From the Stars, to the Stars

From the Stars to the Stars: Chapter One

The stench slams into Jules and me with all the subtlety of a semi; an olfactory mosh pit of nicotine, stale beer, and layers of dried-on sweat triggering our gag reflexes, and possibly curls the leaves off the tree against whose roots we sit. Murphy, Staunton's Official Drunk, saunters close with uncharacteristic confidence a full minute later. Murphy's the kind of guy who means well, but seems naturally resistant to a functional existence. Once, when our middle school collected aluminum cans to help kick off of our new recycling initiative, Murph brought in enough tin cans to pave the way to hell if his good intentions ran short.

But now Murph hovers above us, his scabbed fingers hooked into the belt loops of his dirt-stained jeans. He thrusts his bony hips forward, revealing a strip of sparse, wiry hair trailing under the raised hem of his ratty tee-shirt. "Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?" he asks, strange and awkward, like someone's whispered in his ear, "be brave", and shoved him out onto a stage.

Jules raises her arm to shield her eyes from the sun as she peers up at Murph, her expression understandably perplexed; Murph's known for lusting after six packs of Natty Light, not jailbait.

Her beauty is armor, tested against the most dangerous of New York's junkies, the power-addicted elite including her parents. At eight, she chose to move in with her grandparents in the sleepy little college town of Staunton. Guess she wanted to be more than her mom and dad's little status symbol. At least she got me out of it. We've been best friends since.

Jules smiles, good manners trimmed with razor wire as she says, "Come on, Murph. You know girls like us are too smart for old pick-up lines like that." She humors him, trying to get him to move on without having to hurt his feelings. As gorgeous as she is, as tough as she is, Jules isn't the kind of girl who gets her kicks like that.

Murph plucks at the worn cotton threads around a hole at his thigh, his eyes skittering side to side. He's caught the message between the lines but, as if encouraged again, he drops the threads and plunges on, turning his crooked tombstone grin at me. "What about you, cutie?" he rasps. "Cherry's itty-bitty friend interested in some action?"

My stomach sours at the mental picture I've got of Murph's cracked skin flaking off onto mine. Murph's got a wild, desperate tinge to his voice. His gaze darts in circles around the park several times before he takes a long shuddering breath for one last ditch Kamikaze attempt at picking us up, his fists clenching and unclenching at his hips. "You don't know what you're missin'," he stammers. "I could show you some real interestin' things."

I scrunch closer to Jules, too inside my own mind with gross possibilities to do more than shake my head no.

Jules has no such difficulty; she's already reached into her bag and pulled out a small push-top canister. It dangles from her finger, a stronger warning. "Sorry, Murph, but the only action she's interested in is me spraying about two ounces of cayenne into your eyes if you don't clear out. Now." As extra incentive, she flicks off the safety tab and twists the top, clearing the nozzle for a shot of pepper.

Murph doesn't have time to react to the threat. A freak crack of lightning stabs across the sky, the following thunder rattling the very air and startling all of us. The heels of Jules's russet leather riders have gouged matching skids in the grass from where she jumped aside. My heart's doing this thing where half of it leaps into my throat and the other half nudges my ribs out a tiny bit with double-sized thumps. Murph stares up into the wisp of clouds like God Himself just sent him a message to behave.

We're not the only ones taken by surprise; all across the park people stare up at the sky, their hands shielding their eyes from the bright sunlight.

A moment later, my heartbeat still visibly packing a punch to my sternum, a boy I've never met steps out from behind our tree, his slim body filling the gap between Jules and me, and Murph.