Those Things Beautiful.

I really had no will to bring Dana with me into town. In fact, I didn’t even have the will to bring myself there. Of course, I had told Dad that I would go, and I couldn’t back down after he’d left money. That would just be rude.

So I’d spend the money. But I wouldn’t be happy about it.

“Come on, Hailey,” my little sister called, halfway out the door, “let’s go already!”

I sighed, slinging my purse over my shoulder and slipping my flip flops on before walking down the stairs at a comfortable pace. “Hold your horses, I’m coming. You’re really impatient sometimes, Dana, I gotta tell you.” And she was, nearly all of the time. I just didn’t have the heart to tell her that, because there are some things even I can’t say.

“I know, I know,” she said, waving her hand through the warm California’s end-of-the-summer air as if what I had told her was the least important thing she’d heard all day. “Now come on, I’ve got places that I want to go, things that I want to do. You’re holding me up and I need to go right n-”

“Oh, give it a rest,” I snapped, heading out the door.

Dana’s feet scraped my ankles as we cut across the grassy lawn to get to the street which lead to town. “So, where are we going today?”

“I’m not sure,” I said. “Maybe we’ll go to the movies? There’s a couple out right now that I think Mom said you’d told her you wanted to see. Or maybe we’ll go shopping? Out to lunch? Whatever we want, really, ‘cuz Dad left us some money to spend on ourselves today.”

“The movies sounds like lots of fun,” she giggled, her face lighting up as she began skipping down the walk. “We could get popcorn and pop, and then we could go out and get hot dogs at the Coney Island down the street, or-”

I cut the little girl off again, because she was getting far too ahead of herself. “Whoa, slow down, kid. We can do whatever today, don’t take it too seriously or you’ll knock yourself out.”

She took a deep breath, stopped dead in her tracks, and just smiled up at me. “Okay, Hailey. We’ll have a great day today.”

And I think that right then I remembered how much I loved that girl, because there are moments when she just had me wrapped right around her nine-year-old finger, and she didn’t have a clue.

Her lips must have been cold compared to the hot air surrounding us as she sipped so eagerly on her strawberry milkshake. She stared down her straw at the pink shake in her styrofoam cup. I watched her, twirling a strand of my shoulder-length hair around my pointer finger, intrigued at how little it took to get her to be quiet for just a few minutes.

There was hardly anyone in the diner that day at noon, which was surprising as it was the prime hour for eating lunch. All the people that were there were either too old to know where they were at, or were that annoying age of eleven where children thought that they were old enough to walk around town without an adult.

Dana had insisted that we both go to the Coney Island just a few blocks away from the house, so I gave in. Besides, I was hungry, too, and hot dogs sounded good.

“Yummy,” Dana murmured, pausing from her nearly constant sipping of the milkshake to give me the verdict. “It’s great.”

“Can I have a ‘thank you,’ please?” I asked sarcastically.

“Thanks, Hailey,” she giggled, returning to the drink.

Right then, a group of noisy teenage boys entered the small shop. Dana didn’t even look up from her milkshake. I, on the other hand, was left ogling at the teens. They were all dressed in black, all sporting a look on their faces that screamed: “I don’t give a shit what anyone thinks of me.” They were laughing obnoxiously loud. I couldn’t look away.

“Fuck,” one of the boys cursed loudly. “Bri, I can’t believe you said that to her!”

My first instinct was to take Dana and get the hell out of there, not wanting her to be around such foul language at such a young age; she was too innocent, too pure for angry words like that to inflict upon her early years.

“Come on,” I told Dana, “do you want to go shopping, or something? Let’s get out of here.”

She shook her head. “Hold on a second, let me finish my milkshake.”

I felt like I was in such a hurry to avoid those boys, to get my younger sister and myself away from them and their corrupted words.

“We’ve got to go right now,” I said hastily, “You can take it with you.”

With a heavy sigh, she hopped off of her stool and started toward the door. I followed her quickly behind, taking her unwillingly by the hand.

On our way out the door, one of the boys bumped into me. His shoulder collided with my own, and I winced. He looked back at me over his shoulder, and I looked back at him over my own.

His eyes were calm, despite the fact that it was the end of the summer and he was around all of his best friends. For some reason, when those eyes met mine, my breath got caught in the back of my throat and for just the quickest of moments, I couldn’t breathe.

Those eyes were so clear.