Harper Athena Andrews and Why Her Life Absolutely Sucks

Alexis and the Stars

We left the party going anywhere. Meaning, we walked along the streets talking about nonsense and wanted everyone to hear us. Alexis, I realized, didn't have as much of a smooth voice as I had originally thought. It was slightly raspy, but a familiar raspy that you knew with a sweetness to it; almost as if it was too sweet, yet you still ate it because it was addicting. That was what her voice was to me, something that put ease to my ever-crazy stomach butterflies. She had put her hair back into braids and it was a red color, one that resembled a Ginger Tabby Cat no matter how much I tried to push down that thought. Her outfit was simple, yet elegant that she matched a Leo pendent to. I started to perk up when I saw it because I fairly like astrology. It's a unique subject that some people think is silly, but I appreciate what you can learn from it. So I decided to ask her about it.

"Hey, what's that sign on your necklace? I know it's an astrological sign, but I wasn't sure on which one it was." This is untrue, since I was aware of the different signs and what they stand for, but I wanted to see what she would respond with.

"It's a Leo sign, that's what I am. I personally like it because of our ruling planet which is the sun. We're the only sign with the sun as our planet, and that's really cool to me. What's your sign?"

Ohhh snap, she likes astrology! Y'all this is great.

"I'm an Aquarius! I think it's really neat that you like astrology, I haven't met a lot of people that have."

"Haha, yeah. I guess I'm different then," and with that she ran across the street to the Star Gazer Playground Park leaving me standing there, watching her bright hair like a beacon through the dark.

Star Gazer Park holds many memories for me. I remember playing on the merry-go-round with Olivia when I was 6. I remember learning how to ride a bike along the grassy paths with my father, too young to know the pain that my mother had caused him. Thinking about these memories makes me sad, but wistful and it's an odd feeling that only nostalgia can bring. 

Alexis was laying on top of the monkey bars, staring at the stars. Her long hair was falling out of its pigtail braids revealing that it was in fact, wavy. I have only known her for about an hour now, but I was beginning to feel like she would be a close friend. She had a carefree charisma about her, that I longed to have. 

"Good, you're here. I'm coming down," She said as she slid through the gaps and plopped down onto the soft, squishy ground. "I really like this place, I can see myself playing a lot here if I was younger,"

"It's a really great place if you have smaller siblings."

"Nah, I'm an only child. Just me - Alexis. My parents kinda gave up after me, realized I was too much work probably." She sighed and then started walking back towards the street and now I had felt bad, for I felt like I opened up something that she preferred to keep hidden.

The rest of the walk was now quite silent. I had said that we could walk to my house and she barely murmured an okay. I wasn't sure on what to say to make her feel better, so I didn't say anything at all until we were at my house.

"Well, this is where I live. Do you want to stay or do you want to go? You can stay if you want to,"

"I think I'll stay," Alexis said as she laid down on the grass, looking at the stars again. I laid down next to her and then she started asking me questions. She asked me about Brady and why I seemed reluctant when I was with him. I explained that he used to date my best friend and that it was super weird that he asked me to go with him to the party. It seemed like hours of us talking until I saw headlights coming down the road. They belonged to Brady's pick up truck, but it wasn't just Brady who was in the truck. He was with someone else and they looked like they were kissing. The other person looked a lot like Cassie. At the sight of this, I ran inside the house, feeling like my heart was being hammered in two.