
"I know there's a lot, but not the exact number." A younger version of her own voice responded.
Her eyes lingered on the empty space, silently, yet hopelessly yearning for it to be filled once more. People always seemed to want exactly they couldn't have. How silly.
