Little Lune

"Everything will be fine Bea just calm down!" Roxanne walked next to me on our way to Derek's friend's party, dressed in the least amount of clothes she could possibly be in, with it still being legal.

"I'm sorry okay! I just don't want to be all alone all night." That was the sad truth of it. Without Roxanne, I knew I wouldn't be able to hold my own at the party, I wasn't that kind of girl.

"I won't I promise!" She laughed skipping along excitedly.

"So you won't have sex with Derek then?"

"I never said that." She smiled mischievously, and although a hundred warning words flashed through my mind at a mile a minute I kept my mouth shut.

When we arrived at the house, the party was already overflowing into the front yard, the music was loud, and most people, completely trashed.

I stayed close behind Roxy as she moved without fear or nervousness through the front door, to find Derek I'm sure.

"Blondie!" The nickname was familiar through the sea of people, both of our heads snapping in the direction of the voice.

"Hey!" She squealed walking into the kitchen where Derek stood among a group.

"This is that girl I was talking about earlier, Roxy, and this is her friend, Bea right?" I nodded, feeling like the sidekick that no one bothered to learn the name of.

"This is Sam, Megan, Trent and Ashton." They all smiled or waved back at us, not seeming too bothered with our presence.

"Do you guys want some drinks?" He grabbed two plastic cups off of the counter, handing one to each of us even though we hadn't answered. Immediately I recognized the liquid as beer. I had drunk beer before, but I didn't like it, Rox would probably end up drinking mine.

"Come on I want to introduce you to some people." He slithered his arm around my best friend's waist, pulling her away into the shaking and grinding crowed of strangers.

I sighed leaning against the counter, knowing this would happen, not thinking it would be so soon. Then I watched all of the people coming and going, and I wondered if they felt alone, even surrounded by people, the way I did.

"You don't like parties?" A voice asked from beside me. I looked over to see the boy from before, Ashton, leaning against the counter too.

His eyes met mine and I looked away quickly.

I shook my head, "No."

"My friend, Luke, he doesn't like parties either."

I nodded, not knowing what to say. I was uncomfortable, not because of him, but because Roxanne had ditched me and I felt nervous with no one's shadow to stand in.

"I'm gonna head out to the backyard of you want to come?" He offered.

I thought about it, analyzing and over analyzing, as I usually did, eventually deciding to go with him, not wanting to be stuck here leaning against a counter all night.

"Are you new here?" He leaned down, yelling in my ear over the music. "I haven't seen you before!"

"Yeah!"

We stepped outside, the party in just as full a swing as it was inside. There was a pool, obnoxious boys and topless girls splashing in and out. Ashton led me past the cesspool to a collection of a few chairs where a blond boy sat drinking from the red cup in his hand.

"I figured I'd find you here." Ashton sat, motioning for me to take a seat as well.

I could feel the eyes of the boy whose name I did not know yet on me.

"This is Luke, Luke, this is Bea, she's new."

"Hey," I waved awkwardly.

He just stared at me, not speaking, seconds went by. "You're not shining."

"What?"

I'm not shining? Was I supposed to be? Was this some sort of inside joke between them I wasn't aware of? An insult?

He shook his head as if to say forget it.

"Come on Luke, don't get all weird on her already." Ashton advised, laughing.

I liked the two of them already.

"You know Derek?" Ashton set his drink on the ground.

"No, not really. We met at the beach briefly and he invited us, probably just to get with my friend."

I started to worry, remembering that Roxanne was off with some stranger doing God knows what.

"He is notorious for that," Ashton commented, "but, he's the party guy so everyone loves him."

"Too bad he's a douche." Luke murmured taking another drink.

"Hey Ashton!" A voice bellowed from across the yard.

"I'll be right back."

It was awkward and silent between Luke and I so I tried to busy myself, watching the undrank beer swish around in my cup.

"You don't drink?" His voice startled me.

"I do, I just don't like beer."

He looked at me, squinting, eyes seeming the search my face for something.

"Where are you from?" He finally asked, obvious confusion in his voice.

"New Mexico?"

"That explains it."

"Explains what?"

"You're different, not like all the girls around here, just unusual."

"Unusual?"

He shrugged, sticking out his bottom lip in though, "Yeah, different, not all loud and in your face, you feel small I think."

He was right, but how? Was I that obvious? No one else ever seemed to notice. I didn't want to feel small.

"Come on, I want to show you something."

Then I thought it was strange, he was so sure of himself. He said everything he wanted to and didn't hesitate or worry about repercussion. If I was small then he was the sun, bigger than all life, and bright, so bright. Although I had just met Luke I felt like I could trust him, so, when he grabbed my hand, I let him, and I followed in his glowing shadow.

"Where are we going?" I looked up his tall figure, meeting his blue eyes.

"There's this park up the road, and if you sit backwards on the swings there's this really amazing view."

Then we walked together in silence. His hand was still holding mine and I thought it was weird because we had just met and I had never held hands with anyone other than Matthew Turner in the second grade.

The park was small, made up of only a rusted old slide and a pair of swings with the paint chipping off, but when you sat on them you had a perfect view of the sky meeting the ocean, the moon hovering just above it, illuminating the water below.

"It's beautiful." I breathed, kicking my legs back and forth.

"You remind me of the moon."

"Oh?"

He pushed himself back and forth using his long legs that reached the ground, "I mean, you have this eerie beauty about you, it's so natural, an innocent kind of beauty, maybe not everyone appreciates it or notices it, but, my God, it's there."

My cheeks were hot, no one had ever spoken about me that way.

"But, the thing about the moon is, she doesn't know how to be alive, at least not on her own. She hides sometimes too. She needs the sun."

I didn't know if he was talking about me or the actual moon now.

"You don't talk much." He noted.

"I don't mean to, I just think a lot."

"What do you think about?"

"Everything I guess." I didn't want to elaborate.

"How long have you lived here?"

"This is my first day here actually," I felt bad for not really adding much to the conversation, and I didn't want him to get annoyed with me because so far I liked Luke, especially because he had gotten me away from that damn party, "what about you?"

"I've lived here for about two years. I moved here with Ashton when he turned eighteen."

"Is he your brother?"

"Not technically, we've been friends since we were like two though to he might as well be."

"Same with me and Roxanne. I don't have any real siblings."

"Me either."

Then we were quiet again, the only noise coming from the rustling trees and the creaking and squeaking of the old swing set.

"What are you thinking about now?"

"I'm thinking that I'm really glad I came to LA."