Even Brighter Than the Moon
Even Brighter than the Moon
It was one of those nights when the pressure was weighing down on Richelle Glass as she laid uncomfortably in her bed, eyes wide to the darkness, the sound of trees creaking in the hot, Tennessee wind punctuating her every breath.
She couldn’t think about the past, too many mistakes had been made for her to obsess over. But the future was just as daunting- too much time and uncertainty and room for more mistakes. Each second was a land mine, each passing, sleepless second another thing to fear.
Her life was like a giant puzzle out in front of her, and these nights that came far too easily for Richelle were the moments when she was desperately trying to fit together two pieces that just didn’t belong.
This was the constant strain that Richelle felt in her heart. She wasn’t living her life- she was surviving it. She was her own Atlas, holding on her shoulders a dark world she understood nothing of... And her body was starting to give way.
The only thing that kept her life somewhat sane was Shane Wilson, and even he was a mystery. A year above her, the slacker boy in the rock band had taken an interest in Richelle. The more he tried to unravel the tangled constraints on Richelle’s life, the more intense their relationship [Acquaintanceship? Friendship? Something more?] became.
His figure settled easily in her mind. Shane was tall and thin, with long, messy rocker boy hair as richly brown as Richelle’s favorite kind of coffee. His eyes, so often searching for a ray of light in Richelle’s, were pale green and full of dreams. The closest thing Richelle supposed she could compare his band’s music too was Silverstein- a purely passionate collisions of guitars and drums and Shane’s screams. It was a style of music Richelle had never given the time of day until she met Shane and realized what wonderful love he put into it. That was just the kind of guy he was- deep and emotional and unafraid of the world around him, so unlike Richelle in that regard. But at the same time, wherever he was, at a show, skipping class, or in Richelle’s driveway waiting to whisk her away for a few precious hours, he was never to be found without his dusty, tattered leather jacket.
They had met at school, in a speech class they shared when Shane bothered to show up. Even today, when she would ask Shane what made him talk to shy, bespectacled, sophomore her in the first place, with her slick, blonde bun and sharp, measuring brown eyes, he would shrug and say the same five simple words, engraved in Richelle like a mental tattoo: The damage in your heart.
But still, the thoughts of him on this Nashville night calmed Richelle, if only enough to slowly carry her to sleep...
Her phone rang. The blue flashed: SHANE W.
“Hello?”
“Sorry, did I wake you up?” Shane’s raspy voice asked, his southern drawl more prominent than ever over the phone.
“No, no, it’s fine. What’s up?”
“I promised I’d sing to you,” he said. “Remember?”
That was right. Earlier that night, as she and Shane laid on the hood of his car under the crescent moon, Richelle had questioned Shane about his singing voice, since all he did in the band was scream. He had looked at her with a serious expression and had promised to call her and sing her a lullaby sometime. The weight of the promise in his voice was so strong Richelle had felt rather embarrassed.
“What are you going to sing? One of your band’s songs?”
“No, I said I’d show you my voice not my screams,” he explained. “So I picked something a little out of the ordinary. Just for you.”
He took a deep breath in- a sound of his vitality that Richelle never neglected to be thankful for.
“Baby, you’re a firework,
Come on, show ‘em what you’re worth,
Make them go oh, oh, oh,
As you shoot across the sky, eye, eye.”
All that filled Richelle’s room was the pale light of the moon and Shane’s lonely serenade. It was beautiful, Richelle could never have imagined a song like this sounding as meaningful as it did while Shane sang.
As he made his was through his rendition of the song, Richelle slowly felt the pressure lift away, and a feeling of rare lightness swam through her heart...
“Boom, boom, boom,
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon,
Boom, boom, boom,
Even brighter than the moon.”
She couldn’t think about the past, too many mistakes had been made for her to obsess over. But the future was just as daunting- too much time and uncertainty and room for more mistakes. Each second was a land mine, each passing, sleepless second another thing to fear.
Her life was like a giant puzzle out in front of her, and these nights that came far too easily for Richelle were the moments when she was desperately trying to fit together two pieces that just didn’t belong.
This was the constant strain that Richelle felt in her heart. She wasn’t living her life- she was surviving it. She was her own Atlas, holding on her shoulders a dark world she understood nothing of... And her body was starting to give way.
The only thing that kept her life somewhat sane was Shane Wilson, and even he was a mystery. A year above her, the slacker boy in the rock band had taken an interest in Richelle. The more he tried to unravel the tangled constraints on Richelle’s life, the more intense their relationship [Acquaintanceship? Friendship? Something more?] became.
His figure settled easily in her mind. Shane was tall and thin, with long, messy rocker boy hair as richly brown as Richelle’s favorite kind of coffee. His eyes, so often searching for a ray of light in Richelle’s, were pale green and full of dreams. The closest thing Richelle supposed she could compare his band’s music too was Silverstein- a purely passionate collisions of guitars and drums and Shane’s screams. It was a style of music Richelle had never given the time of day until she met Shane and realized what wonderful love he put into it. That was just the kind of guy he was- deep and emotional and unafraid of the world around him, so unlike Richelle in that regard. But at the same time, wherever he was, at a show, skipping class, or in Richelle’s driveway waiting to whisk her away for a few precious hours, he was never to be found without his dusty, tattered leather jacket.
They had met at school, in a speech class they shared when Shane bothered to show up. Even today, when she would ask Shane what made him talk to shy, bespectacled, sophomore her in the first place, with her slick, blonde bun and sharp, measuring brown eyes, he would shrug and say the same five simple words, engraved in Richelle like a mental tattoo: The damage in your heart.
But still, the thoughts of him on this Nashville night calmed Richelle, if only enough to slowly carry her to sleep...
Her phone rang. The blue flashed: SHANE W.
“Hello?”
“Sorry, did I wake you up?” Shane’s raspy voice asked, his southern drawl more prominent than ever over the phone.
“No, no, it’s fine. What’s up?”
“I promised I’d sing to you,” he said. “Remember?”
That was right. Earlier that night, as she and Shane laid on the hood of his car under the crescent moon, Richelle had questioned Shane about his singing voice, since all he did in the band was scream. He had looked at her with a serious expression and had promised to call her and sing her a lullaby sometime. The weight of the promise in his voice was so strong Richelle had felt rather embarrassed.
“What are you going to sing? One of your band’s songs?”
“No, I said I’d show you my voice not my screams,” he explained. “So I picked something a little out of the ordinary. Just for you.”
He took a deep breath in- a sound of his vitality that Richelle never neglected to be thankful for.
“Baby, you’re a firework,
Come on, show ‘em what you’re worth,
Make them go oh, oh, oh,
As you shoot across the sky, eye, eye.”
All that filled Richelle’s room was the pale light of the moon and Shane’s lonely serenade. It was beautiful, Richelle could never have imagined a song like this sounding as meaningful as it did while Shane sang.
As he made his was through his rendition of the song, Richelle slowly felt the pressure lift away, and a feeling of rare lightness swam through her heart...
“Boom, boom, boom,
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon,
Boom, boom, boom,
Even brighter than the moon.”