To Capture A Ring

Stella

Deep in thought for what seemed like a century. I should have known I wasn’t lucky. I am never lucky. I was startled by the sound of twigs crunching, breaking me out of the trance I was in. I looked up and there was Mariah, I should’ve known, but my brain has been doing backflips for who knows how long. “Hey” she said simply, sitting next to me on a different stump nearby mine. “Hi” I said weakly. “I saw you left, then Jordan followed closely behind, what was that about?” she questioned me.

Deep inside I knew I only had to say 4 words for her to understand my pain, and I knew she would share the weight with me. “He has a girlfriend.” I said with disappointment dripping from my voice as I let out a sigh. “When Jordan walked away from us. Fred told me that him and his girlfriend were having problems, he didn’t say what,just that they are having problems. He was wondering if he was going after you to ask for advice from a girl’s perspective.” she responded to me in her normal tone. “I wish things were simpler, and I may sound crazy. I barely know him, and I don’t know why I keep gravitating towards him. Sometimes I wish I wouldn’t. I have the worst luck, and it would hurt less. He’s very easy going, and carefree, compared to my caution and carefulness. It’s as if he’s content with where he is, and what he does, but what does he do?” she laughed “Being 16, we’re limited, so you have to be content, for now.” I smiled at her, knowing she wanted out of this place, just as bad as I do.

She comes from a ‘rich’ family, that’ all people ever see in her is money, but they don’t take the time to get to know her like I did, because she has a lot more to offer than the money she comes from. “He’s older, 18 to be exact. I’m only going to be 17, he’ll graduate this upcoming Spring, and then, just like everyone who comes of age, they graduate and move on. He wouldn’t want anything to do with a high school girl. Why am I wasting my time?” I allowed my body to fall backwards on to the soft grass behind me and yelled “It’s hopeless!” rolling her eyes “You’re so dramatic.” “So, we’re teenage girls, it’s a given” I countered, both of u erupting in laughter. Obviously, I’m not going to get my perfect fantasy, but I still have my best friend by my side.

“Let’s go continue our walk, and find something to do.” She said a minute or so passed. We both stood up brushing our clothes off, and walked down the trail’s wide pathway, and headed towards to main road, making our way to the tables our friends always sat at next to the lot where the local festival was always held each summer. As we approached the tables, I saw that our group of friends wasn’t there, instead there were two people sitting close together, holding hands talking and occasionally kissing. Mariah seemed to realize who it was as we got closer, and she was about to say something, but as she opened her mouth to speak, I cut her off. “It’s fine, let’s just keep walking and ignore them.” my voice sounding more confident than I actually feel. I will just fake it until I make it. I won’t show weakness any longer. Jordan and his girlfriend seemed too focused on each other to notice us, or so I thought. Just as we were about to be in the clear, his voice stopped us dead in our tracks. “Mariah! Tatiana! Hi, this is my girlfriend Stella.” I smiled politely. Mariah answered before me. “Hi.” I echoed her, my voice sounding bored and plain. “Fred texted me, asking to tell you to meet him at the park next to the library if I saw you before he did.” Mariah rolled her eyes. “I don’t want to. He talks too much” she said, causing me to giggle, but we were interrupted by a silver car pulling up into the parking spot right next to the table where Jordan and Stella sat.

“STELLA! GET THE HELL AWAY FROM THAT BOY” the man in the silver car yelled, causing the girl to jump and Mariah and I to spring into laughter, earning us a dirty look from both Stella and the man in the car who I assumed was her father. Stella quickly gathered her things, murmured a quick “See you later” to Jordan and got into the car, leaving Jordan alone. “Well that was hilarious.” Mariah said to me, acting as if Jordan wasn’t even there. I nodded my head in agreement, stealing a look at Jordan, as he watched the car pull away. He had his elbows propped on the table, his brows furrowed in frustration, with his head in his hands. I made a bold move. Instead of walking away like I swore I would, I went and sat down opposite of him. “You ok?” I asked. He looked up at me. “Yeah, just fine. Her dad hates me for no reason. Thinks I’m gonna hold her back. He wants her to graduate, go to college, become a nurse or a doctor. Go places. Not be involved with a guy like me.” he let out a long, frustrated sigh. “So, give him what he wants, let her go. There are plenty of others that don’t have dads like that.” Mariah added her opinion to the conversation, sitting down next to us. I knew where she was going with this too, so, I nodded my head in agreement, not daring to speak, afraid I may sound too excited.

He pulled out his phone, quickly tapped on the screen, and put it to his ear. Both Mariah and I stared at him in curiosity, but he paid us no attention whatsoever. That’s when whoever on the other end must have answered, and he began to speak, “This isn’t working out, we’re done. It's your dad.” he pulled the phone away from his ear, and tapped the screen once more before tossing it onto the concrete table we all sat at. His phone was now blowing up with calls, all from Stella, but he only picked it up, turned it off and shoved it into the back pocket of his jeans, standing up. “I’m going to go see if Fred’s still at the library waiting for you” he directed it towards Mariah. She stood up and groaned “Fiiiiiiine, I’m goinnnngggg!” dragging out her sentence as she turned, flipping her long blond hair, and walked away from us at a quick pace.

“Do you want to come to or are you on your way to wherever the two of you were going?” he looked at me, questioning. It was almost as if he had hope in his eyes, my heart nearly leaping out of my chest. “Yeah, I guess I’ll come.” I answered smoothly. I stood up from my seat, Mariah was no longer in sight, as Jordan and I walked in unison. The walk to the library was short, as we got closer, we saw Mariah sitting on the swings, with Fred in front of her kissing her. I snickered. I felt a hand grab mine and looked at Jordan confused as he laced his fingers through mine. “Let’s leave them to it. They can find us when they’re done.” he said, pulling me away, back into the direction we came.

I allowed my Jordan to take over, pulling me along with him as we walked aimlessly, suddenly panicking as I realized Jordan was still holding my hand. I tried to pull it away, but he didn’t allow it. I looked at him with a questioning look on my face, and he smirked, “What?” he laughed at me when I started to blush. That’s it the secret is out. I tried to play off the blush as anger, and swatted at him playfully. “Let me go.” I glared at him. Instead, he grabbed my other hand too. “You like me.” He stated with that famous smile of his, “Maybe I do, maybe I don’t.” I pulled back my hands and turning from him, I walked away, still playing off the blush as anger.

He must’ve stood there for a moment or so, because I could hear him jogging to catch up to me. He caught up to me and I kept walking, “I’m going home.” I stated, “Come on, I’ll drive you. You live pretty far. I’ll even text Fred to tell Mariah where you went.” I don’t know how much my sister tells this guy, or how much her boyfriend tells him, “I have a phone, you know. I can do that.” Mariah’s mom bought me a phone for Easter, which was very nice of them. Something I would love to repay in the future. “Oh, I didn’t know”. I stopped walking and turned to him “Thanks though. See ya” and I resumed my walk, now going in the direction towards my house. I could feel him watching me, so I didn’t bother to turn around. I was not going to press my luck, and I wasn’t going to interrupt Mariah. Home was my only option at this point.