GaiaOnline contest. Prompts: A "touch" of fantasy, and a Christmas item (the Christmas Ball, in this story).

Enjoy.

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.

-"To the Virgins, to make much of Time" by Robert Herrick

I.
Christian

“I’ll never get enough of this sky.” Kelly spread her arms and spun across the tall grass, face tilted to the clouds.

Beside me, Matthew smiled. He shifted his grip on the cooler we carried, nearly making me drop my side. “One of these days, we’ll all go there,” he said.

Bridget laughed. “Your car’s not that nice.”

I focused on the sky. It was autumn and the air was brisk, but it was perfect weather for a picnic. The blue of the sky worked nicely with the yellows and greens of the tall grass. I let my breath out slowly and looked for pictures in the clouds.

“You all right, Jake?” Matthew regarded me with his eyes narrowed a bit, ready to search my answer for the truth.

“Yeah,” I replied. A gentle breeze blew across the grass, pushing my hair off my face.

Kelly still spun in front of us. “One day, we’ll fly to the moon,” she said, eyes closed. “Or maybe right up to Heaven.” She froze, looking at me. “Sorry, Jake.”

I looked away. I hated the way they censored themselves when they were around me.

We started up a small hill to our usual spot. Matthew and I set the cooler on the ground, then took the quilt from under the handles and laid it on the grass. Inside the cooler, we sorted through the food we had brought, putting it on the blanket.

“Hello,” Kelly said, drawing our attention. She stood to one side of the hill, talking down to someone sitting in the grass.

Matthew gave me a look, then went to her side.

Bridget sat carefully on the blanket. “There’s a guy in the grass over there,” she told me quietly as I pulled out a watermelon and sliced it. “Keep that knife out in case he does anything.”

I smiled. “Okay.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her place her hands protectively over her stomach. She wasn’t even half the size of the watermelon yet, only in her first trimester after a summer boyfriend who had taken too much of her for granted.

Matthew and Kelly returned, and Kelly asked, “Hey, do you guys mind if Christian joins us?”

My grip on the knife tightened as I looked up at them. Compared to Matthew and Kelly, the boy in the middle seemed to stand out. He had fair skin and white-blond hair streaked with pink, even lighter in coloration than red-headed Kelly. His eyes were the unnerving part of him, a steely and vivid grey that glowed with curiosity and mischief.

Kelly gave Bridget a look, and Bridget shook her head nervously, a welcoming smile on her face. I told myself that it would only be for one meal, and continued slicing the watermelon.

“Christian, this is Bridget and Jake,” Matthew said.

“Jacob’s a fellow leftie, I see,” Christian said. His voice was eerily smooth. I looked up at him, and he smiled at me. “This body’s left-handed, too.”

“So, where are you from?” Kelly asked as I separated the slices of watermelon. We all loaded up plastic plates and grabbed sodas from the cooler.

Christian opened his soda. “I just came from Greece, actually.”

“Greece?” Kelly’s eyes widened. “Wow. Why’d you decide to come here?”

He shrugged. “Got bored of it over there, so I moved.”

I slid a bottle of pills out of my pocket, trying to conceal them as best as I could. Christian’s eyes still managed to find the orange container, though. He watched me as I put the pills in my mouth and washed them down with soda.

“What about your parents?” Bridget asked.

“Don’t have any.” He didn’t seem upset by it, either.

“So you’re an orphan, then?” Matthew smiled, prepared to induct him into our little club. I wanted to smack him. “That’s great! You’ll fit in well with us, I think.”

Christian laughed. “You people are a lot nicer than the Greeks.” He seemed to sober just a fraction, his eyes still bright. “I’m actually a star,” he said.

“Like a theatre star?” Kelly took even more of an interest in him now.

“No.” He smiled. “Like a real star. From up there.” He pointed to the sky.

Everyone except me laughed. I just watched him.

“I’m not kidding,” Christian insisted. “I’m really from space. See?” He reached into his jeans and pulled up his boxers, showing us the stars there. “I lived in Greece for a few years. Figured I hadn’t been to the States in centuries. It’s so different here now.”

I started to wonder if he was a joke, or just someone who had decided to infiltrate our group to tear us up from the inside. Before I could ponder anything, however, my stomach lurched unexpectedly. I leapt up and ran down the hill, managing to get behind one of the few trees in sight before I was sick in the grass.

A few moments later, I felt someone brush my hair back – Bridget, most likely. With Matthew and Kelly too busy flirting all the time, Bridget was always the one there for me.

“You okay?” she asked when I sat against the tree and closed my eyes.

I kept my breathing steady, making sure my stomach was under control before speaking. “Yeah,” I finally said. I looked back at the picnic and sighed as Matthew stood up. “Why do they always want to go when something happens to me? They should expect it by now.”

“They worry about you,” Bridget said. She handed me my soda, which she had grabbed from the blanket. “We all do.”

I rinsed my mouth out with the soda. “He’d better not tell that guy,” I said flatly.

Bridget shook her head. “He won’t. He knows better than that.” She smiled. “So he’s a star, then.”

“Apparently.” I relaxed against the tree. “He’s more screwed up than the rest of us.”