Moonshine

 “Relax mom. I’m gonna be home later tonight. Just please make sure to take your medicine and try not to move around too much.” 

  “Sweetie, how am I gonna get anything or go to the bathroom if I can’t move around?”

  “Mom, that’s what the maid is there for. Ask her for anything if you need it. I’ll be home later, I promise.”

  “Okay. Be safe out there Trevor. And have fun on your little date.”

  “Haha, I will. Talk to you later, love you.”

 Beep.

 My mother is very sick. She has been for some time now. Fortunately, we have been wealthy enough to get her the medicine and medical treatment that she needs. Investing in a maid was also a wise move, as I am not always able to be there to help when she needs a sandwich or to bathe. I wouldn’t mind always being around to help, but I can’t when I’m busy schoolwork on top of homework on top of more schoolwork. Between life at home and life at school, I would say that I am a very busy, reliable, responsible 16 year old. I just need some time to enjoy myself a little. 

 Thankfully, I have today. Today is the day that I, Trevor Graves take the girl that I have always had a crush on since elementary school on a date. Angel Valentine. What a beautiful, majestic name. Her name alone makes me feel warm inside. It makes me smile from ear to ear just repeating it over and over again in my mind. Angel Valentine. Angel Valentine. Such a charm. Just as charming as this beautiful sunrise on the lake. I cannot wait for her to arrive. I already have the picnic blanket set up and the delicious food that we’ll be eating while we laugh and engage in heartfelt conversation. All while we gaze as this marvelous sunrise together.

  “Trevor!”

 Someone called my name. The voice sounded so familiar. Could it be… “Angel Valentine.”

  “Hey Trevor.” she rushes over to me and I stand up from the picnic blanket to show some display of chivalry. I take her heavy purse from her and place it gently on the blanket. We then sit down together. “Sorry for my tardiness,” she says, “I had to help my aunt with the laundry.”

 Was she late? I hadn’t even noticed. I was so excited to see her that her lateness had not even been a factor to me at all. 

  “I see you have the baskets set up and everything,” she remarks, “what do you have prepared?”

  “Cold cuts,” I squeak like the nervous, pubescent teenager that I am, “or PB and J if you prefer that.”

  “Both work perfectly fine for me.” After her statement, the smile that she gave made me feel jubilee. It made me glad that I was finally able to muster up the courage to ask her out on a date.

  “While we eat, we can look out at the sunrise on the lake,” I suggest.

 She looks out at the scenery and with a smile says, “oh, Trevor. It’s beautiful.” 

  So are you Angel Valentine. So are you.

 We eat our prepared lunches and enjoy ourselves for several hours. After a long while of talking and stuffing our faces, we lie down on the blanket and look up at the clouds like two love birds in a cliché romance film.

  “Look at that one. It looks like a dolphin,” Angel says as she points to a cloud that slowly drifted by.

 She is correct. The cloud does indeed look like a dolphin.

  “Oh, and that one looks like an elephant with its little trunk.”

 I decide to go for an attempt at humor by placing my nose in my elbow and waving my arm up and down while making my best effort at elephant noises.

  “HAHAHA! Is that your best elephant attempt?”

  “Is it a good one?”

  “It could use some work.”

  “Okay then little miss judgmental (I hope this joke wasn’t too far), let’s see you best attempt.”

 She takes her arm, places her nose in her elbow as well and starts waving it up and down while making noises that are not far off from mine.

  “Sounds pretty similar to mine if you ask me,” I remark

  “It did not,” she laughs.

 That laugh. Another beautiful thing about her. If I could just get a little more comfortable and tell her, right now, how she makes me feel. How she’s always made me feel. Just say it. Just go ahead and let her know. Take this moment of silence to express your feelings.

  “I-”

  “I-”

We both begin to speak at the same time.

  “Sorry, you first,” she says.

  “No, go ahead,” I insist.

  “I was just gonna suggest ice cream. Might as well have a little dessert after a nice little lunch.”

  “Ice cream sounds good.”

  “Great. It’s on me by the way.”

 Ice cream on her. That doesn’t sound entirely bad. I did invite her on the date but then again, if she wants to perform a kind gesture, I want stop her from doing so. Maybe this is her thanks for lunch.

  “One pistachio cone and one cookies and cream. Here you guys go.”

  “Thank you ma’am.” Angel pulls out a small red wallet and pulls out a few flimsy dollar bills. She pays the woman in the ice cream truck.

  “You two enjoy your little date now,” says the woman with a smile.

  “Thank you,” I reply.

 Angel and I walk away as we lick the tasty dessert on our cones. She pulls out her cellphone and starts typing. Is she texting someone on our date? Should I be offended? Should I ask?

  “Who’s that?” I ask. 

  “Oh...It’s just my mom. I’m letting her know that I’m gonna be home in a few hours,” she tells me.

 I say nothing in response. Instead, I glance over at her phone, without her noticing. The only words I can see are ‘...by ten o’clock’.”

  “So what was it that you were gonna say at the park Trevor?”

 I freeze up. I had hoped that she would forget about that all together. I don’t think I’m ready to tell her how I feel yet.

  “Trevor?”

 Come on, think of something to tell her. Anything but that. 

  “I was just uh...gonna suggest that we go for a walk.”

  “You were?”

  “Yeah.” Is she buying it?

  “Well here we are now.” 

 And there goes that gorgeous smile again. How did I get so lucky to be the one who gets to spend the weekend with a remarkable young lady such as herself? She’s too pretty for me. I’m too geeky and corny for her. How does someone like me get to enjoy lunch and ice cream with her. An Angel. 

