When the Moon Fell in Love With the Sun

The air around Alexia was humid and alive with the buzz of voices echoing around the rooms, not just one or two voices but around fifty. The amount of people in the house was not helping with the situation of the heat, but only contributing to it instead. This lead to everyone becoming irritable and uncomfortable. Lexie's sister, Leanne, would have to turn the air conditioning on before this party totally bombed.

Lexie took a sip of her warm champagne. Even something she was hoping to enjoy had been ruined by the heat of the summer. She shouldn't really be complaining, as it was only the first heat wave they'd had and would have been fine in different conditions.

She had been standing in the corner of the living area, observing everyone ever since they got there and not one of them had gone near her or spoke to her. She didn't mind as she didn't know any of them anyway, they were all her sisters friends, all stuck up and probably disapproving of the short, tight white dress that she wore. She saw the looks that they gave her. She wasn't blind!

Lexie sighed and made her way through the throngs of people that surrounded her. She slurred a few words of apologies to those that she bashed into for them to only scowl in return. She wasn't actually drunk or anything, she just wanted to piss them off and wipe the smug, stuck up looks off their faces. They already hated her so why not go the full mile and make them really dislike her? It was too easy not to.

She broke free from the angry glares to the coolness of the kitchen. Her sister was refilling glasses of champagne while the door was open, only just giving some air to the room. Lexie poured her champagne down the sink and got a glass of water and some ice out of the fridge freezer.

"How's everyone doing in there?" her sister asked out of curiosity as Lexie hoped up onto the kitchen counter and added a straw to her drink.

"Pretty much melting, and I'm not even joking. Half of their noses will fall off soon if you don't switch the air conditioning on in there." Lexie said taking a long sip of her drink and wiping her brow with the back of her hand.

"Oh shush." Leanne scolded with a warning look at her younger sister for her remark, even though that had been an initial, if slightly foolish, concern of her own. "I was just about to switch the AC on. You are clearly not happy in there with everyone, so go outside or something. You'll be more comfortable."

"Oh so now you're sending me outside?" Lexie exclaimed sarcastically. She jumped down from the counter and ruffled her sister's hair, making it fizz out even more than it had been because of the humidity. Leanne squealed and tried to tame her hair, but to no avail.

Lexie giggled and hoped outside with her glass of water. The day was beginning to come to a close and everything was starting to get darker, but only just. The sun was setting nicely producing a beautiful array of colours. There were a few people dotted about outside, huddled in groups, talking among themselves or smoking. Lexie sat herself down at the small picnic table, hoping to get a rest on her ears and feet. She'd been standing all evening in high heels and her feet were killing her.

She leant her head back, and looked at the darkening sky with drowsy eyes. If all the people were gone and it was quiet she could have fallen asleep out there in that comfortable, if not a little annoying, heat.

She sat there for at least ten minutes watching the sky turn a lovely golden colour and the clouds transform into what looked like pink candyfloss. She sat listening to the quiet hubbub of voices, before one voice in particular stood out from the rest, which was unusual as normally all the posh voices sounded the same and blended in, but this voice stood out, mainly thanks to the profanities emitting from the person's lips. Lexie sat up straight and looked behind her to where the voice was coming from.

In the shadows behind some of the garden plants stood two young men that looked around her age. She couldn't see either of their faces clearly enough because of the dark shadow that the plants were casting on them. One was clearly taller than the other, even though he had his head hung low.

"I just want to go home Alex. You can stay here, I'll get a cab or something just let me go home." The tallest of the pair pleaded, clearly sounding broken and desperate for the other to listen and understand him.

"Please Gabe, just at least another half an hour. This is just what you need." The other voice said with a slight tinge of urgency to his own voice.

"Look, just because you want to get off with the hot host doesn't mean that I have to stick around here and watch you flirt with her. That's not what I need is it?" who Lexie could tell was Gabe said. Lexie burst into a short laugh in response to the comment about her sister. She drew the boy's attention and they both caught her staring at them.

She adverted her gaze immediately and looked back up to the sky, blushing a bright red and praying they wouldn't come over to her. It would be one thing for them to know she had been listening to their conversation but another to see her blushing so harshly. Unluckily for her she heard footsteps pad across the grass.

The two faces she had only seen in the shadows came into her view, who she knew was Alex smiling and Gabe avoiding eye contact, looking around at his surroundings, anything but her. Had she offended him by listening that badly or was it embarrassment?

"Hi there, I'm Alex and this is Gabe." Alex said, holding out his hand.

Lexie's blush, that had started to fade, came back full force. She shook his hand and cast her eyes away, to hide her embarrassment. "Lexie," she simply said, casting a quick glance at Gabe who quickly adverted his eyes from her again.

"Well lexie, you must have heard my predicament. Would you be willing to do me a favour?" Alex said with a slightly cocky smile, knowing how embarrassed she was and that she would most likely do anything to make up for it.

"Uh…I gue-" Lexie started shifting her gaze from Gabe and back to Alex again, brushing her curly brown hair out of her eyes in the process.

"Great, well you couldn't possibly keep an eye on Gabe here could you? Just make sure he doesn't leave until I come back. He needs to socialise with new people, he hasn't been out in a while and is completely secluded from social interaction." Alex said with a lot of hand gestures and a roll of his eyes at the end.

"Well I-" Lexie began to protest after seeing the look of anger, flash across Gabe's face.

"Great. Thank you Lexie. Nice meeting you and remember, make sure he doesn't go anywhere!" Alex said before she could finish her answer and quickly walked away before she could protest.

Gabe and Lexie were left alone in silence casting a look at each other, properly for the first time. Gabe's angered expression softened almost immediately after looking into Lexie's big brown eyes. Lexie, able to appreciate the features of Gabe's face for the first time, smiled at how tanned his skin was and how clean cut he looked. For someone who had supposedly been cooped up for days, he looked exceptionally clean, possibly just for this party.

"Uh I don't think we've properly introduced ourselves. I'm Gabriel Saporta, I'm 26 and don't mind my friend Alex. He's an idiot." Gabe said. Lexie stared at him with a blank expression, confused at the turn around of attitude for the guy, before she laughed and looked down at the ground.

"Well, Gabriel Saporta, I'm Alexia Jackson, I'm 25 and this is my sisters party." Lexie said to which Gabe raised his eyebrows. He then threw his leg over the bench of the picnic table and straddled it facing Lexie with a bright smile.

"Ah you're the sister of the 'hot host' that Alex hasn't stopped talking about all night. He will be mortified when he finds out." Gabe said. Lexie grinned and looked back up at his face. He looked back smiling, studying everything about her.

"Well since I seem to have to keep an eyes on you and make sure you don't leave for at least another hour, what do you want to do?" Lexie said leaning her arms on the table and looking at the sky as the day started to meet the night.

"Would it be alright if we just sat and talked for a little while?" Gabe asked looking up at the sky also as the light started to merge with the darkness and the moon started to show as the sun took its final steps over the horizon.

"That's okay as long as you promise not to end the conversation when you realise how boring I am," Lexie said sneaking a glance over to Gabe.

"I find that hard to believe," Gabe said glancing back and giving her a small wink.

And so the moon fell in love with the sun.