DISCONTINUED

Prologue

Gary was drunk. Very. And he was obviously feeling the effects of his "big day". He'd already been in bad shape when Luna had arrived at around noon, and it was now almost 6. Not that anyone could really blame him for being messed up. At the very least it wasn't fair to single him out, as this was the way that lots of people, younger people in particular, chose to spend their day. Not me, Luna thought to herself. When that day came for her she wanted to fully feel and appreciate each and every moment. And she wouldn't be spending it with a crowd of people like this, most of whom had faces that were only vaguely familiar. No, she'd be spending it with those people that were closest to her. The ones that she truly loved.

Luna and Gary weren't close at all. While they lived in the same neighborhood, she wouldn't even call them friends, but then again, that was the case for most of the crowd here today. As usual, no one wanted to miss a party. She was never sure whether attendance at these things was primarily motivated by curiosity, peer pressure or the free booze. Looking at most of those around her right now it certainly appeared to be the latter. For her it just seemed like the right thing to do. Or perhaps more importantly she felt that not being here and just complacently turning a blind eye was the wrong thing to do.

Luna turned away from the crowd and looked out over the ocean. She had always loved the sound of waves crashing on shore, eager to release their energy gathered from travelling who knows how many thousands of miles, and she could almost hear them over the party that seemed to be steadily increasing in volume around her. She needed to escape the crowd and the noise for a while, so she decided to head down towards the water.

It really was a gorgeous fall day. One of those days that summer didn't want to let go of. Why did it have to be so darn nice out? Or, then again... maybe it was better this way? She walked along the shoreline, her feet washed by just the last stretching remnants of only the largest waves. Tiny crabs skittered about to scavenge what the ocean had carried up on shore, dashing out as the water retreated only to then race back inland ahead of the next reaching wave. She noticed that someone had scratched a big number "10" in the sand which the waves were now washing away.

As a kid Luna had spent just about every summer's day down at the ocean exploring tidal pools and playing in the waves, and just sitting on the sand dunes looking out at the seemingly endless expanse of blue. It had always made her feel so free and peaceful, and she remembered thinking back then that she couldn't imagine ever wanting to be anywhere else. Crazy how things change. Of course, she still loved the ocean and the rhythmic, hypnotic motion of the waves, but things just weren't that simple anymore. Nowadays there were times - times like today - when the waves felt oppressive to her. Those waves... unstoppable and tireless, pushing in on her, trapping her. Minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day. Sometimes she'd lie on the sand and dream of waves that were just as powerful and relentless, but waves that flowed out, away from the shore, taking all of "this" with them.

Well, not quite all of it. She had turned around and started to walk back towards the party just in time to see Bo and Olivia arrive. Being with them always made even a bad situation better and she was thankful that they'd come. As usual, Luna felt like she needed to be here today, but she sure didn't want to be alone.

She'd almost reached her friends when she was jolted out of her thoughts by an overly aggressive slap on the back accompanied by the sloshing of some not too small amount of beer on her shoulder.

"Oh hey, Loo... sorry about that there BUDDY! Say, you haven't seen Olivia around, anywhere have you???"

Logan Pearson Jr. was a jerk at the best of times, and for Logan this was clearly not the best of times. His vacant unfocused eyes and slurred speech suggested that he'd been here for a while already, and apparently, he'd arrived thirsty.

Logan was used to getting what he wanted, and he had "wanted" Luna's best friend Olivia for a long time now. And her not being with him was only made worse by the fact that she'd chosen to be with Bo instead. Bo and Olivia came from very different parts of town and walks of life, making their being together rather improbable and completely unacceptable to Logan. Typical "high society" story... Logan and Olivia had been neighbors since they were young, and their parents always just sort of expected them to end up together, as did Logan. But while Logan grew to fit the stereotypical privileged rich kid mold to a "t", Olivia had somehow thankfully managed to buck that trend. Yes, her family was well off, to be sure, but there wasn't a hint of "entitlement" exuding from her. Not that Luna had ever seen anyway.

By now Bo and Olivia had arrived and were standing just out of beer sloshing range.

"Olivia!" Logan turned and clumsily reached out to hug Olivia, but she backed away, easily avoiding him.

"Go away Logan. You're drunk."

"Yea, you heard the lady Logan. Get lost. And by the way, nice shirt... I think it's cool that your sister lets you borrow her clothes."

"Bo, you're not helping."

"Hey Logan, I think I hear your village calling... they want their idiot back" said Bo as some louder than normal crowd noise lured Logan back to the group gathered around Gary and he stumbled away, giving Bo the finger and shouting "love you Olivia!" over his shoulder.

Olivia kissed Luna on her forehead and gave her a long, soft hug. "Sorry about that Lu. And Bo, you know you only make things worse by getting Logan going like that" she said as she turned to scold her boyfriend.

"I know... I'm sorry. But he's such a spaz."

"Forget about it guys. Thanks for coming" said Luna as she took Olivia's hand and the three friends walked away from the crowd to sit on the dunes and watch the sun set. They didn't talk much - no one was really in much of a mood to talk - but it was good just to be together. Luna nervously let handfuls of the now cool sand fall through her fingers like an hourglass while they just sat and silently stared out at the horizon.

Time passed way too quickly and before long the last gasp of daylight had succumbed to its watery grave. Luna glanced at her watch.

"It's getting close to 8 guys... I guess we should probably head on back."

"Do we have to Lu? Really?" asked Olivia.

"I'm so sorry Liv, but yes... I do anyway. And I'd really like you guys to come with me, but I understand if you can't."

After a thoughtful pause, Olivia nodded her head slightly then silently stood and brushed the sand off her legs. She reached for Luna's hand and the three of them slowly headed back towards the party.

As they got closer Luna could see that Gary truly was a mess now. Barely able to stand on his own without falling over, some of his friends steadied him as he spit mouthfuls of booze into the fire, creating fireballs that clawed back towards his face. She couldn't be sure, but it looked like he had singed off most of his eyebrows at some point, and he was wearing just one of the shiny red basketball shoes he'd gotten for his birthday, with the other one melting in the now much bigger than necessary fire. Luna remembered overhearing Gary talking about those shoes on the way home from school just the other day. He'd been so excited about them and the prospect of, what had he said "...making beautiful music on the court with them" - on the way home from school just the other day. Was his 17th birthday - his last birthday - really just 10 days ago?

Luna was jarred from her thoughts by the now frenzied crowd which had begun screaming their countdown. She squeezed Olivia's hand and half turned away from the scene to bury her face in her friend's shoulder. Even in his very drunken and drug induced stupor, it seemed to Luna that Gary's eyes had a horrifying moment of realization at around "2", and then at precisely 8pm on September 28th, 2031 Gary Solomon died at the age of 17 years 10 days old. Just like he was supposed to.