Henri looked away. It was hard to know what to say next. She wasn’t letting him off the hook for doing such a kind deed, but the deed was nothing more than who he was. It didn’t feel like anything other than that. He didn’t like to see anyone hurt. It hurt more to watch someone miserable when you knew you could make them feel better. Maybe one day that would be his one true flaw, he thought to himself. He always regretted it later because a lot of the time people didn’t appreciate it. But Maven was different, he knew she did.

Henri looked at her. “Do you want me to walk you home?” The night was over, people were settling into their homes for the night. The stars were bright overhead guiding them down the cobblestones. Tiny bugs buzzing and whirring around.

Maven ignored his question, taking off across the stones and quickly she was disappearing down the hill, the last bit of her dress vanishing. Henri laughed, it seemed like the girl never wanted to go home.

He let out a ragged breath of air, tired from the jog. She was sitting on the dock, her shoes besides her. The moonlight reflecting off the water as she stared at it, her feet skimming the surface as she watched rings spilling outward from where her toes touched.

“I take it you don’t want to go home.” Henri sat down beside her. He too was barefoot, his shoes behind them a few feet. He was more aggressive with the water, kicking it off into the distance time and time again.

“No, I don’t.” She gripped the dock with her hands, watching their feet gliding through the water together.

“Why’s that?” Henri asked, slowing his movement, enjoying the cool feel against his skin.

“Because I enjoy your company.” Maven grinned, leaning into him. She scooted closer, her eyes glistening in the moonlight.

Henri searched her eyes. “Is that so?”

“It is.” She leaned in, snagging the back of his head with her hand, their foreheads meeting up. Henri lifted his head, catching her lips that were so eagerly heading for his. He closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of her lips. The gentle way she slipped her fingertips through his hair.

Maven moved closer, wanting more from their encounter, but too afraid to take it herself. She wanted Henri to make the next move. She pulled away.

“I always have a nice time when I’m with you.” She sliced through the water with her foot waiting for Henri to get the hint that she liked him. She stared at the water waiting patiently.

Henri pursed his lips. “It’s the only thing I look forward to with such excitement. It’s almost like nothing else compares.”

Maven completely agreed. “What do you think that means? You said you never get to know many people.” Maven knew she was waiting to hear the words every girl wanted to hear—that the guy that stayed on her mind was totally smitten by her.

“I don’t know…” Henri said, trailing off until there was a soft silence all around them. They both stared at the water.

Henri liked Maven a lot. But he wasn’t so brave that he could admit it. He was afraid to admit that he liked her—more afraid of that than most things in his life.

Hours rolled on. And they sat under the stars sharing the important things in their lives, being open and honest like no other time before. Maven could tell Henri anything. And he loved the way she laughed when he told her stories about his life back home—the good parts. Her laugh was remarkable and always produced a smile on his face.

She loved the way he stroked her arm and listened without judgment about her feelings toward Jake after he hurt her so badly. He loved her honesty and how she wasn’t afraid to admit that she felt crushed.

He wanted to make her happy. He knew she needed to be, she was such a beautiful human being and Henri saw that in her every moment they shared.

She rested her head on his chest counting the stars in the sky. Listening to his voice echo in her ears as he told her old stories that he remembered from when he was little, stories about fantasy worlds and things that only someone with a lot of hope could ever believe.

“Do you really believe in the afterlife?” Maven asked at the end of Henri’s story. She lifted her head from his chest. He closed his eyes.

“I believe it.” And he did. “There’s got to be more to life than just this.”

“I think so too.” Maven rested her head and smiled. She liked that Henri believed in the afterlife it almost made her feel better for a moment.

“If not, then what a cruel joke,” Henri said more to himself, he opened his eyes again, counting each luminous star that he saw in the sky. Maven’s giggling returning as they started talking about less serious subjects—like the night he toilet-papered his own house on Halloween in Tennessee.

 

HORRIBLE GOSSIP

MAVEN STARED UP at the bad lighting in the dressing room. She gracelessly shimmied into the first dress she had picked out.

“How’s it look, Maves?” Her mother called from the other side of the door.

Maven rolled her eyes. She swatted her bangs away, staring at herself in the mirror. It was too long—long was never her thing.

The Hop wasn’t formal. It was a laid back dance where girls found cute summer dresses to wear and boys wore a nice pair of slacks and a dress shirt. Some wore ties, others kept it simple.

She gave herself a useless smirk and unlatched the door so her mother could invade her space.

“I don’t really think it’s your color.” Her mom bit her thumbnail as she studied her in the long flowing number. “What about the pink one?”

Maven looked over at Maggie. There she sat in a chair, arms crossed, ear buds in, ignoring the whole excursion. “I don’t like pink remember?”

Her mother sighed, shaking her head in exasperation that Maven wanted to dispute the shade. Ever since she could remember, Maven refused to wear anything pink. She said it was too girly and made her look too goodie goodie. She realized it was a lost cause and yanked the hot pink dress out of the dressing room.

Maven shut the door, slipping out of the tawdry gown. She let it fall to her feet just as her phone vibrated. She gave herself a brief glance in the mirror before digging her phone from the pocket of her shorts.

It was a text from Henri.

Thinking of you. She smiled.

I am trapped at the mall with my mother and Maggie trying to find a dress for the Hop. Torture!

She set the phone on the tiny shelf by the mirror and studied herself. Fingering the strap of her lacy bra, she drifted to the night she and Henri sat by the water talking for hours. The sun made it back before she could even pull herself away from Henri and the water.

She was forever thinking about his kisses. The way his lips made her entire body shiver with something she had never felt before. Her heart never slowed when he touched her. And the moment at the water when Henri finally let his lips venture to her neck and further down to her collarbone had her ready to go nuts. She would have allowed him to go further, but he wasn’t like most guys, he would never disrespect her. But that didn’t take away from the ache that filled her mind every time he kissed her. She wondered if Henri felt that way about her or if she was just out of control.

As they got closer to her house that night Henri grew more and more quiet. She started to worry he was upset with her, because he was never so tranquil. That was when it happened. When he asked her to the Hop, the happiness she felt was beyond words. It seemed like a silly thing to get so excited over, but she was.

Her phone chirped alerting her to another text.