I Hope You Like the Stars I Stole for You

Chapter One: Just The Usual?

      As the bus edged towards my desolate house at the edge of the road, I stood up and swiftly walked off of the bus. I glued my eyes towards the ground, avoiding eye contact with the seventh and eighth grade delinquents on my bus. I didn't live in the best of neighborhoods so a lot of the kids joined together for some illegal activities. One time they all got together and set fire to a math teacher's house as a joke but it ended up causing her some serious injuries. Since the children were around 12, nothing really bad happened to them, which I thought was quite unfair considering how badly Miss Darnell was hurt.

        I walked up the cluttered path to the dingy cream colored door at the front of my one-story house. The sparse shadiness of the trees felt like ice droplets on my hot, sticky arms. Searing rays of sun penetrated the bay windows on the northernmost side of my house. I pushed the tiny key through the open slot on golden handle, which allowed me access to the inside. A muffled barking from the far end of the house startled me. A miniature, white puffball charged towards me from behind the tattered doorway. "Oof, Azza!" I exclaimed dropping to my knees allowing the crazed puppy to lunge above my scraped knees and onto my lap. My fingers scratched behind her curly white fur, which made her go even more crazy. "Who let you out baby girl?" I asked her, un-expecting a response. 

        "It might have been me. Oops." I heard an all to familiar voice respond with a forced grin. His voice painted a curved smile, full of white, upon my lips. 

        "Christian!" My voice a high pitched squeal. I always loved surprise visits from him, which happened fairly often because I had given him a copy of my house key. I also owned a replica of his apartment key too, but he usually preferred to come to me.

        "Katty Kat!" Christian yelled in his child-like voice, his arms placed up by his mouth as if in shock. "I have been waiting for hours!" His body embraced me in a tight squeeze. He had graduated a year before, in the same class as Brian. So they have been the best of friends for longer than I have known Brian. Christian and I grew old in the same little world, his house was three down from mine; it was a rich burgundy color with a white picket fence, and white shutters, there were also plenty of trees. We had even built our own tree house, although it wasn't much, to us it was breath taking. We could spend hours drawing complex scenes with our childish  minds, playing out colorful scenarios. The world was touching our feet, allowing us to take control of the wheel and spin it to match our wildest dreams. That is the thing I adore most about Christian, he still holds that child-like view on life and it is so exhilarating. 

        "Well, I could really go for an after school snack." I stated hoping that Christian had prepared something for me. Usually whenever he'd come over after his classes he would put together an array of foods for us. The most common thing he'd make was a cup of tea, crackers with ham and cheese and a side of tomatoes. Of course Christian would eat it with me, but he was never a big fan of tomatoes, so I'd eat those all by myself. 

        "It figures, I made you a little something." The way he talked always made me smile, his voice would sound out with a twinge of awkwardness and his fingers would always find their way towards his mouth as he spoke. He reminded me of a frightened child cowering during a rated R movie. I followed him, my footsteps matching up with his as we winded the narrow halls through the living room and onto the kitchen. As I figured the table was set for two; identical cups of tea, with winding steam floating atop, an enormous plate almost spanning the width of the table  piled with two servings worth of cheeses, meats, and crackers, and one lone bowl filled to the brim with fine tomato slices filled the wooden tabletop.

        "Wow, what is the occasion ChrisyRuth?" I asked because the table was set up more eloquently than usual. I used the nickname I gave to Christian after he started calling me 'Katty Kat'.He never hesitated to tell me just how much he hated that nickname too. 

        His faced cringed into a playful sneer at the mention of his most hated nickname. "Since you are leaving for college soon I put a little something together. I guess you could call it a game?" I looked at him with questioning eyes; with Christian you never knew exactly what to expect and it was times like this where I was even scared to find out. 

        "What do you call this game?" I asked between mouthfuls of the perfect blend of cheese, ham, and cracker. Genuinely interested in what he was to say next. 

        "Mind taking a trip down memory lane with me?"