Between Me and The Moon

I had never been one for attending parties.

Yet I was standing outside my best friend’s house, attending the biggest party of the school year. The backyard was full of my classmates, and music blared from inside the house. Occasionally, someone would come to the front yard where all the vehicles were parked. If that wasn’t embarrassing enough, I was alone. When the music wasn’t playing loudly, the only noise that filled my tired ears was the singing voices of midsummer crickets. My back rested on the driver’s door of my father’s old black truck, which kept my body hidden from the teenagers in the yard. The cool metal was a strong contrast between the hot night air surrounding me. Both of my thumbs tapped aimlessly at the dully illuminated screen of my cell phone, occasionally stopping to swipe away the notification boxes that appeared.

Sarah needed me to stay there, otherwise, I would have gone home hours earlier. She decided that I was the only person she knew who could defuse a tense situation quickly should one arise. She didn’t want to end up calling the police at some point during the night, so I was to ensure that no fights broke out amongst the teens in and around her house. The task was incredibly tedious, and everyone seemed to be getting along well, so I slipped away from the crowd. My vehicle was parked on the road that led up to her house, tucked away from the party. I had decided to stay near my car, away from all of the noise. My head had begun to hurt around eight P.M., so I took a Tylenol and waited out the pain. I wonder if I can convince Sarah to let me leave early, I thought.

My phone continued to buzz in my hands, and after a few minutes, I became annoyed and silenced my phone. I knew Sarah wasn’t going to be happy that I suddenly disappeared, but I didn’t care. Hot, salty tears of frustration pooled in my eyes, threatening to spill over. I wanted to go home badly. Being at parties was overwhelming to me, especially if I didn’t know most of the people there. To make matters worse, someone in our school had taken to spreading rumors about my personal life. No matter how many times I told people that the rumors were false, I found that people still talked about me when they thought I couldn’t hear. It wasn’t fair, not in the slightest. I should have been in bed listening to music, not crying on the side of the road.

Sarah had decided to host a party for our entire grade to attend. She was on the cheer team and was very well-liked. I didn’t count, but I was almost certain that more than thirty people ended up coming. Sarah was incredibly loving and always wanted to believe that there was some good in everybody. When she invited everyone, she told me that we didn’t know who started the rumors, so she should invite everyone until we know for sure who started them. I think that this was her most annoying trait, and it was the one that landed me at a party where I was being made a fool of.

I came outside with a cup of soda in hand, searching for a place to sit where there weren’t a lot of people. For about five minutes, I had gone about my business. An empty seat hidden away in a corner caught my eye, and I quickly made my way to it. I sat down, looking at my phone. Then, I heard two girls whispering about three feet away. My bangs had grown out to the point where they were long enough to cover my eyes, which I used to my advantage so that I could look at them without their knowledge. Their voices were muffled by the other people talking around them as well as the radio playing by the pool. But I heard what they said clearly.

“I didn’t think she’d be here. Tyler’s going to be furious when he finds her cheating.” one said. “Isn’t she talking with Zachary?” The girl with long blonde hair shrugged her shoulders. “I thought she was talking with both Zachary and Hayden, but I may be wrong.”

My heartbeat began to race, and my body grew cold. The last time I heard someone talking about me had been two weeks before the party. I didn’t think the rumors would start back up. Oh, how stupid I’d been. Teens are many things, and they are most definitely cruel. Standing there wasn’t doing me any good, so I pretended that my phone had started to ring. I stood up slowly and talked to myself as I made my way around the house, into the front yard. My pace quickened, and I started to jog up the road. I wasn’t sad, I was nervous. Those rumors followed me wherever I went. It felt devastating; like I was never going to be able to get rid of them. My mind was bursting with questions, but the one that kept resurfacing was why.

I guess that brings us back to the truck. I sat there, under the moonlight, alone. My eyes were no longer filled with tears, but I was angry. Who I was angry at, I wasn’t sure. Maybe Sarah, definitely myself, and whoever had started this mess in the first place. The phone lit up once more in my hand, and I could see my friend’s name pop up on the screen. She had tried to text me, presumably an apology from what the latest message read. “I can’t believe her,” I whispered. My thumb swiped away the texts, and then I shut my phone down. Staring at her texts wouldn’t make things any better, but I sure wasn’t going back to the house to talk things out with her. She should have known better than to invite me to a party with people who find entertainment in spreading lies about my dating life.

