Her

.gov image from the National Gallery of Art

I still remember the first day we glanced at each other. I didn’t know who she was, and she didn’t know who I was. I was walking with her friend while she was with her boyfriend. I had been friends with him since 8th grade. I thought he was cool and fun to be around. Everybody else thought otherwise. I went up to him, asking who she was, and he explained. I thought that was that—nothing more, nothing less.

The more time I spent with them, the closer we got. I started talking with her more. Sometimes about him. Most of the time about things we enjoyed doing. Things got worse between them quickly. It ended, it was depressing. Seeing two people who enjoyed each other’s company so easily, could fall out just like that. But, I started talking to her best friend. We didn’t stay as close. And I looked for something with people that weren’t a good fit for me. I tried searching for something that couldn’t be found. So we stopped. 

Then, like the flashing blue and red lights on a cop car, she texts me. It starts with talking about him, but almost instantly, with no warning, it changes. We text all day. It doesn’t matter what about; we are just being us.

Bullet

.gov image from NASA 

The ship was supposed to take us to the stars, I remembered how shiny it looked, like a silver bullet; used to kill werewolves in children’s stories. We all sat atop the hill, watching with our heads up high, waiting. Waiting for the bullet to finally shoot. Some of us held hands and whispered hopeful prayers. 

Then the flame shot out, pushing it higher and higher until it was like a star in the sky. But something wasn’t right. The star moved for a split second and then went into a fiery flame that ignited the night sky.

We all stood quiet. No panic.