Nothing that is can pause or stay;
The moon will wax, the moon will wane,
The mist and cloud will turn to rain,
The rain to mist and cloud again,
To-morrow be to-day.

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

bade

"Solaris, do you have a boyfriend?" I was completely aware of how awkward I made things by asking that very simple question.

I saw her face get pale. "No," she answered slowly. "I've never dated anybody actually."

She didn't sound confident, and looked rather embarrassed. "It's a waste of time if you ask me," she added.

"Why do you choose to think like that?"

"Because it's something I believe in entirely."

(

I knew the car was eventually going to run out of gas, but I wanted to get to Lars' place before such thing occurred. But my guesses were rather off, and I guess that happens when you get caught off guard by a girl who has just revealed to you she doesn't believe in love, or in having actual relationships. But who said I was one to believe such things either?

The main reason Solaris caught me off guard was because I thought she was someone somebody would actually want to date, and how she got all poetic and talkative about the moon, I would have thought she was a hopeless romantic, or like my sister who always spoke of stupid things like signs, and houses.

"We're going to have to walk," I said with little frustration. "I wanted to get to Lars' place before this would happen. But I guess that hadn't been in the works." I looked at the girl who stood beside me with a dead pan face expression. "I'm sorry."

She put her hand on her hip and looked at me with an expression of bewilderment. "Why are you apologizing? It's not your fault the car decided to do its own thing and shut down. Nor is it our fault that the power is out and everything...I just hope this problem gets resolved."

I smiled weakly, and was about to say something when she and I heard the loudest scream out of nowhere. It was coming from one of the apartments down the street we were from--I'm sure of it.

"That must be someone who can't check their Instagram 'cause their phone is dead. Ha."

I didn't know whether or not Solaris was joking, but it did seem like the most probable thing.

Especially when it came to us millennials.

"I like Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, but I could live without it if I wanted to," I said.

She gave me a look obviously stating she didn't believe a word I said.

"What, do I seem like a person who relies heavily on social media?" I put my hands up in defense.

She shook her head. "You know what," she began. "Let's make a bet. After this whole no power thing is dealt with, and everything goes back to normal. You have to give up social media for a week. Deactivate all your accounts."

"And if I don't?"

"Then I guess you've proven me right."

"And if I do come through on the bet, and can actually live without social media, what will you do for me?"

"I'll start an Instagram. Because I don't use social media."

(

Once surrendering to walking, we found ourselves bored, and there really wasn't much things to do around town.

The community pool was open and packed, but Solaris didn't want to go home and grab a swimming suit, and I didn't care for the big crowd.

Another place packed was the ice cream parlor. Free ice cream was being given away because of the ice cream melting. Solaris didn't see her favorite flavor (Cardamom Black Pepper Ice Cream), and I didn't really care for ice cream soup. But we did help ourselves to the free beverages they were serving.

"Where are we going next?" Solaris asked me as she took a sip of Mountain Dew. "I heard the Library's the coolest place in town. We should hit it up there if the heat doesn't kill us first."

She wiped off some sweat on her forehead and smirked. "I don't do well with heat."

I finished my bottle of water, and looked around the ice cream parlor. Different people were socializing at tables, smiling and laughing, and no one was on their phone, nor Pokemon Go; it looked just like the picnic.

"Hmm, well, in a little bit, we could go over to my friend Lars' place. He said I could come over sometime around 6." I looked at the time on my phone, and then looked back up at her. "Sound good?"

"Yeah, it sounds good."

(

"There's a bonfire at Chandler Leeds' place," this-one-guy- from-our-school told us. I think his name was Luis Lopez. "One dude's going to be bringing the booze, and my cousin and his friends are going to show up with grass. So, yeah."

He laughed like he just said a joke or something, when he actually didn't. "So, you guys down?"

Solaris and I looked at each other. She had her eyebrow raised with her arms crossed, and I was pretty neutral about the whole thing.

"Yeah, we might show," was my reply. "Where is Chandler Leeds' house again?"

He told me the address, and went on his way.

"Are we seriously going over there?" Solaris asked me once Luis drove off. "I mean, Chandler Leeds is an asshole. I can't even..."

I never had a problem with Chandler Leeds. He was a pretty cool guy; he never rubbed me the wrong way. But I did hear he was an asshole when it came to girls and dates, and he was pretty vocal about how he got a girl in bed.

I gave Solaris a curious look. "Why don't you like Chandler?"

"It doesn't matter. He's an asshole." She sound uncomfortable.

I didn't say anything else.

(

For some reason, after awhile of both us just sitting in silence on a park bench, Solaris surrendered.

"I guess we can go to the bonfire."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I didn't mean to sound so bitchy. I guess the lack of power is getting to me. At least it's starting to cool down." she then rested her head on my shoulder. I flinched.

She either didn't notice me flinching, or chose to not acknowledge it. She said to me with a kind of nervousness in her voice, "I wish I knew you before the power even gone out."

"But I knew you."

"You didn't even know my name."

"But I saw you around school."

"You never approached me."

"..."

(

A/N: PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO VOTE, COMMENT, OR FOLLOW.

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5 Questions:

☽ What do you think made Solaris say she wished she'd knew him before the black out?

☽ Why do you think Solaris is dreading going over to Chandler's place?

☽ Do you think Bade and Solaris are starting to care for each other?

☽ What's your favorite ice cream flavor?

☽ Are you a homebody (someone who likes to stay home)? Yes or no?

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A/N: Don't forget to check out our two COMPLETED stories: