I had no idea why I was chasing after him. I didn’t care if he ever came back, but something kept my feet moving. We lived next to a nature preserve, that was beautiful during the day when you could see it, but soon the rest of the evening light would be gone and it would be hard to move without tripping over something.
The fading light was just bright enough for me to see Chris a little ways up the path. I ran up behind him and smacked him in the back of the head.
“Hey,” he said annoyed.
“Why are you such an idiot?” I asked.
“Well that’s one I haven’t heard,” he said glaring at me.
“I’m not afraid of you,” I said laughing.
“Says the girl, who punched me when she was ten for calling her babe!” he said still glaring. I laughed.
“I’ll do it again,” I said smiling evilly.
“I have no doubt.” He said going back to his music.
I yanked the headphones out of his ears, “hey I’m talking to you.”
“Well I don’t really want to talk to you,” he said grabbing the headphones back, but he didn’t put them in. instead he grabbed his iPod out of his pocket and turned it off, wrapping the cord around it.
“Do you really hate it here?” I asked. That seemed to get his attention and I guess I had just informed him that I had listened to his conversation.
“How did you know that?” he asked
“I heard you talking on the phone with your mom.” I sighed embarrassed.
“Oh,” he said looking down.
“You don’t answer many questions.” I said annoyed, “So why do you hate it here?”
“Cause I have to deal with you… babe,” he said using my old nickname.
I let it slide, because I knew he was joking, and I was trying to get through to him somehow.
“Come on it’s only me out here,” I said exasperated.
“Because I don’t know anyone, your parents are strict, and I have to live with a beautiful girl and I’m not allowed to touch her cause her parents hate me,” he eyed me carefully, making sure I wasn’t going to hit him.
“Isn’t Bethany a little young for you?” I asked laughing. He laughed too and it was the first time I seen any hint of happiness come from him, even in those few years that we had to get together when we were little.
“I guess we should go back now.” He said sighing. The sun had gone below the horizon and I realized the sky was dark, but what surprised me was that I could still see. The stars shone brightly, and there was a full moon.
I laughed again, “Are you kidding? You made me come all the way out here to get you and now you want to go back during the most beautiful time of day.” I walked farther up the path and up the hill then turned back to see Chris still standing there, “When someone walks away, normally your supposed to follow them,” I scoffed at him then turned back around and walked over the other side of the hill.
I could hear Chris, following me, and I thought I heard him fall a few times. When I got to a clearing, I lay down on the ground and stared up at the stars. There were so many of them and they lit up the sky like fireflies.
I heard Chris lay down next to me, but I didn’t look at him, instead I just continued to look up at the sky, “aren’t they beautiful?” he asked.
“What?” I replied.
“Look who the idiot is now,” he said laughing a little, “the stars.”
“Oh yes. I can’t see this many from my window.”
“Do you know any of the constellations?” he asked.
“Let’s see I know. Orion’s belt,” I said pointing to three stars all in a line, “and he’s protecting the seven sisters,” I proceeded to point out all of the constellations I knew, which weren’t many.
When I got finished, we just laid there and looked up at the stars without saying a word.
When my phone started to vibrate in my pocket I laughed out loud and I heard Chris jump from the sudden noise.
“Hello?” I said into the phone.
“It’s time to come home,” said my dad, “it’s 10 o’clock."
“Alright, be home soon, love you dad.”
“Love you too,” he said, and I heard the click on the other end that meant he had hung up. When I looked at Chris he was sitting up and staring at me.
“What?” I asked annoyed.
"Nothing, never mind. Who was it?"
“It was my dad; it’s time to go home.”
“Back to the house.” He said and stood up. I noticed he didn’t call it home and I didn’t blame him. They always say home is where the heart is and his heart was somewhere far, far way.
When we got home my mom was already asleep, thanks to my dad.
“Well goodnight,” I said to Chris. He just waved me off like I wasn’t even there, so much for getting though to him.
I walked upstairs, said goodnight to my parents and my little sister, and then went to my room. It was only 10 and way too early for me to go to sleep, so I opened up my computer and logged on to Facebook. I was bombarded by notifications, and PMs.
While sorting though the status’s there was a knock on my door. Thinking it was Bethany I told her to come in. To my surprise Chris stood in my door frame with a look of nervousness on his face.
“Hey Chris,” the surprise was clear in my voice.
“Umm… Hi,” he replied.
I just stared up at him, expecting him to say more, but he only stood there, “do you need something?” I said annoyed.
“Oh yeah,” he said quickly, “umm I just wanted to thank you for... talking to me today.”
I huffed, “yeah sure, no problem. Goodnight,” and with that he shut my door and I could hear him walk back down the stairs. What I didn’t understand is why he waited to say thanks? Maybe there were some things I still needed to learn about Chris.