The Earth rose above the Moon's horizon, a green and blue sphere with white clouds scudding across it and obscuring land and water alike from view, illuminated by the fiery ball of gaseous flames from the Sun.
Right about now, it would be noon in New York, and people would be packing the sidewalks, anxious to get to lunch. But in one quiet corner of Bailly, the Moon's largest crater, a human figure was curled up against a tiny stone ledge, its head resting on its knees, half crying, half sleeping.
Nita Callahan couldn't remember being so miserable or angry in her life. She dejectedly let her head hit her knees again and let out a long, shuddering sigh, her auburn hair drifting down in the low gravity, covering her face.
"Damn him…" she swore angrily, not caring what any satellites picked up. "What the @&%$ is wrong with him?" she screamed toward the silent, slowly rotating mass of blue and green. Nita furiously smashed her fist down on the surface of the Moon, raising a huge ivory dustcloud. Fuming, she pulled out her wallet and flipped it open to her favorite picture: Kit and her sitting on a park bench together, Kit's arm around her, both of them grinning up at the camera. Nita stared at the picture, suddenly caught in a flashback.
Flashback
They were fresh out of the 10th grade that year. Kit slapped Nita's hand as they shouldered their backpacks and joined the throng of people heading for summer vacation.
"Nita!" Kit laughed. "Oh, god, we survived!"
Nita caught Kit's hand playfully.
"Whaddya mean 'we'? If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't've made it halfway through."
Kit put an arm around her shoulders.
"Of course not," he laughed. "Without you, where would I have passed on the wrong homework answers?"
Nita punched him lightly in the shoulder.
"It was a one-time thing," she grinned.
Kit laughed harder.
"Yeah," he gasped. "That paper had 'F' written all over it ever since I gave you those answers."
Nita instantly extracted her revenge.
"Hey, look, Kit! A photographer!"
She grabbed Kit's backpack and dragged him with her as he tried to sidle away.
"Oh, c'mon, Kit. You look fine."
"No."
"Pleeeeeeeez?"
"No."
Nita's face took on the injured puppy-dog expression she'd perfected on him over the years. Her gray eyes widened and seemed to become windows to her soul, the corners of her mouth drooped, and her brow crumpled. Kit groaned and tried not to look.
"No."
Nita put an arm around him, giving him a surprise kiss on the lips.
"Please?" she asked once more.
Kit, flushing, gave in.
"Fine, now shut up, okay? I'll do this…"
Nita grabbed him, tossed the patiently waiting photographer a $10, and sat down on the bench, pulling Kit down beside her. He draped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, to her playful resistance and mild annoyance. The photographer loved it.
"Perfect. Gimme a minute…"
He ducked behind his camera and asked quickly, "What size d'you want?"
Kit was about to say photo-sized when Nita piped up, "Wallet, if that's not a problem."
"Nah. Now, go ahead and smile. Oh, Miss, tilt your head a bit to the side there…no, other side….there. Perfect. Smile…"
End flashback.
Nita sighed and half smiled. Those were the days. Remembering where she was and who she was teed off at, she shoved the photo back into her wallet, picking up a rock. She hefted it a few times. It was a good-sized chunk, one that might have weighed about eight pounds on Earth. She wound up and hurled it as far as she could, wrenching her arm in she process. She clutched it in pain, then, as the Rock hit the other side of the crater and bounced a few times, slid back down to the corner, crying with mixed pain and fury, her tears hitting the moon and staining its pale dust dark where they fell.
A low fog shrouded the damp grass of the high school field from view. Anyone who saw the shadowy figure moving towards the campus would have thought some spirit had come back to take revenge on the janitors. After that thought had registered in their minds, they would have continued moving at a slightly faster pace.
As it was, Kit Rodriguez didn't think he could feel any lower than he did now. He trudged toward the campus, his head down, contemplating what had just happened.
They had been talking together on their jetty, then Nita had brought up the topic of the upcoming convention/patching. Kit had shown her his part of their spell, and she had gone through the roof.
And after a few choice words, some very strong emotion on Nita's part, and a few blows exchanged, they had developed a simple argument into a raging melee. And that's when Nita's temper hit sky-high.
They say that when emotions take over the body, a wizard's powers can go berserk. And so it did with Nita. The sky had gone dark, and huge waves came crashing down around them. A high-speed wind keened its high dirge as it shrieked through the trees and stirred the whitecaps. Lightning forked down and nearly struck Kit, who had saved his own life by tripping over a stone. And that's when Nita had realized what she'd done.
"Oh my god…" she'd whispered, her eyes wide, scared, fearful.
"I almost killed him…"
She was gone in the blink of an eye.
Kit sighed and thought back further, seven months ago, when he'd been closest to her.
Graduation day. The day they would go off to summer vacation, and also the day of change. College was next…a whole new life. Nita's gracefulness as she accepted her diploma had amazed him; to have come so far since they'd met: her a mousy-haired geek, him a thin boy with a perpetual scowl. Now…
Kit had smiled widely as they filed out onto the lawn. Nita had come dashing up, tears in her eyes, and hit him in a hug, nearly knocking him over, her pink dress floating out behind her.
"Oh, Kit…you looked great," she sniffed, looking up at him. "My boy…"
Kit grinned.
"My girl…you looked really good up there, Neets. I couldn't believe it was you at first. Why don't you look like this every day?"
She punched him lightly.
"Too much work. Now, whaddya say to some punch?"
Kit smiled faintly and almost walked into a parked Accord.
His smile disappeared as he thought, Why me? This isn't fair…I'm working twice as hard as her. Does she not understand that working from five to two is a hassle for me? And who's buying our house? I am! And now she's being all…
Kit shook his head. It was just making him feel worse, thinking all this about her…
He translated the southeastern corner of Bailly into coordinates, punched them into his transit spell, and was gone in an explosion of air.
Nita was rudely jolted out of her sulking as someone fell out of the air and landed on top of her. Furious, she twisted herself around violently and almost bashed heads with…Kit. They stared at each other in what could be described as utmost hatred before Nita asked icily, "What the hell are you doing here?"
Kit glared at her.
"I could ask you the same thing."
"Kit, shut the *@%& up. Are you trying to be a @^&%ing jerk, or are you just acting normal?"
Kit was speechless. His mouth worked for a few moments, then he glared at her.
"Ronan was right. You do have a mean mouth," he said quietly, but with that, he sent her a chunk of his current feelings. That small bit of Kit's emotions nearly knocked Nita over: frustration, anger, sadness, despair, and shock all mixed in with a very strong shade of gray: pain. She reeled for a moment, then glared back at Kit. She muttered something under her breath, indicated Kit with her eyes, and something lifted Kit up and hurled him away from her. He hit the ground hard and bounced a few times before getting up, bleeding from the face and knees.
Nita glared at him, hurling a jagged rock at him. It bounced off his arm, but he didn't flinch at all.
"Kit, get your @^^ out of this galaxy. I don't want to see you until I get out of college."
Kit, clearly stunned and hurt, stared at Nita for a few more seconds before whirling on his heel, but not before Nita saw his face crumple as if he were about to cry. He walked off across the crater alone, then, shoulders slumped, disappeared with a bang. Nita glared after him, then looked at the spot where he'd stood seconds ago. Teardrops were still fresh on the moondust as she ran her hand over it, feeling like a murderer more and more. She clenched one fist tightly.
Nice going, Callahan, you *@^#&*# idiot… why don't you just kill him while you're at it? Finish your best friend off…
Overcome by misery, Nita curled up into a ball again and began to sob brokenheartedly.
