Stardust
How Long Is Forever?

“Alexander?”

“Yeah?”

“Are we going to be friends forever?” Jaden asked, dark blue eyes wide.

“Well, of course. I'll be here every summer,” the older boy replied, ruffling the younger's hair. “And call me Alex.”

Fourteen Years Later

Day in, day out, wake up, get dressed, grab a coffee and drive to hell – well, not exactly hell, more like my idea of hell.

School was definitely my least favourite place to be. Work was actually fun, unless the customers were being rude, and home was pretty alright as well. My teachers had the tendency to think I was an idiot or “not working to my full potential.” My peers thought that, because I was quiet, I thought I was better than them. I have no idea how that came about; my mum had always said it was because I was too pretty and quiet. That wasn’t really what I wanted to hear, seeing as a guy being called pretty is almost like cutting off—well, I’d really prefer not to be called pretty.

I guess the reason I was so quiet was simply because I didn’t like to talk to people. If I had had my way, I would have just stayed home and written songs. I know, I know, that makes me sound beyond boring and anti-social. I suppose I am, to some degree, but that’s not really the point. I just love music.

Listen, play, write, sing, and repeat. That would be my ideal situation. Then it wouldn’t matter that I was alone. It wouldn’t matter that I didn’t have any friends, or much family, or a life…

“Jaden!”

Shit.

“Could you repeat the question?” I asked rather timidly. My ancient history teacher, Mrs. Dubois, had a tendency to call on me when I wasn’t paying attention.

She shook her head. “Had you been paying attention, like the rest of your peers, perhaps I wouldn’t have to waste my time by repeating myself. I’ll speak to you after class about this.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I muttered, trying to ignore the snickers of my classmates.

Mrs. Dubois continued her lesson and I returned to my daydreaming.

When the school bell finally rang and my classmates rushed out of the room, I put my notebook into my bag and looked up to see Mrs. Dubois standing in front of my desk. Time to be lectured.

“Jaden, I’ve tried to get you to participate more and I know you’re a smart boy…”

Blah, blah, blah, I’ve heard this speech a thousand times before in a thousand different ways. Still, by my senior year, my teachers had yet to realize this.

“…not working to your full potential…”

I glanced past Mrs. Dubois to see a girl peeking in the doorway that could only be described as a rave fairy. Multicoloured dreadlocks were tied up into what I could only imagine were supposed to be pigtails; bright, colourful clothing; pale skin, huge green eyes and a tiny build to complete the fairy description.

“…Do you understand what I’m saying?”

I looked back at Mrs. Dubois and nodded.

“Good. You can go then. Have a good weekend, Jaden.”

I muttered something along the lines of “you too,” and hurried out to my car. I was currently driving a ’92 Toyota Starlet. Sure, it was old and not the best car in the world, but I’d bought it myself and was paying for half the insurance on it too. My mother said that if I came up with half the insurance each month, she’d pay the other half. I put my school bag in the trunk and slammed it shut. To my surprise, there was the fairy girl.

“Hi,” she greeted me cheerfully.

“Um… hi,” I replied cautiously.

“You play?” she asked, nodding to the guitar case in my trunk.

“Yes… why?” This girl was definitely on something, not sure what though.

“You in a band or something?” she asked, her childlike eyes widening slightly.

“No…”

“You were in that digi-music course last semi, right?”

What on earth—digital music? Was she in that class with me? I couldn’t remember, seeing as I mostly kept to myself. “You were too?”

She nodded a few times while eyeing my over. She was so obviously high it was almost funny. “Wanna be friends?”

“…er…” I suppose I did, seeing as I hadn’t really had many friends since high school began, but this girl was really sketchy.

“Give me a call,” she said, handing me a card. She then walked off leaving me staring at the card in my hand. It simply read “Gilly,” followed by a phone number and an email address underneath.

“Gilly,” I murmured out loud to myself, deciding it suited the odd girl.

I kept spotting that same strange girl all over. She was also taking ancient history with me this year, though I rarely saw her in class. You think I would have noticed her before with the kind of fashion choices she made. She didn’t talk to me again, but I knew she was following me around. I couldn’t figure out why, so after about a week of this, I called her.

“Gilly here, what’s happening?”

“Um… this is Jaden… from last week…”

“Who?”

Of course she didn’t remember me. Not only was she high, but I don’t think I ever gave her my name. Still, she should have known me from school.

“Er…you gave me your card in the school parking lot… we have history together…”

“Blue eyes, kinda messy light-ish brown hair?”

“Yeah.” I guess she did remember me.

“Do you know where Bright Star Café is?”

“On the corner of Brighton and Fritch?”

