Breaking Suburbia

“How is it that I always catch you in your pajamas?” A familiar voice called out to her.

Maggie’s heart began to beat, making her turn around from the flower beds in a crazed fashion. There was Chester in all of his average glory, standing at her gate without a leash in hand and with aviators clipped to his shirt due to the impending dawn. Maggie blinked several times to make sure she wasn’t dreaming the boy that had more or less tried to get to know her and disappeared as if he was scared for his life. Of course, Maggie wouldn’t blame him, but that didn’t make utter rudeness excusable. “I was just coming to get the mail.” Maggie weakly defended, sounding absolutely dumbstruck.

“It’s a typical thing to do.” Chester nervously chuckled, fiddling with his backpack straps. Maggie slowly advanced towards the gate he was casually leaning over.

“No, it’s just…” Maggie shook her head, staring down at her feet. She could not force out ‘I missed you.’ Not yet. Even she knew that filters were necessary at times.

“I have too.” Chester smiled, anxiously twiddling his fingers, moving his hands in motions that weren’t out of the ordinary, but different for the persona he possessed. Maggie quirked an eyebrow at the mutual understanding that was shared. Chester couldn’t have missed her; Maggie was entirely convinced he never thought about her. She sighed; observing the journey Chester was about to embark on-- filling her heart and breaking it eventually at the end of the road. He already had in a sense by being the thing that Maggie yearned for, but never could attain.

“You’ve missed me?” Maggie shook her head, trying to force herself to look into his eyes. Strength, she lacked the strength and courage to stare at him directly.

“I don’t know you well enough to miss you. I did, however, miss you in a strange way. It’s weird…” Chester scratched the back of his neck.

Maggie nodded in understanding, punching in the code to her gate. “You wanna come in? I’m watching some movie…” She lied. She wasn’t watching the movie. It was just a soundtrack of background noise so the house wasn’t so empty.

“That would be great, if you don’t mind.” Chester frowned, just coming to realize he had invited himself. Maggie could care less, she was ecstatic. The one time her house is in a running order she has someone pop in. The last time someone made a visit it was the town reverend coming to check in on her after her mother’s death.

“Don’t worry. Have you had something to eat?” Maggie queried, nearly tripping up the steps in excitement.

And that was the moment she rolled over in her cotton sheets, sighing as she looked at the rain falling down in the prettiest brushstrokes. Her fresh eyes followed their tracks.

She pushed the covers off, though she wasn’t ready and the cold attacked her, eating the bare skin in uncomfortable sensations. Why did it have to be so beautiful? Maggie shoved her face in her pillow, breathing deeply as the thoughts raced through her head in a thick concentrate.

It was foolish. It was childish. It was the perfect way to get hurt. Maggie knew it wasn’t healthy. Maggie self identified with the term ‘ridiculous’ at this point.

But she dressed, she managed to pull the comb through the knots, and she found herself sitting at the café. Her eyes need not dart around for Scarlet, for Scarlet sat across from her in a warm oatmeal cardigan sweater. “It’s about time I sat down and had a meal with you.” Her pure voice rang off the windows. Scarlet’s teeth were whiter than pearls, only making Maggie more envious of the femme fatale when she thought it wasn’t possible.

“You don’t have to.” Maggie stirred sugar into what had the scent of strong espresso. Scarlet brought her mug up to her lips to the white ceramic. When she placed it back down on the table, a thick ring of red lipstick made itself known. Strangely enough, Scarlet’s lips weren’t in any way affected though the evidence was jarring.

“Well, I’m not obliged to do it either.” Scarlet fiddled with a swizzle stick that sat in a receptacle at the far left of the table. She stares into the stark night sky in some sort of wonder that Maggie has never seen on a person’s face before. “I always hate clouds in the night sky. They cheat you out of the stars.” Scarlet muses. Before Maggie can blink or respond, the blinds have been drawn up.

Maggie didn’t see the big deal, it was just a sky. It was the same one that she looked at, along with the other inhabitants of the blue planet, every single night. Like the man behind the counter in the café, the sky was a constant, it was overlooked. “I guess you could say that. But we really need the rain.” Maggie offered the voice of reason.

“But… Cassiopeia. What a beautiful story. What a beautiful constellation. My favorite is Ursa Minor. That was my first constellation…” The fire in her eyes is competing with the fire that is her hair as Scarlet speaks with such passion it makes Maggie feel the slightest bit moved. “I’m going to school to be an astronomer.” Scarlet announced happily. “Or, I was.”

“I’m sorry.” Maggie bowed her head, pushing the remnants of mashed potatoes she wasn’t going to consume around the circumference of the red glossy plate. Bits of pepper stuck out in the white mush.

“Don’t be sorry. I’m not letting fate, or the stars.” She pauses to giggle. Even her giggle attracts the attention of men, as the busboy turns around and gapes at the ginger. “…Control me. I’m going to control fate and change my stars. You should too, ya’ know?” She picked up her espresso, gulping the black liquid. Just watching her made Maggie’s stomach turn in disgust. All that caffeine would make her sick.

“I never really had that much of a life to waste.” Maggie stifled a painful laugh. Scarlet shook her head in fervent disagreement.

“You know, you send out ripples just by sitting somewhere. That’s what has always boggled me. I can just be sitting somewhere and someone can be utterly moved by me. It’s crazy, ya’ know?” Scarlet still held her glance to the darkened heavens as she spoke to Maggie. Maggie agreed with this half of the statement, but Maggie didn’t think that sitting within the confines of a house that would never be home all the time was utterly moving anyone.

But the fate aspect struck a chord in Maggie that she didn’t know she could sing.