in which a broken-hearted boy describes the after effect of losing love and friendship.
meet grayson, a boy whose mind works as fast as his heart beats, and loves as much as he can. this is the life of a boy who lost everything.
**completed**
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it had been two months since alex stood by my locker that wednesday, and there had been no sign of him since. maybe it was selfish of me to avoid him. maybe he needed me to say hello or to ask him what was going on. maybe it was selfish of me to walk in the other direction for the sake of myself. or maybe it was just about time that i finally worried about myself for a change. maybe.
sandy had given me her phone number, and we began talking on the phone every night. we'd talk about the universe and the stars in the sky. sometimes, i'd leave my house in the dead center of the night to meet her at the beach to glance upon the stars. it was better that way. i started to like the sky at night. and maybe that was what changed me from the beginning. maybe it wasn't olivia and maybe it wasn't my best friends splitting at the seams.
maybe it was the way the sky looked differently at night than during the day, and i liked that.
we would laugh and she'd chase me down the beach, warning me that one day, these stars would die, too. she'd always tell me that absolutely nothing in this world lasts forever; not even the world itself. she would whisper me lullabies and assurances that everything i felt in this exact moment was temporary. but maybe i didn't want it to be.
sandy was no nichole. her eyes didn't shine at the sun, but instead, her eyes shined with the moonlight. nichole always looked beautiful in the moonlight, but sandy looked elegant. she looked like she belonged in the moonlight. sandy was no nichole, but sandy was sandy.
i felt at peace with the world when the stars shown above us, and the ocean quietly crept up my leg. sandy told me she liked that about me. she said she loved how serene the night made me become.
and every night, she would always ask the same question: are you okay?
i'd normally say no, and she'd respond with, "how could you be?"
but sometimes i would say yes.
when the sky was just right, clear and black at midnight, and the stars were shining in just the right places. when the ocean's waves were calm, but in a way that they still shook, i'd say yes. and she would smile.
tonight was a night that i would say yes to. i glanced over at sandy, her brown skin shining in the perfect places. her eyes became glossy and her teeth became the whitest of whites. her wavy hair flew back with the wind, and she looked up at the stars. every now and again, she would reach up to push her hair from her face, and her shirt would lift up just barely enough to show her stomach.
sandy turned towards me and smiled. "tell me all about you. i want to know about your friends, all of them, even olivia."
since olivia died, no one had ever asked me about my friends, but sandy was the exception. she never knew my soft spots, and i think that's what drew me in. she knew nothing about me except the rumors she's heard and the stories i've told.
