Stars Are Watching

Go on, go on, go on, the stars are watching
Just say, just say, just say what you’re feeling
You know, you know, you know you gotta take a bow
And do it your way – it’s OK
-Erin McCarley

“You’ve just gotta do it,” Nick told her. Cecelia turned her head around to look at him, lying next to her on the cold pavement of his driveway. Her breath came out in white puffs whenever she spoke, her lips all but numb. How long had they been out here?

“Gotta do what?” she asked, wriggling around, trying to get more comfortable. Typical Nick, forgetting to bring anything to lie on. And then he’d been too lazy to go back inside and look for a blanket or two.

“You know.” He stared up at the stars, frosty in the inky black sky above them.

“Thanks a lot, Nick. That sure cleared things up.”

It was his turn to squirm, though Cecelia didn’t think it was because he was cold. He was never cold. What was it with guys, and never being cold? She was freezing half the time, except for when Nick took pity on her and would put his arm around her shoulders, like he did after the Homecoming dance when her date had ditched her.

“I saw you checking that guy out.” Despite the silence, she had a hard time hearing him.

“I check lots of guys out, Nick.” It was true. In fact, the only guy she’d never really looked at was Nick. Well, except for that one time he’d changed her tire. It was raining, and she’d been driving him somewhere (she couldn’t really remember where), and she’d gotten a flat. But that was only one time.

“What’s his face. The football player.”

Cecelia turned over onto her stomach, chin resting on her arms. “Do mine ears deceive me, or are you actually jealous?” Nick’s face, usually so self-assured, looked anything but now, belying his swift denials of jealousy.

Cecelia inched closer to Nick. Still lying on her stomach, she propped herself up enough so that she could look down at his face, pushing some of his shaggy brown hair out of his green eyes. His mom had been telling him to get it cut for awhile, but Cecelia actually sort of liked it.

“You don’t have any reason to be jealous, you know,” she told him quietly. Nick grabbed her hand, giving it a quick squeeze.

“I don’t?”

“No,” Cecelia replied, before closing the remaining distance between them.

(8.07.2009)