The girl sighed. Her long silky black hair fell from behind her ears and swung in front of her unseeing brown eyes.
What should I do? He merely waved to me before moving on to his other friends.
A clicking noise brought the heart-wrenched girl back to reality.
"No spacing out when I'm giving you a lecture on the universe, Luna."
"Sorry, Apollo," the girl apologized with a small smile on her face. She stared up at her friend who continued on with his usual made-up lessons on the universe and all the planets and stars.
Her crush was a friend from childhood, but he moved away years ago and just moved back last summer. Apollo had been Luna's friend since childhood also, but he had always been within walking distance. Apollo's hair was as yellow and bright as the sun, and his eyes were a clear blue with flecks of green and gold. He was actually rather cute, but he did not attract many girls because he was always seen with Luna and was known for being somewhat crazy. He was not Mister Popular, but he was not a total geek either.
"...and so, the sun shines and sends its light to the moon, but the moon reflects it. The moon probably does not realize it, but it needs the sun. It would be lost in total darkness without it."
"What?" Luna asked Apollo clearly stating she had not paid attention. Apollo frowned.
"You never listen, do you?"
"Honestly, no." Luna grinned up at the sour-faced Apollo. He pinched her right cheek. "Ow!"
"That's revenge for this time." He smirked. "Next time, I won't let you get off so easily."
"Oh, really?" Luna said doubtfully.
"Yup. The toll will be much higher," Apollo replied. He leaned back next to Luna on the bleacher behind them. They sat that way in silence for a few minutes.
"Think you'll finally get a boyfriend this year?"
"Hey!"Luna yelled. She punched his left arm.
"Ow!"
"What about you and your no-girlfriend streak?" Apollo grinned and shook his head as he rubbed his arm.
"Ah, child, that does not matter since I'm looking out for you." He stopped rubbing his arm as his grin grew even wider. "Besides, I'm not the one who hasn't even been asked out by anyone."
"You-!" Luna moved to slap Apollo, but he dodged her hand as it flew inches away from his cheek.
"Missed! Ha!"
Luna fumed and sent her hand flying backwards. Apollo caught her backhand attack at the last second and stuck his tongue out at her.
"I see you guys are having fun."
Luna and Apollo looked down at the gym floor to see a boy with sparkling green eyes and light brown hair smiling up at them.
"Terrence!" Luna tried not to show too much of her happiness of him being there. She quickly wrenched her hand out of Apollo's and fixed her sitting position to face Terrence.
Terrence smiled and climbed up the bleachers to Apollo and Luna.
"What's up, guys?" he asked.
"Eh. Not much. Just trying to stay alive. Luna's got some nasty attack moves," Apollo replied.
"Apollo!" Luna cried embarrassed. Her cheeks grew red. The two boys laughed at her, which only made her redder. "Stop it, you guys!"
"Okay, okay," Terrence said as he tried to control his laughter. Apollo kept chuckling until Luna lightly slapped his arm.
"Okay, I'll stop too,' Apollo said as he smiled teasingly at Luna.
"Good."
"So, do you guys have gym too?" Terrence asked.
I can't believe my luck! Terrence has gym too! I should pick the same teacher as him.
"I do," Luna stated.
"Not me. I've got health and fitness," Apollo said rather disappointedly, but it went unnoticed by Luna.
"Oh, that's too bad, Apollo," Terrence said sympathetically. "Well, at least you're with me, Luna." He smiled. Luna smiled back
"Yeah. We should pick the same teachers then." Terrence nodded.
They picked the same teacher and had gym together every day at fifth block, which was the last period of the school day. As the first few weeks went by, Luna was happy. She could talk to Terrence and spend time with him at the end of the day. They laughed, played, and sweated together.
But something seemed to be missing. Luna could not put her finger on it. She would get this weird feeling once in a while, but quickly push it aside when she saw Terrence coming over with a smile on his face like always.
One day, in the winter, Apollo was out sick. He rode the bus every morning with Luna, so it felt strange without him sitting next to her for the twenty minute ride. They also shared a few periods: orchestra, student prep, and lunch. The whole day was rather uncomfortable and lonely.
Later that day, Luna kept her eye on the clock all through gym unable to bear waiting to see Apollo's face. Since she was not paying attention, she was hit in the face with the ball.
"Luna!"
