AllFreeNovel
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She doesn’t catch one. She catches two, and I watch her in shock until her mom calls her in for dinner. She releases the tadpoles into the water and leaves me with a smirk on her face that I bet sticks with her all the way to her house.
“I want to play with Luna,” Nora says over lunch, taking another bite of her turkey sandwich.
“Go ahead.” I push the potato chips around my plate. Playing with Luna is the last thing I want to do. My friends should all be coming back from their summer vacations in a couple of days, and I’ve been bored without them. I’ve been staying in my house, too much of a chicken to run into Luna again. I need my friends to help me deal with her. Until they get home, I’m going to stay inside. My toes are aching to walk on the hot sand and slip into the lake, and the weather has been perfect, but the stupid feeling of fish in my belly keep me away.
I’ve been watching from my living room window as Luna walks back and forth on the beach. She walks from her house to the edge of our property line, and back again. She stays close enough to the shoreline and on the wet sand, that each step she makes creates a tiny footprint. Then a wave comes, swallowing her prints and bringing them back into the water. But then she turns around and starts up her footprints across the beach all over again.
I’ve been watching her do this. For days.
She’s bored, and every so often, I can see her looking up at my house, like she wants me to come play.
“Poor girl has been bored out there by herself, Roman. Maybe you and Nora can take her to the park,” my mom says over by the sink. Her elbows are propped on the edge of the counter, her pink rubber gloves full of suds as she scrubs the dishes with her yellow sponge.
“Nora can go.” My toes hang on the edge of the seat in front of me. I rock it back and forth, and it knocks against the table, shaking my glass filled with Kool-Aid.
“Knock it off, Roman.” My feet thump to the floor. “You can bring Nora and Luna to the park today. I don’t know why you insist on staying inside. It’s summer, you should get out and enjoy it.”
“I don’t want to play with her,” I grumble.
I can hear the slapping sound of my mom peeling off her gloves before she’s in front of me, her curled hair in a high ponytail that’s swaying as she stares at me. “What’s your issue with her, Roman?”
“I don’t have an issue. I just don’t want to play with girls.”
She laughs at me.
“I’d love to record you saying that, Roman. It won’t always be this way.”
My face scrunches up, my muscles groaning in protest. I don’t want to like girls. I just want to play with my friends.
She walks back over to the sink. “When you’re done eating, you can take your sister and Luna to the park to play.”
I groan.
“No more groaning.”
I swallow down the protest and stick the sandwich in my mouth. The bread sticks to the roof of my mouth and it’s hard to swallow down.
Nora is the first to finish. With only breadcrumbs left on her plate, she picks it up and brings it to Mom. “I’m going to go change,” she says, excitement making her bounce in place.
I guzzle down my red juice once the sandwich makes it down my throat. It feels like a brick as it hits my stomach. I sigh when I know I’ve wasted enough time and pick up my plate, bringing it to my mom.
Turning around, I start walking toward the front door. I’ll go barefoot, in only my shorts and striped shirt. It’s only a short walk down the road.
Nora comes running out a second later in a red polka-dot dress.
“Have fun, you two!” my mom shouts. Nora is already outside, running down the hill to Luna’s door.
I follow her, staying behind a little and watch as Nora’s small fist pounds on Luna’s dark wooden door. The stained-glass on top shines in the sun, reflecting the blues, reds, and yellows against Nora’s dress.
The door swings open, and there stands Luna. Her black hair looks even darker in the shadows of her home, if that’s possible. A wave of sweet scents come barreling out of her house, and my nose tickles with the need to sneeze.
“Want to go to the park?” Nora asks, completely oblivious to everything in the world.
Luna stares at me, her gray eyes burning into my chest. My hand itches to rub the funny feeling out of my insides.
She’s in another dress, this one yellow like the sun. It seems like every time I see her, she’s in some sort of dress. She always walks along the beach in a dress, and I watch as a wave catches on the hem, darkening the fabric. It drips and gets full of sand, but she never seems to care as she continues walking back and forth along the lake.
Luna spins around, her long hair flying over her shoulder as she shouts, “Mom!’
