Moonlight: The time between.

Chapter 1

I had never danced in the moonlight before. It was always a dream of mine to do so, but I never had a dance partner. I barely had the freedom to even look at the moonlight! I could sneak away from my dad every once in a while when he was asleep and stargaze, but I couldn't risk it most nights. 

The floorboards would creek under my weight and wake him up. Should he have ever caught me... Let's just say the ending wouldn't be super pretty. 

It's not like he would beat me. If I came home with a bad report card I'd get every word in the English dictionary thrown at me, as well as a few French words.

I kept my head down at school. I didn't want to be pulled into something that would get him mad. I had to keep up the good-boy appearance so he wouldn't catch on to all the things I got away with.

I had a few friends from my old schools, one was my mom's friend's child. I would go off to their houses and smoke in their backyard. Sometimes we didn't have anything to smoke, so we would sit and listen to music until the early morning. 

I wasn't really into their music, but I would put up with it. They would put up with mine, too. It was nice just to listen.

I met people at school, but I never cared enough to become friends with any of them. Friends just brought words, words brought feelings, feelings brought drama. Personally, I could separate myself from all that without thinking; I didn't want to be the shoulder to cry on. 

My weeks became mundane after about a month. Monday was school and homework before going to my cementing job, the rest of the days were repeats until Friday. Friday, after more homework, I got to go to my lifelong friend's house. 

Jarred Miles was the son of my mom's high-school best friend. His girlfriend, Zedda Kemp, lived with him. They had been together since 9th grade. They both had it hard in life. Unlike me. Jarred's parents split, and his siblings were entitled brats. Zedda's family wasn't good either. She didn't like to talk about them, but from what I understood she had been molested, beaten, and burned by them.

Saturday was my day off everything. I was able to read, write, or just be with myself for a full day. It was like hitting the refresh button. Sunday, I was at my buddy Noah "Blue" Figg's house.

His nickname came from a pool party. It was the two of us and some of his friends. He wouldn't get out of the water until they closed the area down. When he came out, he was as blue as his shorts!

Blue and I went to school together but didn't get the same classes.  We would say hello whenever we saw each other and give high-fives, but the real talking happened on Sunday.

"What are you planning on doing after school?" He asked, putting out a cigarette.

I chuckled. It was an odd question to think about. "Probably homework. Mrs. Freeze gives a lot on Monday's." I responded sarcastically.

The butt of his cigarette hit me between the eyes, making me flinch. "I mean after graduation, tard!"

"I don't know!" We laughed together without reason. It was probably just the weed making us laugh.

"So you plan on living in your parent's basement, writing books, until you're an overweight, middle-aged man?" I looked up at him. His most recent favorite thing to quote was Jumanji.

"I plan on moving out and figuring my crap out before anything else. I kinda need somewhere else, ya know?" He nodded and we went back to staring at his ceiling. 

"Somewhere away from your family." His sentence completed everything I wanted. 

Those were my goals. Leaving. Going as far as I could from my family and standing firm in that decision. 

My sister came to pick me up later that night. "Mom wants you home. Go brush your teeth. I have cologne in the van."

I may have grown up with Jarred, and smoked with Blue, but they weren't my best friends. Mackenzie was. When we were younger, we couldn't be in the same room without getting into an argument over something stupid. I wouldn't do anything for her, she would do anything she could to get me to do something for her. 

There was one time at the dinner table, I got up for some water and came back to her blocking my seat with her hand. She looked up at me and asked me to get her some water. I didn't want to, being that I was selfish and hungry. She wouldn't move until I got her some water. We argued about it when my parents weren't around. Neither of us was in the right, but I don't believe I was completely in the wrong. I could never be a hundred percent unbiased about it though, so I guess we'll never know.

I climbed into the passenger's seat and buckled. The trash in the back of it was beginning to come to the front seats. I tossed a Taco Bell bag in the back.

"So, have fun?" Mac asked. She was the one person in the family I could talk to about this stuff. We shared a lot of the same opinions on our parents, which is probably why we started getting along. "Common enemy" and all that.

"Yeah, we just kinda sat and listened to music and smoked." I was too high for conversation and she knew it. She turned the radio on and let the music drum into our ears until we couldn't take it anymore.

I went straight to my room that night. I would enjoy what I could until I fell asleep.