Her long, black hair rippled in the wind, waving a flag of sorrow and emptiness. Blake pulled his car to the side when he was close enough and got out. The familiarity of this happening only a few days before, lingered around them. Blake vowed for a different outcome.
"Are you okay?" He slowly stepped out of the drivers side of his Jeep. Krystal refused to look at him.
"Fine." She said cooly.
"You can't hug me one day and ice me out another." He treaded lightly towards her. Her body tensed.

Of course he brought up the hug, it was a minor slip in judgment. He was lucky I even acknowledged him in school. I don't let anyone in, why does he assume he will be different?

"What do you want, Blake?" Her voice was hard and flat. He stood next to her. With Blake being relatively tall, he towered about a head over her.
"To know if you're okay." He said softly.
"I said I was fine." She said through gritted teeth. Blake chuckled.
"I have two sisters and a mom, I'm aware what the phrase 'I'm fine' means for women." Krystal sighed.
"You're not going to go away, are you?"
"Nope." He made a popping sound on the p. "I'm Blake Hardy, by the way."
"Aware."
"And you are?"
"Annoyed." Their banter flew back and forth on the empty road. He laughed.
"Your name?"
"You know my name."
"I'm trying to be friendly."
"Well don't!" She snapped at him. They stood in silence, Krystals eyes trained on the cross in the ground.

Why can't he go away? What possessed to assume were friends? Why does he even care?! Oh. My. God. Of course....I should have know.

"Just because you know the truth doesn't mean anything." She whispered.
"Well someone oughta know." Krystal shook her head. "I do have to admit, I bought the NASA story. Couldn't afford a shirt so the gave you something a little extra special." A prideful smile picked at the corner of her lips.

If I didn't know any better, I'd say Krystal Kamowski is trying not to smile. I want to see her smile. For all the years we've gone to school together, I've never seen her smile, not once. I need to be the one who makes her smile. I just need to.

"I will admit," Blake continued. "my favorite was trying to spell 'cool' with your eyes." Blake chuckled and shook his head. Krystal couldn't help but choke out a laugh.

Over the years I'd come up with hundreds of excuses for my scar, most of them highly outrageous. Never once were they true. It was nice to share the knowledge with someone, it was even nice to joke about it. It felt like exhaling a breath you didn't know you were holding. 6 years of holding the same oxygen. Who know even oxygen was toxic?

She laughed! It felt like I just won the fucking lottery! Not only did she smiled, she laughed! She had a cute laugh. Now, I craved to hear more of it.

"No, really. Spelling cool. It's classic. Where do you even come up with these?" Blake smiled down at Krystal but she was too focused on the cross to notice.
"My sister," she started slowly. "she used to tell me that I had a wicked imagination. I used to come up with these crazy fables. It's always been easy to fabricate things, for me at least." She poured out to him. Silence rested between them again.
"It's a shame NASA had to go and mess with that pretty face of yours."

Is he flirting?

Why am I flirting? And that wasn't even very good either! Could I get any worse?

"I mean, you're still beautiful now, and like I've always thought you looked perfect, even with the scar, I-" he stumbled over his words. Krystal did the unthinkable and let out a loud laugh.

Lord help me! I'm laughing at a guy who is trying to flirt with me. Maybe Blake Hardy isn't all that bad. Maybe the apple didn't fall far from the tree.

She put me out of my misery with that beautiful, silky laugh of hers. It was louder and longer this time. I just wanted to make her laugh, again and again. When was the last time she laughed?

"Krystal Kamowski." She said, not looking anywhere in particular, but especially not at him.
"What?"
"That's my name." Blake started at her. "Just being friendly, that's all." She replied lightly.
"Well don't." He fake snapped at her. Krystal looked up at him, he was smiling a mile wide. A grin of her own started to pick at her lips.

You're a weird one, Blake Hardy

God help me, am I getting feelings for this girl? She can't barely stand to talk to me and I just want to be as close to her as she'll let me, how ever close that is.

Bye Nancy, I love you.

