Rhinestone Sneakers

The rhinestones on Arianna’s sneakers are sparkling from sunlight creeping through the window. It finds each and every one, lighting them ablaze before another cloud whips past and starts the cycle over again. Arianna dips her foot closer, poking at the tongue of the left one, before kicking the shoe away and pulling her entire self up onto her bed.

Not her bed anymore, she thinks. For two weeks it was, but two weeks have ended, like she always knew they would. They weren’t supposed to fly past so quickly. Not like the clouds outside, too fast to make out a single fun shape.

“Riri?” her mom’s voice calls, muffled through the wooden door. The bed squeaks when Arianna curls tighter into herself, roughed-up knees tucked to her chest and loose black curls coating her face. 

It squeaks the same squeak as when it’s jumped on, or when too many people get on it at once. The same squeak she’s heard dozens of times. She sniffles. Her blurry eyes squeeze closed when the door scrapes open against the rough wooden floors. At least there’s one thing she won’t miss.

“Oh, honeybee.” The mattress bounces Arianna up enough that a giggle tries to rise up her throat. Before it can leave, she swallows it down, not having the energy for it anyway. A hand rests on her lower backs and starts rubbing, up and down, along the little bumps. 

“Go ‘way,” Arianna whimpers. “‘M fine.”

Her mom scooches closer.

“Mom.”

“You didn’t say the magic word, honeybee.”

“Please.”

“Please? What’s magical about that?” Her mom snickers, the fake snicker she does when she’s setting up a dumb joke. That’s all it takes for a smile to start tugging at the corners of Arianna’s lips, using all it’s might to correct her forced pout. “Everybody knows the way to make someone disappear is abra cadabra. Ooo, or if you want to be fancy… bibbity bom, mom be gone.”

Her mom’s voice stays perfectly serious, and it’s too much to take. Arianna snorts, halfway between a sob and a laugh, and her body loosens up the longer it goes. “That’s not a thing. I’ve never even heard that before.”

“Oh, it’s real. But don’t think you can start using it on me. I know all the spells to get around it. Hocus pocus. Tibbity tack, mom come back…”

“Stop it.” Now fully out of her cocoon, Arianna bumps her shoulder against her mom’s, cutting off her list of increasingly absurd spell names. She rolls her eyes at herself before mumbling, “Bibbity buff, that’s enough.”

“That’s my girl,” her mom teases. Her strong arms wrap around Arianna’s midsection, and her lips press to the side of Arianna’s head. “Now. What’s got my honeybee so broken up, huh? Who do I need to tell off?”

“Nobody, mom.” The sunlight from the window dims again, but this time, the string of clouds keeps going, and going. Arianna bites the inside of her cheek. Her mouth opens once, twice, thrice, only to close without a word. The rhinestone sneakers catch her vision again.

Like the bed, they shouldn’t be hers anymore.

“I made a friend.” She swipes a finger under her eye, and picks up her glasses on the way, bringing them down to her shirt and wrapping two fingers in fabric to clean them. Her mom doesn’t fall for the distraction, raising an eyebrow the moment Arianna’s glasses are back on her face. “Her name’s Jessica.”

“Mhm.” Her mom gently squeezes her. 

“She’s really cool. She’s into biology stuff, so like… she knew all the frogs and bugs and lizards in the area. And she takes dance too, so we could talk about that. We danced together a few nights ago. For fun.” She adds the last part so quickly she’s not sure why it was important. That’s another thing Jessica was great at - making her unsure.

“Do I get to meet her?” That’s always what comes after Arianna tells her about a new person. She should’ve been prepared. Instead, it hits a soft part of her heart. Not a punch, or a break, but enough of a flick to send her tear ducts back to work. “Oh, no… this isn’t because you’re embarrassed about me meeting her, is it?”

Arianna shakes her head side to side. Her feet fall to the floor, and she pokes one of the rhinestones with her toe. “She left this morning. I was out picking flowers to give to her before she left, and her parents rushed her out, so I didn’t get to…” Her words get stuck at the lump in her throat. She swallows hard. “I wanted to say goodbye at least.”

She leans against her mom’s shoulder and closes her eyes. There’s a projector in her mind replaying the past two weeks. When they dove off the dock right before curfew, Jessica laughed so hard she needed help staying above water. When they’d curl up together with a book on the bottom bunk, Arianna would be the one with a head resting on her shoulder.

  When they were together, things felt so simple. In truth, the time didn’t fly by all that quickly; she never knew that two weeks could feel like a century in a good way.

“A lot of the same kids come to these camps. I saw that boy from the last three you’ve been to on my way in,” her mom explains. Arianna paints on a smile, and her mom smiles back, bright enough for both of them. “You ready to head out, honeybee? This bed is nice, but trust me. Your back misses your actual bed.”

That draws out a real enough laugh. She packs up her things, her books and pencils and tossed-about clothes, before the shoes are the only thing left. Jessica might’ve been taller, but they were the same size. A similar style, too. There’s only one big difference - a little marker smiley face drawn on the inside.

Hers aren’t in the best of shape, either, Arianna thinks as they walk out. Her toes crinkle against the front of the left shoe. It reminds her of Jessica always tripping in the woods because she’d insist on looking up at the trees and calling out shapes in the clouds, and suddenly, it doesn’t seem like a big issue. Not when Jessica’s grinning, dirt-covered face is burned into her memory.

On the drive home, the clouds flick past even faster, whirring past the window like they have somewhere to be. She wonders if Jessica has seen any of the same ones. If she’d be rambling out what each and every one was until they were both laughing and piling on top of each other in the backseat. Arianna lets out a shaky sigh.

“You alright, Riri?”

“Mhm.” Arianna turns to her. “I’m sure I’ll see her again.”

“Oh, good. But I meant your foot,” her mom laughs. “You didn’t hurt your toes, did you? You’ve been moving them since we left.”

“No, I didn’t. There’s just… something wrong with the front, I guess.” She kicks her left shoe off and picks it up, sticking her fingers inside in hopes of laying down whatever flipped up material was distracting her so much. “What the…?”

To her surprise, a piece of paper comes out, folded up and slightly crumpled from its unfortunate position. Her mom’s eyes flick between the road and the paper as she opens it up.

Hey! Im so sorry, my dad has to get to work. I had a lot of fun spending time with you Ari!!! And reading, so you better not finish our book without me, okay??

Below that, there’s a scribbled phone number with a heart next to it. Arianna blinks. Contrary to her worries, the words stay there. 

“Should I assume you don’t want to read me what that says?”

“Yeah,” Arianna whispers, giggling at nothing in particular. She rubs her thumb over the paper as her focus heads back out the window. The rushing clouds, the rushing cars, the rushing everything. 

Camp’s over. But this new friendship has only just begun.