Moon Girl

Eight - Smile Then A Laugh

Her long, black hair rippled in the wind, waving a flag of sorrow and emptiness. Blake pulled his car to the side when he was close enough and got out. The familiarity of this happening only a few days before, lingered around them. Blake vowed for a different outcome.
"Are you okay?" He slowly stepped out of the drivers side of his Jeep. Krystal refused to look at him.
"Fine." She said cooly.
"You can't hug me one day and ice me out another." He treaded lightly towards her. Her body tensed.

Of course he brought up the hug, it was a minor slip in judgment. He was lucky I even acknowledged him in school. I don't let anyone in, why does he assume he will be different?

"What do you want, Blake?" Her voice was hard and flat. He stood next to her. With Blake being relatively tall, he towered about a head over her.
"To know if you're okay." He said softly.
"I said I was fine." She said through gritted teeth. Blake chuckled.
"I have two sisters and a mom, I'm aware what the phrase 'I'm fine' means for women." Krystal sighed.
"You're not going to go away, are you?"
"Nope." He made a popping sound on the p. "I'm Blake Hardy, by the way."
"Aware."
"And you are?"
"Annoyed." Their banter flew back and forth on the empty road. He laughed.
"Your name?"
"You know my name."
"I'm trying to be friendly."
"Well don't!" She snapped at him. They stood in silence, Krystals eyes trained on the cross in the ground.

Why can't he go away? What possessed to assume were friends? Why does he even care?! Oh. My. God. Of course....I should have know.

"Just because you know the truth doesn't mean anything." She whispered.
"Well someone oughta know." Krystal shook her head. "I do have to admit, I bought the NASA story. Couldn't afford a shirt so the gave you something a little extra special." A prideful smile picked at the corner of her lips.

If I didn't know any better, I'd say Krystal Kamowski is trying not to smile. I want to see her smile. For all the years we've gone to school together, I've never seen her smile, not once. I need to be the one who makes her smile. I just need to.

"I will admit," Blake continued. "my favorite was trying to spell 'cool' with your eyes." Blake chuckled and shook his head. Krystal couldn't help but choke out a laugh.

Over the years I'd come up with hundreds of excuses for my scar, most of them highly outrageous. Never once were they true. It was nice to share the knowledge with someone, it was even nice to joke about it. It felt like exhaling a breath you didn't know you were holding. 6 years of holding the same oxygen. Who know even oxygen was toxic?

She laughed! It felt like I just won the fucking lottery! Not only did she smiled, she laughed! She had a cute laugh. Now, I craved to hear more of it.

"No, really. Spelling cool. It's classic. Where do you even come up with these?" Blake smiled down at Krystal but she was too focused on the cross to notice.
"My sister," she started slowly. "she used to tell me that I had a wicked imagination. I used to come up with these crazy fables. It's always been easy to fabricate things, for me at least." She poured out to him. Silence rested between them again.
"It's a shame NASA had to go and mess with that pretty face of yours."

Is he flirting?

Why am I flirting? And that wasn't even very good either! Could I get any worse?

"I mean, you're still beautiful now, and like I've always thought you looked perfect, even with the scar, I-" he stumbled over his words. Krystal did the unthinkable and let out a loud laugh.

Lord help me! I'm laughing at a guy who is trying to flirt with me. Maybe Blake Hardy isn't all that bad. Maybe the apple didn't fall far from the tree.