Picture Perfect Night Sky

44 ¦ Jacob Pierce

It's December 21, Jasmine's advance birthday party. I didn't get to know how old will Jasmine be at her actual birthday. I never got the chance to ask her about it, but perhaps today will answer my curiosity.

Each step I take to get to Jasmine's house, I feel more and more heavy. The feeling of me dragging my heavy body towards this party makes me feel anxious. The heaviness is quite undesirable, but all I can manage to say is that the weird is coming from my chest.

Is this what it feels like to get worried about something? I really hope that Margaret is fine with this.

She would not be fine with it, you buffoon, you just denied her invitation to go stargazing in a meteor shower event. That's one of the rarest things to happen.

I scowl at my common sense, which just made my chest gain another weight. Luckily, I can still be able to breathe properly, but I'm pretty sure my anxiety is very much visible on my facial expression.

And yet, you still chose to go to this party despite that you're already struggling with your inner desire to sit right next to Margaret while you watch the meteor shower.

Is there a button where I can shut this voice inside my head? The voice just makes the weight I'm feeling a lot heavier than before. It's not like I can just cancel out and tell Jasmine I need to go, I'm just doing this because it's the start of our friendship.

You've fucked up real time, Jacob. You can just text her that you won't make it.

I can't, I'm already in front of her house now.

Let's just see if Margaret would still accept you after you denied her invitation.

The big lump of air had emerged inside my throat. It's so big that it's hard to gulp it down, especially when I know perfectly that I wouldn't enjoy this party as much as I'll enjoy being with Margaret.

After giving myself a minute to calm my body down and gulp down that lump inside my throat, I couldn't hear the voice inside my head anymore. All thanks to the sudden blaring of music from the inside of the house. Seriously, it sounds like there's a mosh pit inside.

Glancing around the outside of the house before bracing myself inside the mosh pit. I was hoping to find Jasmine out here to greet some new guests, but she ain't outside. Well, she's the birthday girl anyway, so why the hell would be here outside experiencing such a cold breeze from the first day of Winter?

Should I even dare to knock? That's too formal at a party like this, might as well just swing the door open and barge in through the expected crowd in front of the door. The moment I open the door, the music suddenly changed into something reminded me of Margaret.

22 by Taylor Swift. Margaret's adored artist. Every second I spend here will keep on adding a pound of undesirable weight into my chest. Perhaps I could just look for Jasmine and tell her that I've changed my mind and that I rather spend this heavenly event with someone special. But before that, I need to push through this crowd of people to find Jasmine. I suddenly had a flashback on Yuri's party. This won't be easy to push through.

I tried my best to squeeze through the crowd. I've got a lot of practice now since Yuri's party, so finding Jasmine would be a bit easier. Easier said than done, after glancing around a thousand times around this crowded house. For a small house, there's many people in it, and surprisingly, they all can fit in here. It's also shocking that I can't find the birthday girl in this small threshold, perhaps she's in the middle of the house like in the living room. Time to navigate my way around this ocean of people and to my desired destination.

After a moment of me shoving and pushing people away from my path, I just realize that the song perhaps pertains to Jasmine's actual age on her birthday. I never thought she'll be turning 22, she's a year older than me. If I think about it even more, Margaret is also a year older than me. Oh fuck, thinking about Margaret was a terrible idea, the weight I purposely ignored gotten heavier now. I just need to find Jasmine, and I'll run off to Margaret.