The Stars Will Catch Me

Chapter 12

My favorite number is 7. 

He's out of his uniform, wearing a black long sleeve shirt under his sherpa coat. His skin is a cool almond and his hair is close cropped at the sides but long at the top. 

I blush under his gaze but I don't let that stop me from marching over to him.  

"I'm surprised your team won with all those foul balls you were hitting." It's the first thought that comes to mind and it's out of my mouth just as I think it. I say it with a smile which hopefully clues him in on my friendly intentions. I came to this party to make friends. 

He frowns.  

"I'm surprised you saw anything with how far back you were sitting. You almost crossed the Canadian border." His expression barely shifts as he says this. It's like his face is made out of stone - and perfectly sculpted, might I add. 

The turn out for the season's first baseball game was colossal. I remember feeling like a grain of salt in a jar of pepper. The baseball players were on display for the audience to watch but there was no reason for Charlie to pick me out of the crowd with my faded lemongrass sundress and scuffed sneakers.  

"So were you watching me or did you take a seating chart?" 

He shrugs. "You're new. More noticeable." 

"My name is Dovie." I refrain from sticking out my hand. The action feels silly up against him and his composure. 

"I’m Charlie." 

He stares at me for a moment, a hint of a smile buried somewhere in his solid expression. Whatever I am going to say to desperately cling onto our conversation evaporates and I think I must look like a fish out of water, opening and closing my mouth willing something to come out.  

"Well Dove, you're clearly not hitting any homeruns in the social scene here so why don't we ditch this place?" I’m not sure if he misheard me or has given me a nickname. Either way, I like it. No one has called me that before. 

"And go where?" I add an ounce of hesitation in my voice though I'm certain I'm willing to go anywhere. If something is going to change like this nagging feeling keeps telling me, then I have to be willing to go where the night takes me. Besides, someone is actually talking to me.  

"My aunt owns a diner." He tucks his thumbs into his front pocket and nods his head in the vague direction of town. "She'll let us have fries for free." 

I drop the hesitation act. "Say no more." 

He smiles then. It's subtle, his heart shaped lips curving at the edges with the dimple on his left cheek showing. I think it has to be the best smile I've ever seen because it feels like sharing a secret. 

He leads me out of the party and this time I don't get swept up by the crowd. Charlie paves a way for us, not condensing himself so he can fit but broadening his shoulders to purposely bump into others. It forces the people aside and all I have to do is walk behind him. I imagine it's a lot like how celebrities feel when they have personal bodyguards. 

Outside the air is crisp. I am forever taken aback by how blue the night sky is in Maine and how the stars are so visible. I'm tempted to reach out my hands to touch them. The sky was never this clear in Manhattan. In a sense, I feel less lonely out here in rural Maine. Manhattan might have had people piled upon each other, the island filled to the brim with life but all of those people were racing through the streets like they could see their life slipping away before them. Out here, the stars remain still. No matter what they promise to come out and see me again and the only time they race across the sky is when they fall.