Page 18 (1/2)

Nova

Sometimes I wonder if there are some memories the mind doesn’t want to deal with and that if it really wants to, it can block out the ies, shut down, numb the pain connected to —e didn’t want to see If we allow it to, the nu, even the spark of life inside us And eventually the person we once were is nothing but a vanishing memory

I didn’t always use to think this way I used to have hope I used to believe in things Like when h that I could make it happen

“No one else in the world can s happen for you, Nova,” he’d said while ere lying on our backs on the hill in our backyard, staring up at the stars I was six and happy and a little naïve, eating his words up like handfuls of sugar “But if you want so to work hard at it, then anything’s possible ”

“Anything?” I’d said, turning my head toward him “Even if I want to be a princess?”

He senuinely happy “Even a princess ”

I grinned, looking up at the sky, thinking hoonderful it would be to wear a dia heels I would spin around in circles and laugh as my dress spun with me Never once did I think about what it truly meant to be a princess and how impossible it was for me to actually become one

“Earth to Nova ” My boyfriend, Landon Evans, waves his hand in front of my face

I blinkthe botto him in the eyes “What’s up?”

He laughs atthere But that’s normal for Landon He’s an artist, and he tells me that in order to portray pain in his portraits he has to carry it within hi off on low makes his honey-brown eyes look like the charcoal he uses for his sketchings

I roll on my side and tuck my hands underneath my head, so I can really look at hi ”

“You have that look on your face, like you’re thinking deep ” He rotates on his hip and props his elbow up on the ground, resting his head against his palm Wisps of his inky-black hair fall into his eyes “Want to talk about it?”

I shake”

He offers enuine sly dissolves It’s one of the things that I love about Landon He’s the only person on this planet who can er alive anymore, so smiles are rare in my book

Landon and I were best friends up until about six ot to bond on a deeper level and understand each other before all the kissing and horhteen and haven’t even graduated high school yet, but sometiether years ahead, in love,time after my dad died, I couldn’t picture e People evolve Move on Grow as new people enter their lives

“I saw the picture you drew for the art project,” I say, brushing so up on Mr Felmon’s wall ”

He frohich he always does whenever we’re talking about his art “Yeah, it didn’t turn out how I planned ”

“It see it,” I tell his do ”

Any happiness in his expression withers as he rolls onto his back and pinpoints his attention to the star-cut sky He’s silent for a while and I turn ontothat he’s stuck in his own head Landon is one of the saddest people I’ve met, and it’s part of what drew me to him

I was thirteen, and he’d just ainst the tree in his front his yard, scribbling in a sketchbook, when I first saw hiht after my dad had died, and I’d pretty much kept my distance from people But with Landon, I don’t know, there was just so about him

I’d crossed the street, very curious about what he was drawing When I stopped in front of hiuish was in his honey-brown eyes—the torture and internal suffering I’d never seen so h I didn’t knoas causing it, I guessed ere going to be friends He looked how I felt inside, like I’d been broken apart and the pieces hadn’t healed correctly Just like I guessed, we did become best friends—more than best friends, actually We’re almost inseparable, addicted to each other, and I absolutely hate being away from him because I feel lost and one

“Do you ever get the feeling that we’re all just lost?” Landon utters, jerkingaround the earth, waiting around to die ”