Something Beautiful (HIATUS)

- Prologue -

"One heck of a night sky tonight." He tossed his head backward, the moon reflecting in his eyes.

I followed his line of vision, taking it in for myself. "It's beautiful." I loved nights like this. Summer was fast approaching, but the typical heat to accompany the season had yet to show its face. Tonight there was a breeze, gentle and sweet, and it licked the hairs that had worked themselves free from my French braid.

"There's a full moon next Friday. I was thinking...there's a place I'd like to show you. It's out of town, but not far―think your parents would let me take you?"

A tiny pebble lodged in my throat, but I swallowed it down. Maybe they wouldn't let me, but I could already tell what my reaction to that would be; I was fairly certain that I'd go just about anywhere with Aaron Arsane, if he asked me. "That depends. What is it?"

His eyes left the star speckled sky to find me again, glittering and mischievous when they did. "Just a cool place to be when there's a full moon. Perfectly harmless, but worth the trip."

"How do you know I'd like that?"

That look that unapologetically poked holes in every one of my meager defenses. "Call it a hunch."

I chewed the inside of my cheek, murmuring after a moment, "You hardly know me, though."

"Kris." He stopped walking, dropping my arm from his and positioning himself in front of me. He lowered his head until we were aligned at eye level, and the earnestness I saw there was enough to make my breath catch. "I want you to know I have every intention of changing that."

"You do?" The question was almost a whisper, out before I could stop it, mercifully concealing the wobble in my voice.

He cocked his head slightly, lifting one corner of his mouth in faint surprise. "You don't believe me?"

I knew I had to be blushing; thank God for the low light! "I―I just mean we're in the same grade, and we've been at the same school together since elementary. We even go to the same church, are in the same youth group. You've never cared to get to know me before. Why the sudden interest?"

Not knowing the answer to this had been the one reservation I'd had about Aaron Arsane since the second he'd asked me out. It had taken me a few days to process my feelings and put them into words, but once I had, I couldn't stop wondering about it.

I'd posed the question to my best friend, Carene, to which her response had been, "Who cares why?! You've had a crush on him for years, and now he wants to take you out. Just go with it!"

Mere hours prior to our date, when my mom had come by my room to check on me, she'd noticed my concern. I'd even asked her.

She laughed, almost as flabbergasted as Carene had been. "Honey, he knew to get your father's permission in order to even ask you to go out with him. He did his research; I'd say that shows true interest. Why assume his motives are anything other than genuine?"

After such a great date with Aaron, I'd managed to convince myself it wasn't a real problem―or so I'd thought. Yet here I was, staring him down in the wake of having asked.

Aaron's hands went to his hips. He shifted his weight. His mouth hung open, his brow was knit, his expression confused, and maybe ― if I was being honest ― a little hurt. "Wow. Okay, uh...I guess that's fair."

Suddenly confident I had made a huge mistake, I rushed to amend the error in judgment. "You don't have to answer, it's okay―"

"No." He held up one open palm to me. "It's a reasonable question. If you want to know, I should be able to tell you."