Typical
“Babe you coming over tonight?” my girlfriend Zoey asks me.
“Maybe, maybe not,” I teased as I kissed her cheek. “I could just stay home and read.”
“Not this reading thing again, babe I told you it’s nerdy!”
I sigh and nod instead of fighting her on it AGAIN. This happens alot, I swear she just likes the idea of being with someone popular..
“Uh BABE?”
She waves a hand in my face.
“Mind answering?”
I turn to look at her once more before I answer.
“Yes, beautiful?”
“Much better, now how does this gloss look on me?”
Ah yes this is the typical conversation with my lovely girlfriend Zoey Price, who not only is the hottest girl in school but she also is captain of the cheer squad. And me? I’m just Ryan Parker.
The guys and I are supposed to meet up every Friday after school but since I decided to join the book club, I couldn’t attend. As I walk in to today’s book club meeting, my eyes went straight to this girl. She looked so peaceful reading like that.
“Um, can I help you?” the girl says abrubtly.
“Oh, yeah! I say quickly, “This is the right room for the book club meeting right?”
“Yes it is, but what are you doing here Mr. Parker?”
“You know who I am?”
“Of course I do, everyone does.”
I glare at her for a second before I answer.
“Oh, well I joined book club this year.”
“Wait, really?” the mystery girl asks aghast.
“Yeah, what’s so weird about that?”
I lean back against the wall as I wait for her response. Does she really think she knows me just because I’m popular? That’s the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard! I watch her as she closes her book and adjusts herself.
“I-I didn’t mean to offend you,” she says slowly.
“Clearly,” I huff.
“I don’t really talk to popular people, I don’t know what they are like,” she starts. “I see now that I shouldn’t judge too harshly.”
I look down as she speaks, the sad thing is that she’s right. Most popular people like myself and my friends wouldn’t be caught dead in a book club. I shouldn’t have snapped at her.
“I get it, I shouldn’t have said that...” I trail off and look at her expectantly.
“It’s Luna, Luna Clark,” she finishes.
“Nice to meet you Miss. Clark,” I smile as I reach my hand out. And sure enough she smiles, stands up, and shakes my hand.
This moment, right now? Is the type of moment you never forget. The way her hand felt in mine, how her eyes saw deep into my soul, all of that sappy love stuff. I ask myself how I never noticed her before but I shove the thought out of my head as our hands let go and fell to our sides.
“What book were you reading?” I ask to break the silence.
“Unexpected, ever heard of it?”
“Yeah! Isn’t that the one where the smartest girl falls in love with the jock?” I answer as I remember the story.
“Yeah, I didn’t take you for a romance reader,”
“Usually I’m not but the cover made me want to read it awhile back,”
“Don’t spoil it for me,” Luna says with a wink before turning back to her desk.
“I promise I won’t, book spoilers are the worst!”
“You do realize the meeting doesn’t start until 3 right?”
“I know but around that time I would be with friends so I told them it was now to get out of it,” I sigh.
Instead of responding, she sits down at her desk and nods as she opens her book once more. Normally the silence would be awkward but, this silence? Was calming, refreshing even. Unfortunately someone HAD to say something eventually.
“Do you want to kill some time with me?” I ask slowly.
“Depends on how we kill that time,” she answers without looking up from her book.
“How about a walk, or a book discussion on a book we’ve both read?”
“I think the walk sounds nice, we can leave the book discussing to the book club meetings,” she answers while closing her book.
“The park?”
“The park.”
“So Ryan, what other unusual things do you like to do?” Luna asks me as we walk through the park near our school.
“Ha-ha very funny,” I mock.
“Okay, okay,” she starts. “But seriously tell me, I’m curious!”
“Well in that case, I really like astrology.”
“Really? Me too!”
“Wow, how did you get into it?”
“My name,” she says simply.
I look at her as we walk further, now in silence. Her hair lays behind her in a low ponytail, all but a few strands pulled out, in front of her face. Luna moves a strand behind her ear as if she can hear my thoughts as I think them. She catches me looking at her, and she blushes as she snaps her gaze in another direction.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to stare,” I say quickly.
“It’s okay, do you want to be in the book club groupchat?” Luna asks as her uneasiness fades away.
I nod as I pull out my phone so we can exchange numbers. When Luna hands me my phone back I notice that she chose a blue heart and a star to be next to her name. “Luna 💙⭐️” clearly describing our love for astrology. I smile as I place my phone back into my sweatshirt pocket.
“Putting just your name is kind of bland don’t you think?” Luna asks me as we start walking again.
“I’ll leave the decision to you, I do like what you chose for yours though,” I answer.
“Because of.....” she starts.
“Astrology,” we both say before bursting out in laughter.
Laughing so carelessly isn’t something I usually do. I’ve always watched exactly what I do and how I do it. Everyone sees me as perfect Ryan Parker, and I’ve done everything I can to keep that title. I feel like I would be disappointing people by being something other than perfect.
“We should probably get back, we don’t want to be late when we were already early,” Luna says once she catches her breath.