She did her best to see through the tears that formed in her eyes to see who was crying out her name. Terrence came running over to her quickly.
"Oh, gawd! I'm so sorry, Luna!" he cried as he knelt by her side and touched her cheek. "Are you hurt?"
Before Luna could answer, Terrence picked her up in a marriage style way.
"Whoa! Terrence, what are - ?" Terrence swung around to face the teacher and cut off Luna's questioning.
"Teacher, I'm going to take Luna to the nurse." Before the teacher could reply, Terrence went speeding off with Luna in his arms to the main building where the nurse's office was.
After the nurse was finished tending to Luna and saying nothing was badly injured, she left Terrence and Luna alone to go tend to another patient.
"How are you feeling?" Luna looked up at the embarrassed Terrence.
"I'm good. My nose must look like Rudolph's, though." Terrence chuckled a bit. "Hey, Terrence. I know you're not the best in dodgeball, but you're aim is good enough to the point where the ball won't land anywhere near your opponent's face unless you wanted it to."
Terrence's face turned bright red.
"Y-Yeah. About that..." He shifted his weight from one foot to the other for a bit as he rubbed his head with his hand. His eyes were staring at the ground, but he stole a glance at Luna from time to time.
"What is it?" Luna asked.
"Um...well..." Terrence fidgeted around some more before taking a deep breath and stiffening himself. He faced Luna and stared straight into her eyes. "I like you."
"What?"
Luna had heard him, but she could not believe what she was hearing or how she was reacting.
"I...like you, Luna."
She imagined herself crying, feeling her heart skip a beat or race wildly, or running into Terrence's arms. However, none of these happened. She merely stared at him dumbfounded.
What's wrong with me? Don't I like him too? Say it then!
Luna parted her lips to say "I like you too", but the words would not come. She just could not say them. Not now. Not ever. Not to Terrence.
Why?! Haven't I been dreaming of this moment for the past number of months? Why can't I take the last step to where I want to be?
An image of Apollo laughing at her and the sun and the moon popped into Luna's head.
That's why. That's what she had been missing.
"The sun sends its light to the moon, but the moon reflects it. The moon probably does not realize it, but it needs the sun. it would be lost in total darkness without it...," Luna mumbled to herself. Tears began to fall from her eyes.
"What?" Terrence asked puzzled at her response. She lifted her face to him. He saw her smiling with tears on her face. "Luna?"
"I'm sorry, Terrence. I already have someone." Luna wiped away her tears and her smile grew brighter. "I already have a sun."
"Apollo! Apollo! Apollo!" Luna screamed at the top of her lungs as she banged on the front door of his house.
There was a sound of feet shuffling rapidly inside. The door flew open and there stood Apollo in a robe, pajama pants, and fuzzy slippers. His hair was a mess and his nose was red from using too many tissues.
"Apollo!" Luna cried and hugged him immediately. He nearly collapsed from the sudden weight thrown upon him.
"Whoa, girl! I'm sick, not dying." Luna laughed. "What's with the screaming and banging anyway? Why don't you just use the doorbell like normal people and wait for the sick man to crawl up to the door?" Luna laughed once more.
"Oh, Apollo," she sighed. "You'll never believe what happened today!" He smiled with a puzzled look.
"What happened?"
"Terrence confessed that he likes me!" Apollo's jaw dropped.
"Oh..." He looked down. "That's great." he said reluctantly. "I'm happy for you."
"What's wrong with you?!" Luna cried as she slapped his arm. He looked at her confused. "That's not all of it. Wait for me to finish."
"Oh?"
"He said he liked me. I thought I would be able to say that I liked him too." Apollo glanced to the side. "But I couldn't." He glance back at Luna.
"What? Why?"
"Because I realized that I already had a sun." Apollo looked stunned. Luna giggled at him.
"Sun? By that, you mean..." Luna nodded. Apollo smiled with relief. Luna hugged him more gently this time.
"You're the one I like, Apollo," she whispered to him as she buried her face in his chest. Apollo wrapped his arms around her.
"And you're the one I like, Luna," he whispered back. Then he gently lifted her chin up and smiled down upon her. "The moon has finally absorbed the sun's light." Luna smiled back.
In Apollo's eyes, Luna could see all the stars and planets and everything else that lit up the sky like the moon and the sun.
Labels: story
posted by Imperfect Angell @ 2:16 PM
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