“Meet me there in an hour… see you soon!”

And with that, she hung up.

An hour later I was sitting in the Bright Star Café drinking a cup of green tea. I was getting really nervous every time the door opened, and the girl working at the counter kept shooting me weird glances. She had bright pink hair that was bluntly cut, like she did it herself, and dead straight. Her eyes were starting to creep me out because they were nearly black and she seemed to scrutinizing my every move.

Finally, almost an hour after she had said to be there, Gilly floated through the door.

“Coffee, Gil?” the pink-haired girl more said than asked as she handed Gilly a cup.

“Thanks, Tess,” Gilly replied, taking the cup. “Jaden, right?” she asked turning to look over at me. Guess she had a better memory than I assumed.

“Yeah, I—“

“Tess, this is the guy I told you about,” Gilly said, turning back to Ms. Pink.

‘Tess’ nodded. “I figured as much. How old are you?” she asked looking at me.

“18…”

“Same as Gil… still in high school?”

“Nearly finished, I have a couple of exams next week and I’m done.”

She nodded slowly and smiled. “Gilly’s usually right about these things, but you’ll still have to play for me and Alex.”

“And me!” Gilly chirped in.

“I thought you said he could play,” Tess said.

“Well, he said he could.”

“So, you haven’t heard him play?” Tess said, a look of annoyance crossing her face.

“Nope!” Gilly replied cheerfully.

“Should have known…” Tess muttered then turned back to me. “Do you have a guitar here?”

“In my car,” I said, slightly confused. Why would I need my guitar?

“Good, I'll call Alex, and when he gets here you can audition, I guess.”

Audition? I thought Gilly just wanted to hang out. What on earth was I auditioning for?

Twenty minutes later, a guy with shaggy black hair, a tan complexion and wearing vintage leather jacket walked in the café. When they’d said Alex, I had no idea who it was they meant.

“Alex!?” I gaped, recognizing him immediately. It had been almost five years, yet there he was, a little taller, a little older, those same grey eyes smiling back at me.

“Jaden? Holy shit…” he replied, his own surprise evident in his voice. He then grabbed me into a tight hug. “Damn, kid, I never thought I’d see you again.”

“You know each other?” an obviously confused Tess said, her voice barely audible for me.

Years ago, Alex and I had met at the park. He was staying with his grandmother for the summer, and I lived a few blocks away. My father had decided I needed to be outside that day, so he had taken me to the park, then promptly disappeared. Some older boys had started picking on me for some long forgotten reason, and that’s where Alex came in. He defended me, and then consoled me afterwards. We clicked immediately, instant friends, and since then, he spent every summer at his grandmother’s. Up until about five years ago, we’d spent every summer together. Then, he just stopped coming. I went to his grandmother’s house a few times, but no one was ever home, I’d just assumed she’d moved.

Alex let go and held me out at arms length from him. “Damn, you grew up well,” he said giving me the once over. “How’ve you been?”

I was speechless. What do you say when you see your former best friend after nearly five years apart? Where had he gone all those years ago? And I still wanted to know about this audition.

“He’s gonna audition for us, Alex!” Gilly jumped, quickly realizing I wasn’t about to answer.

Alex looked to her at her outburst, then back to me. “Really? That’s fantastic! You don’t even need to audition, I remember how well you used to play, I’m sure you’re only better now.”

“Well, I—”

“I want to hear the kid play,” Tess cut in, looking rather unimpressed. I got the distinct feeling that she didn’t like me all that much.

“Tessie, he’s only a year younger than you. Only I have the right to call him kid. Besides—”

“I'll play for you guys if you’d like,” I said quietly. I really didn’t mind. If Tess was going to make a big deal out of this, I might as well just get it over with. “But I just have one question.”

“Sure, ask away,” said Alex, with a shrug.

“What exactly is it I’m auditioning for?”

And then all three of them burst out laughing.

AN: Completely different from the original chapter one. Well, not completely, but much better than before. If for some bizarre reason you'd like to read the original chapter one, let me know, I've still got all the original chapters.

Original Comments: Well. There's the first chapter of the story. I wrote out a very vague sequence of scenes for a movie than started writing some character profiles then realized it would actually make a good story and got started. I realize this is a pretty short chapter, but I don't expect the chapters to be long in this mostly because it is just a guy telling us about his life in short stories. At least, that's how I hope it will happen. They won't be able to stand alone, but will ultimately lead up to something. Can't tell you about that yet, mostly 'cause it would ruin the story. Anyway, please do comment if you'd like to see more of this story, because I've yet to decide if this story is really worth my while. Sorry for this novel of an author's note. Peace.