Chalk

6

Alice was harvesting sweet peas from the fence when I got home, a ring of flowers in her hair. I wandered to the backyard to watch her, dropping into the grass on my side of the viney melee.

“You look terrible. What happened to your hands?” she asked, brutally honest, as usual.

“I went back to the rock.”

“Did you make it?” She was fully aware of my torment over an inanimate object after letting me bitch about it over the fence and coffee this morning.

“No. But I got closer.”

“You need to find someone to show you how,” she mused, still plucking peas. From my spot in the grass, the smell of the flowers was a little overwhelming. Cloudy and heavy with sticky sweetness and my head was spinning, Shirtless Guy’s long fingers against the rock suddenly the only thing I could see.

“I already do. This guy has been helping me.”

“One of the cute ones?” Alice twittered, excited again for no reason.

“Very. But I’m trying to learn from him, so I’m not paying attention.” Case in point, I didn’t even know his name.

He was just Shirtless Guy, even when he was wearing a shirt.

---

I found him the next day on one of the very first rocks lodged out in the meadow. He was wearing a shirt again today, which was disappointing, but he was also in a pair of loose jeans that looked as though they’d been washed to the point of disintegration, rolled up at the cuffs to keep them free of his feet. I watched him scramble up the side of the rock like he was a damned spider and he grinned at me from the top.

“Hiya, Sparkles.”

“I hate that you call me that.” I cringed as he leapt from the rock but he landed nimbly with a puff of dust beside me, crouched like an animal before he straightened up.

“I’m probably gonna keep calling you that for a while. Until you earn a new one,” he told me through a smile, plucking the crash pad from my back and leading the way to my rock. He didn’t even ask, just brought us there, and I wondered if he sensed my frustration. We climbed again for a while, Shirtless Guy doing it once for my refreshment (or benefit) before letting me take my place up against the rock. It took six attempts but I’d just managed to press myself hard enough against that damn sloper to finally get beyond it when a yell through the trees startled me right off the rock.

I landed with a thump against Shirtless Guy, who caught me before I hit the pad.

“Edward!” The cry came again, echoing through the trees and Shirtless Guy cupped a hand to his mouth before crowing into the air just like he had when I saw him reach the top of that rock the first day. He set me down on the pad, hands steady until I was upright, and I tried not to get mad that not only did I almost finally make it, but that I’d also accidentally learned his name.

I was kind of fond of ‘Shirtless Guy.’

A moment later a blonde boy came loping out of the trees, another crash pad on his back. As he neared I could hear a subtle jangle emanating from him, his pockets looking heavy, and I knew for certain that this was the Glitter Friend who collected sparkly rocks.

Giant Friend and Glitter Friend and Shirtless Guy. For all I hated Sparkles, I wondered how much they’d all hate the names I’d given them in my head if I said the out loud.

“Hey man, what the fuck are you doing way out here? The Passion Pit is back that-a-way.” The blonde dropped the pad off his back and looked at Shirtless Guy (Edward?) curiously before eyeing me. His eyes dropped to my waist and I looked down at the chalk handprint on my thigh that most certainly did not come from me.

“Oh,” blonde guy chuckled, as if that handprint explained it all.

“Jasper, this is-” Shirtless Guy/Edward stopped short and looked down at me with his eyes wide, obviously just now realizing that we didn’t exactly know each other’s names.

“Bella,” I offered. “And you’re Edward.” He nodded at me and I turned to Jasper, otherwise known as Glitter Friend with a grin on my face. “How many rocks you got in your pockets, Jasper? You should meet my friend Alice.”

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