 I almost wanna hold her hand while we walk. Do I go for it? What if she’s not onboard with the idea? Only one way to find out I guess. I slowly inch my hand closer to hers. I get so close that I could feel the body heat from her hand caressing my own.

  “Oh my gosh, look!” she yells as she rushes over to a store window and looks inside, “it’s so pretty.”

 What is she looking at? I step to the window to get a closer look.

  “Trevor, look at it. Isn’t it pretty?”

 A bracelet. A pretty expensive looking one at that.

  “I want one just like it one day,” she claims.

 What am I doing? Surely I’m not about to do what I think I’m going to do. Don’t do it. Don’t even mention the idea at all. My lips are separating. I’m about to say it and I’m gonna regret it. Stop. No no no no no…

  “How about we go inside and I-I buy it for you.” What a complete idiot I am.

  “Trevor, are you sure. It looks very pricey. I don’t want it to seem like I’m trying to take advantage of you here.”

 I need to take this opportunity to change my mind right now. “I’m positive.” Great going Trevor.

  “Welcome to Pandora,” says the lady at the door once we walk in.

  “Thank you,” Angel responds. 

 The longer that we walk around in here, the more and more I regret making the decision to buy her a very expensive piece of jewelry, especially for a first date. But I can’t change my mind now. It’s too late. I just gotta let this play out.

 After what seemed like a half hour transaction, we leave the jewelry store and continue on our little walk. 

  “I know I’ve thanked you so many times already, but I just feel that I need to at least one more time. Thank you so much Trevor.”

 I force a smile and respond with a squeaky, “you’re welcome.”

 We walk until it starts to get really late. I look up at the night sky and remember that I need to get home and take care of my mother. I don’t want it to end here but it has to.

  “Angel, I enjoyed today a lot. Unfortunately, I-I have to get home and take care of my mom.”

  “Aw, okay. I had a lot of fun too.”

 It’s gonna be hard to walk away from that gorgeous smile. 

  “Before you go, can we go back to the park and look at the lake one more time?”

 She really did enjoy herself today. She wants to return to the park to end the day. Of course my answer to that question is going to be… “sure.”

  “Yay! Okay, come on.”

 We soon make it back to the park. The lake is still, just as everything else is in the dark, abandoned park. At the beginning of the day, it was the sunrise and now the moonlight shining off of the lake is something to marvel at.

  “That’s a beautiful sight,” Angel says, “with the way that the reflection of the sky appears in the lake it looks like there’s two skies. One above us and one down here.”

 ‘Two skies’. That was all I heard. All I could think about at the moment was trying to take this opportunity to perhaps get a long desired kiss from Angel. How do I go about it though. Do I just grab her waist and pull her in. Is it too early to go for a kiss at all? I’m just gonna go for it.

  “Angel…”

 She turns to me. I wrap my arm around her waist and pull her closer to me. I then look into her bright eyes and move my lips closer to hers. I assume that she is okay with this as she is not fighting back or complaining. So I proceed to get closer and closer. Just before our lips make contact, there is a voice from several feet away that shouts, “that’s enough!”

 I turn and look to the left. There is a figure. I cannot make out a face or anything in the dark. Before I could even try and make out what is going on, more mysterious looking figures appear all around, at least a dozen of them. 

  “Hope you two enjoyed your day while it lasted,” says one of the silhouettes, “Trevor. That’s your name right?”

 Who is this guy?

  “Your older brother is Terrance. He ran away to Jersey a little while back. He ever tell you why he did that?”

 How does he know my brother? Should I say something? These guys better not try and do anything to Angel.

  He continues, “Terrance was a gang banger. He did a lot of things in the past that are gonna get him killed one day. But now that he’s gone, I gotta do something to maybe get him back here right? Someway, somehow, I gotta get his attention so he can suffer the consequences of his past actions. So I decided to come for his family. Surely that’ll get his attention, right?”

 Wait, what’s going on here?

  “I just needed a way to catch you at the right time. I tried waiting outside of your school and even following you home. All I had to do...was use her.”

 The man quickly draws a handgun from his hoodie pocket and aims right at me. I try to grab Angel and get her out of range. There is a loud BANG!

 After that, all I remember is a sharp pain in my side and lying on the cold ground in a pool of blood. My vision is hazy. How did any of this happen? It started off as a perfect date and then…

 Angel. Where is she? Did she get hit too? Wait. What is she doing?

  “Good job baby,” says the man with the gun as he pulls Angel in and they kiss each other on the lips. 

 A set up. That’s all this was. I was being played by an enemy of my brother this entire time. I wasn’t just played by him but I was played by...her.

  “Come on. Let’s go home baby,” says Angel and she looks into his eyes and bites her lip. They kiss each other again and then walk off with the rest of the group of individuals. I still cannot make out any faces as my vision is still blurry. One thing I do see however is Angel stop and turn toward me. She walks back over and kneels down beside me as I bleed out.

  “I enjoyed our little date,” she says. She then leans in and gives me a kiss on the cheek. 

  “Angel, come on girl!” the gang member calls.

 She gets up and walks away. The final thing I see of her is the shine of her silver bracelet just before it disappears and I am left in the park, cold. Alone. I let my tears roll down my face and flood onto the ground below. I promised my mom that I would be home later tonight and I even told myself that I would take care of her. 

 I look at the sight of the moonlight on the lake. My vision ebbs away by the second and my breathing becomes short. I should’ve known. It was too good to be true. I should’ve known that there was more to it. I should’ve known...I should’ve known that someone like me winning the heart of someone like her was nothing more than a fantasy. Complete and utter moonshine.