Krystal took in a deep breath and dug her keys out of her pocket. Blake watched her every move from the corner of his eye. Memorizing how she moves. Their eyes met as she turned her head to him. She gave him a soft smile and turned to leave.
"Where are you going?"
"Home. Some of us have reality to get back to Mr. Hardy."

Reality? Isn't this it? Isn't the realization of needing someone other than yourself, reality? Or has she not seen that yet?

"Bye Krystal, see your around." With one foot in, she stared at him.
"I'm sure we'll see each other. Bye Blake." She grinned and got into her car.

She didn't grunt at me or try to avoid me. She agreed to be friendly. I'm lost now. I could work with grumpy, but suddenly nice? I'm not equip to handle that.

Why am I smiling?

When Blake got home, he went up and knocked on Gabriel's door.
"Yeah?" Blake poked his head in, he scanned the room. His focus went to Hannah.
"Oh great, you're here." She rolled her eyes at her brother.
"Just come to be mean?" Said Gabriel.
"No." Blake fully came in the room and closed the door. "I need your help again."
"Hey! Why did you go to Gabriel for help and not me?" Hannah pouted.
"Because you make fun of me!"
"If she promises to be nice, can she be included?" Blake sighed and sat on Gabriel's bed with his sisters. They were always so close and liked to do things together.
"I suppose." Hannah nodded excitedly.
"So is this about the bullied girl?"
"Yeah."
"Is that the girl you were talking about the other day?" Hannah asked. "The girl you're interested in." Blake's cheeks turned a rosy pink.
"Im not interested in her like that, I just want to help." Hannah smiled.
"Right, tell us more." He rolled his eyes and sighed but carried on.
"Well, I got her to talk to me. She even hugged me." The girls exchanged looks. "Then she tries to ghost me but then is friendly. I'm confused."
"Blake, you said she doesn't have friends?" Gabriel asks, he nods. "She is probably wary of you. All this time people have been mean to her and she's been closed off. Can you imagine how hard that is for her to trust someone? To open up to them?"
"And going on that, Blake you're popular. You have lots of friends and people know you. That's intimidating for her. I'm sure some of your friends bully her too. You have to know what that looks like to her."
"But I don't want to hurt her, I want to help her." Hannah grabbed Blake's hand.
"Give her some time. At least she's talking to you." Blake studied his sister. The two of them looked a lot a like, and he looked like a male version of them. Finally, Blake nodded.
"She'll come round." Added Gabriel.
"Why are girls so complicated?" Blake flopped back on the bed. The girls giggled.
"Any one in that spot would be complicated, girl or not." Hannah ruffled her brothers hair. He swatted her hand away.

I'm lucky I have two sisters. They make fun of me, sure, but they can be helpful too.

🌙  🌙  🌙  🌙  🌙  🌙

Krystal prepared for the game of questions she was going to walk into. Putting the key in the hole, she turned her wrist and unlocked the door. Her mother was sitting in the living room reading when she came in. Her mother slapped her bookmark in the pages and stood up.
"Hi mom."
"Hi sweetie, how was school?"
"Fine."
"Make any new friends?"

New? Like I had any old ones.

"Not really." Her mother perked up at this answer.
"Not really? What do you mean not really?"
"I was nice, I wouldn't say we are anything close to friends. Just mutual respect both ways."
"Oh how wonderful Krystal! What's their name? Are you going to sit with them at lunch? Hang out?" Krystal turned to face her mother.
"No, mom. Just being nice like you wanted me to. His name is Blake Hardy."
"Blake Hardy?" Her bows laced together in confusion. "As in Officer Greg Hardy's son?"
"As in Officer Greg Hardy's son."

His name is Greg? He looks more like a Jim.

Her mother powered through what she thought was weird and kept asking questions.
"And do you have any feelings for this boy?" She teased lightly.
"Lord no!"
"Krystal Dream! What have I said about using the lords name in vain!"
"Sorry." She muttered.

After finally answering all the questions her mother could possible pull from thin air, she slinked back to her room. Her room was more of a sanctuary than anything for her. She grabbed her diary and began to write on the events of today, waiting for dinner to be ready.