My family mows the grass at an angle. It seems odd, but it gives the lawn this shimmer when it’s covered in dew.
“My dad found me laying the grass like this one time.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, I was walking up to my front door, I had my headphones in, and I just plopped down. Looked up at the stars. It feels nice, you know, to have these cliche moments that feel completely genuine.”
I nod. I don’t know if she sees or not.
“Anyway, my dad comes outside, well, I don’t know that, my music is loud and my eyes are closed, so he taps my shoulder. I was kind of embarassed you know, but I just looked up at him and smiled.”
I can’t tell if that’s a satellite or a plane or what. Maybe a planet?
“So he tells me to get up and come inside. And I just do, and I laugh, and go, ‘I’m not upset or anything,’ and he says, ‘Yeah, but it’s just… weird.’”
It’s a plane. A plane as big as a star.
“I laughed some more and whatever, but… I don’t know. It hurt my feelings. Even now, thinking about it, why couldn’t he have just let me lay out there? I wasn’t hurting anyone. I was deep in thought, yeah, but that’s not bad. Why was he in such a hurry?”
“Maybe he was worried about you. I mean, how often do you just find your friends laying by themselves in a yard and something’s not up?”
“Yeah, but what’s wrong with that?”
I sit there and think. Nothing comes to mind.
“Right, nothing is wrong with that. Everyone is always in such a rush to fix their problems. Maybe we shouldn’t fix all of our problems. Maybe the solution to most things is just laying in the grass and watching the stars.”
I look at her and smile. She just looks up, a very small grin on her face, but only at the edges of her lips. I turn back to my section of the sky.
“You could kiss me right now, if you wanted to.” She says this, still looking straight up.
I sigh. “I know.”