A small sigh left my lips, and I laid my head back onto the cool metal of the truck. The headache I was suffering from had started to lessen in severity, but I still felt myself becoming sick. It was more than likely due to the extreme anxiety being there had given me.

For about ten minutes, I sat in silence alone. Then I heard footsteps coming my way. All of my muscles became tense as I waited for what I thought would be belittlement. Instead, I was met with the sound of a guy clearing his throat. I picked my head off of the truck and looked at him. I didn’t recognize him immediately, but I knew who he was. We shared our economics class, so we talked a few times. We never really introduced ourselves, though.

The darkness had made my surroundings look a little odd, making the ground one big mass of rock and grass. Even so, he looked stunning in the moonlight. He was shorter than me but definitely more handsome than any other guy I knew. Curly blonde hair flipped up in every which way, all of it brightly shaded by the moon. In the dark, I couldn’t see his eyes, but I knew they weren’t looking to make fun of me. Even though they were hidden, they were still the same blue eyes that peered at me during class. His face was beautifully highlighted by the moonlight; his lips formed a soft smile to greet me.

“Hey. Sarah sent me here to check on you, she got worried. Uhm..” He rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet, fidgeting with his fingers. “Sorry, you don’t even know who I am. Okay, let me start over. My name is Cameron. I know we don’t talk all that much, but you seem like a good person.” Now that I had a name to his face, talking to Cameron didn’t feel so awkward. In response to his last comment, I scoffed. “Yeah? Tell that to the people talking about me behind my back.” He didn’t respond but looked away. After about a minute, he spoke again. “I know it doesn’t help, but I don’t believe a thing that they say about you.”

It didn’t help much, but it gave me a tiny sense of relief, knowing that at least two people were on my side. “Thanks, I guess.” We sat in silence for a little while, the two of us looking up at the night sky together. “Melanie, I know that things are not going in your favor right now. I know we’re not exactly friends and all, but I’m here for you if you ever need someone to talk to.” Cameron spoke quietly, not meeting my gaze as I listened to him.

“I know what it’s like, having people talking about you behind your back. That’s the reason I moved schools. When I was still going to Rivers High School, people made up some nasty rumors about my family and me.” His eyes stared back up to meet the light of the moon once more. “It eventually got to the point where I would fake being sick so that I wouldn’t have to go to school. My parents found out and we ended up changing schools.” As I listened to him, I found myself sympathizing with him. Sometimes I wished that I could have changed schools, but I didn’t want to leave the friends that I had behind. “Now I’m here, and it’s been a lot easier for me. It didn’t fix itself overnight, but eventually, I was able to forget about what people said and my life got better. That doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt though.” Cameron turned to look at me, looking at me through the dark. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that it can get better and it will. You’ve just got to give it time.”

Hearing about his situation was surprising. He didn’t seem like the type of person that people would start rumors about. For a second, we looked at one another in silence. Then I smiled gently. “I’m sorry you had to deal with this too. I appreciate what you said though, it feels a little better knowing that I’m not the only one who’s gone through this.” I spoke quietly, not wanting someone to overhear. He seemed to get the message. “I’m glad I could help.” Cameron ran his left hand through his hair and turned back to look at the house. “Sarah’s in the house waiting for you, if you feel like talking to her, that is. If you don’t want to, you can stay out here or do whatever, I can just tell her you needed time to yourself.”

I nodded, then asked him a question. “Could you keep this conversation between us? I don’t want people to know about it, they’ll start more rumors if they do.” Cameron nodded in understanding. “Of course. It’ll be like I was never here, just you and the moon.” He offered me a wide grin. We waved goodbye as he walked back up the road and went into the house. Even though he never spoke to one another, it felt very comforting to talk with him. I decided that I would stay until the party ended so that I could ask him for his number. Cameron had a lovely personality, and I could feel the blossoming of a new friendship on the horizon.

I was never one for parties, but I will forever remember the conversation between me and the moon.