stars

twelve

Phoebe

After taking Brooke shopping, I carried all her bags. "So," I said, walking next to Brooke. "You like Noah!" I smiled even though it wasn't real. She laughed."Yeah, can you stop bringing it up now?" Brooke blushed her face red as a rose. I turned away, fidgeting with the rubber band on my wrist. I looked down.

"So, why?"

"What?"

"Why do you like him? I know he's cute or cool or whatever, but there has to be another reason." I said, taking a deep breath, then looking to trees ahead of me. She started listing the reasons why she likes him so much and a wave of sadness washed over me. With every word she spoke, my chest felt heavier. I couldn't take it, so I interrupted her. "That's a lot of reasons for knowing him for only one day."

Brooke looked at me, confused. "What?"I cleared my throat. "It's, um, you've only known him for a day and you have so many opinions on him. What if you don't like him, but the idea of him or something like that?" I turned to look at her, only to turn away. She laughed, quiet.

"Do you like someone? How do you know you don't like the idea of them?" She said. I frowned and mumbled under my breath, "Because I've known her for a little less than half a year now."

"Huh?"
"Nothing," I replied.

A drop of water fell on my head and I looked up. It's raining. Why now? We're so close to my house and it's not like I have an umbrella. The rain started coming down heavier. "Do you wanna run back to my house?" I asked her. "We can find a shop on the boardwalk to hang out in until it settles down if you'd prefer that."

"Let's go into a shop, it's closer." I pulled her into a $5 or less shop. People were casually shopping, and we were covered in sprinkles of water. I looked at her, smiling.

"While we're here, might as well look around," I said. All that was here were dumb beach souvenirs. Sand bottles with names on them; mine wasn't there. Keychains that flashed your name, and then the name of the beach. Stuffed animals on a fake surfboard and a leash. Mermaid plushies. Oh, to still believe in mermaids.

Brooke picked up one of the brunette mermaids, then laughed. "This is cool." She said.

"Want it? I can probably buy it for you." She shook her head and put it back on the rack. We went looking at t-shirts and hoodies. I went to the corner of the store with the stuffed animals. I picked up the sparkly rainbow fish. It had huge eyes, which honestly creeped me out. I put it back.

I looked over the shelves of clothes for Brooke. She was looking at the books. She had a mermaid mythology book open, looking at it. Brooke mumbled some things which I didn't hear.

"What?" I asked her.

"It's just, " She giggled. "Do you guys think this is accurate?" I looked at her, confused. It isn't supposed to be accurate, mermaids aren't real.

"I mean according to the 'mermaid experts' it's accurate," I said. "Besides, you don't believe in mermaids, do you?"

Her smile went away. "There's a chance they exist." She shut the book and put it back on the shelf. She said something to herself again, then went to look at the t-shirts again. I followed her.

*

The rain still hadn't calmed down. In fact, it got worse. Lovely. "Uh, Brooke. I know it's pouring, and your clothes will get soaked, but I think we should just run back to my house before we're stuck here." She looked outside.

"That sounds wise, " Brooke took her bags of clothes out of my hands, making her way to the door. I followed. We opened the door, the wind blowing rain towards us. I looked at her and she looked back. "Now." She said, grabbed my arm, and pulled me while running.

I ran, staring at her. She was getting soaked. Once we stopped at my house, I quickly got unlocked the door and we ran inside. I was out of breath. I really need to participate in gym class more. Brooke started giggling. Looking at her confused, I asked, "Why are you laughing?"

Brooke looked towards me, still giggling. "That was fun," I smiled.

"Running through the rain and getting soaked was fun?" I asked.

"Do you not think so? It's fun to be in the water without being in the water. Does that even make sense?" She laughed.

She finds everything fascinating. That's what's so great about her.

*

"Hey, Phoebe?" I heard Brooke whisper. I looked down at her.

"Brooke it's one in the morning, why are you awake? We have school tomorrow." I said, yawning.

"Why do humans take everything for granted?" She asked.

"What are you talking about? You're human too,"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm human. Humans take everything for granted. Like the sky, for example. It's always there, yet you never care about it. Or the stars. Same thing. You never care about them. It's like they aren't even there." Brooke said quietly. She made a good point, but all the sky and stars are are just different forms of gas.

"I guess we just weren't raised the same way as you were," I said, falling asleep.

"Goodnight, Phoebe."

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(This took a long time to write because procrastination is my best friend. Have a good life <3)