After Midnight

She called me just past midnight, and her voice cracked like tarnished silver. My bed shifted under my weight as I sat up and opened my window to let a sliver of moonlight in. I could smell the rain in the air, and the wind rustled the trees.

But all I could see is her tears, all I could smell is her fear, and all I could hear is her pain.

It was the middle of the week, and she should've be asleep. She was the good one of us, always followed the rules, and she was perfect..

But she always colored inbetween the lines.

Her words seeped over me, even in my half-asleep state.
Gone, she said. Mad, she said. Hate, she said. Apart, she said.

I never thought that she would do something like this. They were perfect. He loved her, and she, well, she liked him. It was sweet. Everyone expected them to grow up and have a perfect life. But I guess she always harbored a secret flame for the bad boy.

Maybe she’s like the rest of us, crying out to be burned, even just to know we’re alive. Maybe she does know what pain is. Maybe her sugar is sweet n’ low.

She had just broken up with long time boyfriend, and professed her love for her other best friends love. She had just fought with her other other best friend.

There were six of us.

Anna was never home anymore.

June was raw energy.

Paula loved the bad boy.

Louise was in charge.

Lily was on the phone with me right now.

And I was all of them rolled into one. I had always been their continual resource. Whatever they needed: that was me. Katie, teenaged super hero.

"Sugar, slow down." I said into phone, trying to stop her from tripping over her words and falling flat on her face. I always called her sugar when thats what she needed most in her life. Sugar and an episode of Gilmore Girls.
"Katie- I just..." she trailed off, her words drying up like the dustbowl.
"You just what?" I asked her, coaxing the story out of her.
"I feel... so... awful." she muttered.

For a minute I just listened to her breathe.

"You know what you need?" I asked her.
"What?" she sighed tragically.
"You need to get out." I said decisively.
"What?" she asked, surprised.
"Meet me down at the tennis courts."
"What?"
"Oh come on sugar, you're living life on the edge anyways. Might as well add one more thing to your list."
"I can't."
"Sure you can."
"Ten minutes?"
"Ten minutes."
"Done."
"And done."

I stripped, and then threw on some checkered shorts and a black tank top. It was warm, humid, one of those nights in august where it feels like everything in the past is whirling around you, everything in the now is suspended, and everything afters is calling out to you like a herald on a street corner.

I grabbed the key to the tennis courts off of my cork-board. I rummaged through the drawer in my kitchen to find a flashlight. I slipped out of the front door, taking heed to close it quietly behind me. Propped up outside the door was my racket, and I picked it up as I ran off. s

I jogged down my driveway, all the way along my street, feeling the burn in my calves, loving the taut sensation. I loved to run.

Turning the flashlight on, I made my way all the way to the tennis courts. After a minute Lily showed up in a little tennis skirt, white t-shirt, toting a tennis racket and a pack of green tennis balls.

"Hey sugar." I greeted the small blonde with a bear hug. She buried her head in my shoulder for a second before looking me in the eye.
"Oh, Katie, I didn't mean to hurt him but I couldn't not hurt him without hurting myself and to hurt me would hurt him-"
"I'm not blaming you." I cut her off.
"Thank you."
"Let's just hit the ball around.

I took the key around my neck and slid it into the lock, twisting it with a quick flick of my wrist. We ran our onto the courts.

"Turn your flashlight off." Lily told me.
"Why?" I asked her.
"The moon."

And she was right. I looked up to find that through the trees you could see the shards of a full moon. It was the watery kind of moon, like a crumpled note thats been through the wash in the back pocket of your favorite pair of jeans.

Lily lobbed the ball into my court, and I countered it back to her. She hit it back and I ran forward to smack it back. She finally hit one into my court that I couldn't counter. Running forward to catch the ball I ran to the net. Meeting me there she sighed.

"I really like him Katie, I really do." she told me, twirling a lock of blonde hair wistfully.
"I know you do." I told her sympathetically.
"Do you think I'm a horrible person?"
"Of course not!"
"Does Paula hate me?"
"Of course not!"
"It sure sounds like she does."
"She just needs some time to cool off."
"I can't help liking him."
"I know that you can't."

She sighed and ran back to serve again.

After about an hour of steady hitting, she told me that she was tired. She told me that she just wanted to sit and talk. So we trekked up the hill and sat down under the huge tree just outside the tennis courts.

"This has been a crazy year, hasn't it?" she asked me.
"When is it not?" I joked.
"Never." she admitted, with a half smile toothier than a steak knife.
"You know what?" she asked thoughtfully.
"What?" I inquired.
"This really makes me think back to the shakespeare. I never got it, I never understood it until now. I never saw how it could be so... so... well, contemporary." she said.
"Hmmm." I said, noncommittally, waiting to see where she was going.
"Love sees not with the eyes, but with the mind; and therefore is young cupid painted blind." she quoted.
"Nor hath Love's mind any judgement taste; wings and no eyes make for unheedy haste." I continued.
"And therefore is Love said to be a child; because in choice he is so oft beguiled." she finished steadily.

We stopped for a moment of meditative silence.

"It's three o'clock in the morning." she said, looking at her pink g-shock.
"You should get some sleep, sugar." I told her, ruffling her hair affectionately.
"I know." she stood up.
"Goodbye sugar." I said hugging her.
"Bye Katie." she told me, running off.

I chuckled and then head home.