"Hey Kevin," my mom called out, knocking on my bedroom door lightly.
"Yeah?" I called out, looking up from the sketchbook I was drawing in.
"I was going to go to Bullseye, and I wanted to see if you would like to come with me," she asked as I turned my chair around, standing up and stepping towards the door. Unlocking it, I pulled the door open to reveal my mom standing there, holding onto her purse, the intricate flower designs covering the entirety of it.
"Yeah, I'll join you," I stated with a smile, following her down the stairs. Putting on my shoes, the two of us stepped outside the door and began walking towards her dark purple car, the coloring reflecting the dark orange light of the streetlamp. "Wow, it's already getting dark outside?" I questioned, looking down at the phone to see that it was only a little past seven.
"I know right? It was just bright and sunny twenty minutes ago," my mom joked, unlocking the car so that we could enter inside it. The two of us stepped inside the car, sitting ourselves against the leather seats of the vehicle. With a quiet humming sound, my mom began driving the purple car towards our destination. As we left the neighborhood, a conversation began to spark.
"Do any of your friends drive?" My mother questioned, the road devoid of any cars for a long moment.
"Janine can now," I replied, "She's going to be taking us to that concert on Saturday."
"Oh really? That's nice," she exclaimed, her voice becoming higher pitched as she spoke. "Who all is going?"
"Just me, her, and our newer friend, Emily." A slight smile formed across my face upon saying their names before swiftly disappearing with time.
"Well, that seems like fun," my mom said, a pause coming between the two of us as we turned left at a red light. My eyes looked onward at the oncoming headlights of different vehicles passing us, my mind filled with the excitement of being able to be around them.
"You like that girl? Janine?" my mother questioned, glancing towards me for a split second to see my flushed expression.
"Uh, no. Not like that at least!" I exclaimed, nervously shooting my head in her direction as she laughed to herself.
"With a reaction like that, you're bound to like her a little," she retorted, my face becoming redder than the taillights before us.
"No, we're really just friends," I replied, the smug look on her face maintaining its form as we continued driving towards the store.
"Alright, whatever you say," she replied, our car pulling towards the parking lot of Bullseye. The light blue dart sitting against a little blue circle shone across the parking alongside the multitude of streetlights. The two of us pulled into a rectangular parking space, the humming sound stopping upon us turning off the car. With loud bangs, we exited the vehicle and walked towards the large, tan colored building. With a quick scratching sound, the automatic doors opened, welcoming us within its arms.
Stepping inside, the clean, almost spotless store grabbed the attention of our eyes. The two of us stepped forward, my mom turning towards me as we walked down the center.
"You have your phone, right?" my mom questioned, my head nodding to prove that I did. "Okay, I'll call you when I'm ready to go," she explained, before walking towards the fruit display on the right side of the building. From there, I quietly walked to the left side of the building, passing the several self-checkout machines and checkout aisles. The store was barren, only a handful of people walking around as the employees laughed and joked with each other. Quietly, I walked down the large opening before turning to a hallway with different crafting aisles on the left and clothes on the right.
Looking down one of the aisles, I noticed the different drawing utensils sitting within its confinements. Stepping inside the aisle, my eyes went wide with all the different sketchbooks and drawing utensils across the walls. There were different packs, some with specific pencils to show value across the page while some had different tools to hide the sketch lines and to help add detail to the paper. Looking at all the different tools, I quietly pulled out my phone, taking a quick picture of the wall before sending it to Emily.
"Look at all this stuff I found," I typed into the small message bar before sending it. Closing my phone, I quietly reached towards one of the bags, taking a further examination of the product. Inside were three pencils, a sharpener, a long, white cylinder object used to spread out the lead of the three pencils, and then what looked to be a wooden brush with sandpaper sitting against the upper half of it with the handle at the bottom. A sudden vibration in my hand prompted me to look down at my phone, Emily responding to my message.
"Oh! I bought one of those before. I'd highly recommend buying one since you're trying to get better at drawing," the message stated, another light blue bubble popping out from under it. "How much are they?" My eyes looked towards the price tag before recording it into the message bar.
"Ten dollars," I replied, holding onto it before stepping out of the aisle. As I walked past the different aisles towards the back of the store, my phone vibrated within my hand, Emily responding to my text.
"That's really good! You should get one," Emily stated, my fingers pressing away at the digital keyboard on my screen.
"Already got it," I replied, placing a thumbs up emoji beside the message. Closing my phone, I made my way to the back of the store, entering a large square with pale white tiles leading me down to either the left or the right. Turning my head to the right, I noticed a tall, rectangular shaped display with different objects hanging from the display hooks. Stepping towards it, the shine of the objects suddenly revealed to me what they were. Necklaces, rings, bracelets, each item glistening brightly as if to draw the attention of anyone walking by it.
With hopeful eyes, I began examining the different pieces of jewelry all across the display, the beautiful colors of the gems shining back towards me. Moments went by as I studied the display, a sigh of defeat trembling from my lips as I stopped, slowly turning away from the display and onwards towards the book section right across. The shelves were a light brown color, each holding a book comfortably within its confinements to show off the covers. The genres of each book sat atop the shelves, my eyes looking over the covers with curiosity. As I stepped down the first aisle, a sudden display with different shades of purple caught my eye, my head turning in the direction of it.
On the side of the display was a white illustration of a circle with different names all around it. The words and image caught my attention, my body moving towards the front to see what was being displayed. Upon looking towards it, my eyes caught glimpse of something. It shone beautifully, the silver color of the item contrasting the dark night sky of the packaging...
* * *
Holding the necklace, I held in between the two of us, it's silvery color captivating our eyes.
"You bought that for Janine?" Taylor asked, looking up at me with glittering eyes of curiosity and wonder.
"Yeah, I did," I explained, her joyful smile coming back to me as I thought about those moments together. "You think I did good picking it?"
"Yeah!" Taylor exclaimed, a wide smile forming across his face as him and I admired it. Our eyes couldn't break from the necklace as I continued speaking to him about my story...
* * *
Staring at the necklace, I quietly reached for the box, lifting it up to get a closer look at it. The necklace sat beautifully within the package, the moon resting against the pale white cardboard of the box, the light from above shimmering down on the detail of it. I stared at it; eyes wide with wonder as I held onto the package. This was it. This was what I wanted to give to Janine.
The rest of the night was a daze of excitement and admiration of what had happened, my heart fluttering with joy as I held onto the object. For the rest of the night, I silently waited for Saturday to come...
YOU ARE READING
𝒮𝓉𝒶𝓇𝑔𝒶𝓏𝒾𝓃𝑔 (Stargazing)
Romance"There's always a light at the end of a dark tunnel." Kevin is now a husband and father, but as he looks through the attic, a necklace brings him back to his former years. Thinking about the impact the people back then had on him, he explains to hi...
