The love letter and the suicide note

2:30pm

"This is the half mark." Astra stopped paddling and watched as a group of people were swimming around and enjoying themselves.

"You can swim if you want, I'll just sit up there." Orson pointed to a couple picnic tables.

"No, I didn't bring a swimsuit. Come on, let's just keep going." Astra grabbed her paddle, and she was about to start paddling again, but a young girl swam up to them.

"Hi." She smiled up at her as she grabbed the edge of the kayak.

"Hi." Astra smiled back.

"You're not going to swim?" The girl asked her. "It's really pretty over here. The water is warm, come on, you'll have fun."

"Oh, no it's okay. I didn't-"

"We were just paddling over to the banks." Orson interrupted her as he turned the kayak around and started paddling to where kayaks were sitting on the edge of the water.

"I don't have a swimsuit." Astra turned to look at him, but he just smiled.

"I swam with my clothes on all the time as a kid. Come on, live a little. Go and have fun."

When they go to the shore, Astra got out first so she could pull the kayak away from the water so he could get out. She helped him out of the kayak and handed him his crutches, and he smiled when he grabbed them.

"I'll just be over there." He pointed to the tables he pointed at earlier. "Go have fun Star, and if people judge you for wearing clothes, judge them back for wearing swimsuits."

"Okay, I'll just judge them for wearing the right clothes for swimming." Astra said sarcastically.

"Exactly." Orson pat her shoulder before he walked over to the tables.

Astra sighed. She didn't want to swim.

She followed Orson to the tables.

"Hello again." She said when she sat down next to him.

"What are you doing? I thought you were going to swim."

"I don't want to, besides taking a break from kayaking sounds nice. We can just sit here and talk for a bit, my arms need a break anyway." She wiggled her arms to try and get the tense feeling to leave.

"Talk about what?" Orson asked.

Astra smiled and leaned her face on her hands as she leaned towards him. "Anything."

"Watch out!" A voice suddenly yelled out and they snapped their heads to the right to see a small ball flying towards them.

A group of teenagers were all watching it with wide eyes, a few of the girls covering their mouths in surprise. They must've threw the ball too hard.

Orson and Astra both immediately reached out to catch it at the same time but she ended up accidentally grabbing his hand instead, and they both froze for a second and stared at their hands as the ball flew above their heads and landed on the ground.

"Sorry." Astra said quickly and she was about to pull her hand away, but he tightened his grip on it and brought it to his chest, ignoring the confused look she gave him.

"What a magical moment." He grinned at her.

She started laughing as he held her hand to his chest like it was the most precious thing he had ever held and pretended to start crying. "What a magical moment."

"Oh shut up." She yanked her hand out of his grip and playfully shoved him away from her, but that only made him laugh.

Orson turned to pick the ball up from the ground and threw it back to the group of teenagers.

"I'm so sorry." One of the girls apologized.

"Thank you." The other girl said as she caught it and then turned to her friend and started laughing at her as she shook her head, her face red with embarrassment.