𝒮𝓉𝒶𝓇𝑔𝒶𝓏𝒾𝓃𝑔 (Stargazing)

𝒞𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓉𝑒𝓇 12

"You know, we don't really know that much about each other," Janine explained, taking a bite out of her ham sandwich. I looked over, noticing the point she was making. She was right, actually. I didn't realize it until she brought it up, but there wasn't really anything we know about each other.

"Huh, I didn't realize that," I explained, an awkward smile forming across my face. But what do I ask? "Well, um. What do you want to know?"

"Hm... why don't we play a game?" She stated with a smile. Lowering my eyebrow, I questioned what the game was. "Why don't we play twenty-one questions!"

"Twenty-one questions?" I asked, my mind drawing blank from the name.

"Yeah, it's a game I play with all of my new friends!" she stated with a wide smile.

"Alright, do you have a paper we read off of or something?" I asked, watching as her eyes lit up. Like little emeralds, they shone brightly before fading away with the change of attention. Opening her phone, she tapped the screen a handful of times before tossing it on the table excitedly.

"There!" she exclaimed, a white paper appearing on her screen. On it was a list of several questions, listed in a number format.

"Oh, um..."

"Have you ever played?" Janine questioned, looking away from the screen and onwards towards me.

"No, but it looks simple. Do you just read a number and expect the person to answer?" Looking up to her, she wore a bright smile before looking back at the screen.

"Yeah, I just say number fifteen, and then you read it and answer the question," she explained, lightly pushing the phone in my direction. Looking down the list, I read the one listed as number fifteen. What is your favorite animal?

"Oh, I really like cats." I explained, her eyes lighting up again from my words.

"Omg same! I love them, especially the cat videos," she explained, before continuing the conversation. "Do you have a cat?"

"Oh no, but if I did, I'd get a Bengal cat."

"What's that?" Pulling out my phone, I opened it before entering the search browser.

"It's a breed of cat with the fur of something like a leopard," I explained, before pulling up a picture of the breed. Showing it to her, her eyes went wide.

"Oh wow, it is like a leopard!" she replied with a wide grin.

"You know what I'd name him?"

"What?"

"I'd name him Cheet," I responded, watching her grin grow wider. With a slight chuckle, she looked back at the questions.

"Not gonna lie, that's kinda goofy," she explained, reading the questions off her screen.

"I know but that's kind of the goal," I explained, returning to the questions on her screen. "What about number nine."

"Whats the weirdest mistake someone made when pronouncing my name?" There was a sight pause before a sudden realization hit her. "Oh! Someone misheard me and said Jabean."

"Really?" I asked, trying to muffle my urge to laugh.

"Yeah, they literally called me Jabean in front of my friends and I," she explained, suddenly breaking down my fortifications. Our conversation was suddenly interrupted with laughter from the both of us, tears forming around our eyes as we kept laughing.

"That person really said, 'Hey Jabean'," I somehow managed to say through my laughing. As our laughing died down, she read another number off the list.

"Number eighteen," she said, still chuckling as she read the word. I read the quote, suddenly pausing as I read it. Have you ever loved someone other than your family? I paused, Abigail popping into my mind almost reading the question. The text messages flood back into my mind with a mixture of our memories, each popping back into my mind like a bubble.

My cheerful feeling between Janine and I was destroyed almost instantaneously upon the bubble popping.

"Um..." I began, thinking of how to answer the question. Janine's chuckles began dying down as the sudden realization of my expression came into view. She stared deep into my eyes as mine were lowered towards the ground, looking at her lime green shoes with baby blue strings.

"Oh..." she muttered to herself, knocking me off the dirt trail of my thoughts.

"What?" I asked, shooting my head up in shock as I realized I had zoned out.

"It was her."

"What do you mean?" I questioned, watching her glistening green eyes slowly dull. My eyes got wider as it suddenly clicked in my head who she was talking about, similar to how it clicked in hers.

"That picture of the guy and girl you were looking at yesterday," she began, pausing midway through her sentence. "It was her." Time slowed it seemed, every second of my life passing through the echoing of my heartbeat upon seeing her face behind my eyes. Looking away from her and towards the table, the answer to her question was obvious through the mere movements of my body. "If I may ask," she began, "what was she like?"

I sat there, thinking to myself about how to answer the question.

"She..." I paused, trying to find the right words. "She was nice. The type of person that would've lit up a room in a way no one else could have done." Silently turning back towards her, she silently listened to my words as I told her about Abigail. "She was fun to work with, cracking jokes and always bothering me when I was trying to work, but in a way, I enjoyed it."

"So, then what happened?" I paused, watching as Janine curiously listened to my words while continuing to eat her food.

"Her and I got into a fight and stopped talking," I explained, ignoring the text messages that forced everyone to abandon me. It was upsetting, but I had to push forward past the saddening nature of my past. "But um, how about twenty," I asked, forcing my way out of the conversation.

"Oh uh," she replied, looking away from me before looking at her phone, reading the question to number twenty. Where do you want to live when you grow up? "Oh, that's an easy one! I'd love to live in England."

"England?" I asked, the pressure of the question before lifting as she explained her answer.

"I love when the clouds are grey. It's so good looking to me and I love the sound of rain trickling against different objects, and I heard that it's always cloudy in England." I nodded my head, listening to her as she spoke. Suddenly, the ringing of the bell to dismiss us went off, catching Janine and I off guard.

"Oh shoot," I exclaimed, swiftly standing up and grabbing all my things. Janine followed close behind, before walking into the crowd. "I'll text you either tonight or tomorrow!"

"Oh ok!" I exclaimed, waving at her as I walked towards my next class. "Have a great day!"

"Thanks, you too!" she replied, waving back towards me. As her and I slowly escaped into the crowd, I thought about everything she had told me, this strange sense of joy coming to me after every moment I spent with her.