mångata (n.)

the glimmering reflection of the moon on water

* * *

MY eyes swept through each room, absorbing every detail as Delaney led us through the rooms and into her kitchen. With its marble countertops and vast island, It was big enough for a restaurant. The cooking enthusiast in me was itching to test out all of the shiny appliances.

She went into the fridge, took out drinks, and set them down on the shiny counter. Aubrey and I helped ourselves to cans of Sprite as Delaney poured the vodka into a pitcher by the sink.

"Not a big drinker either?" I asked Aubrey to fill the silence.

Delaney's head whipped around. Her eyes were wide, and she was desperately motioning for me to shut up. But it was too late: the words had already left my mouth.

Oh, how I wish I could have taken them back.

"Um, no," Aubrey coughed. "My mom was killed by a drunk driver, so I avoid it like the Coronavirus."

"Shit, I'm so sorry. I had no idea... If I had known, I wouldn't have said anything."

The party hadn't even started, and I managed to offend someone already.

Ten points for Charlotte.

She forced a smile. "It's alright. There's no way you could have known. Plus, it was years ago. Thinking about her still stings, but it's not as fresh as it used to be."

"Again, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have been complaining about my parents in the car, either. Such a tactless thing to do."

"Don't wor—" Aubrey hastily cut herself off when we heard the sound of the front door opening.

Ben, Ethan, and Eli came bounding into the kitchen, still donning their football jerseys.

"I brought the fruit punch and lemonade for the jungle juice," Ben called out. He set the two-liter bottles on the counter. "Eli has the candy."

Delaney opened the bottles and dumped the contents into the pitcher of vodka.

"Is there anything we can do to help set up?" Ethan asked.

"Yeah, everything's in the dining room," she called over her shoulder. "Just spread it out in the basement in the usual places."

Twenty minutes later, people started to show up. Whether it was pizza, alcohol, or plastic plates, almost everyone arrived with something to contribute. It was surprisingly coordinated for a bunch of teenagers. I guess after doing this every week for three years, they had it down to a science.

The music started thumping through the basement as the everyday lights were turned down, being replaced by the LED lights that lined the walls.

In an instant, the room went from a casual game room to a club scene.

I chatted with the girls and a few of my new classmates over all the noise. This was the first party of my high school career, and I was actually having a reasonably good time. It made me wish that I didn't wait until senior year to start having a more normal high school experience.

Maybe I would have been happier at Chester High if I made more of an effort to socialize and fit in.

After an hour or so, I started to develop a pounding headache and felt my social battery drain. I let Aubrey know I was going to get some air before climbing the stairs up to the kitchen.

I wandered around the first floor before finding a sliding glass door that led to the patio. I opened it and stepped outside into the crisp, fall air. A few people were gathered around the fire on the patio for warmth. I nodded a polite hello and walked past them.

A blanket of leaves was lining the ground, making a crunching sound under my feet as I followed the sound of the tide.

Reaching the Harrington's private beach, I sat in one of the Adirondack chairs. Under the moonlight, I listened to the waves crash on the beach. The sound was calming, even though I could still hear music and chatter in the background.

* * *

"Penny for your thoughts?" I heard a familiar deep voice ask.

I turned around and saw Eli standing behind me. His chiseled features were illuminated by the moonlight, giving him an almost heavenly glow.

For the hundredth time, I had to remind myself that he had a girlfriend; I shouldn't have these kinds of thoughts about him.

"Just thinking about how serene the view is. The party was getting unbearable," I shrugged, turning back around to face the ocean.

"Mind if I join you?"

I shrugged. "Don't you have a girlfriend to get back to?" I regretted the words as soon as I said them. There had to be a more tactful way to figure out his relationship status. Nevertheless, part of me was excited to finally find out something about the supposed girlfriend.

"What are you talking about?" he chuckled, sitting down next to me.

I started absentmindedly drawing patterns in the sand. "I, um, saw you on the beach with a girl a few days ago. Ella and I were working on the photo project."

"Why didn't you come over and say hi?"

"You were with your girlfriend. I didn't... didn't want to interrupt," I finished lamely.

"Well, to set the record straight, Aliyah's not my girlfriend. She's—" I audibly sighed in relief, suddenly feeling much better about my intrusive thoughts and the photos we took "—a family friend who's going through a hard time." He paused and scoffed, "Correction: she wanted to be my girlfriend, but I don't want one."

"Oh, um, okay," I said woodenly, heart concurrently dropping to the depths of my chest.

He sighed. "I definitely just sounded like a douche. Lemme rephrase that: I don't want any distractions from football at the moment."

His correction didn't make it any better in my eyes. I was puzzled about why he made a girlfriend seem like a plate of vegetables that a toddler didn't want. Vegetables were good for you, even though it didn't seem so.

"And a girlfriend is one?"

Wouldn't a girlfriend be a good thing? You know, someone to cheer for you, love you, and be there for you when you feel like shit? A partner was only a burden if you made it one.

However, I didn't voice my thoughts. Our friendship was new and delicate. I didn't want to shatter it by saying the wrong thing too soon. Yes, I was being overly cautious with everything, but I lived by a motto of 'better safe than sorry.'

"Yep," he said without hesitation. "A girlfriend would get in the way of my future."

It sounded like the sentence had been drilled into his brain; I wondered how often he repeats it in the mirror. Again, fearing offending him, I didn't dare call him out.

A silence fell between us. The tension cracking in the air was tangible, making me want to escape again. I came outside to relax, not to be further overwhelmed.

Subduing my discomfort, I studied the horizon. The full moon was rising in the night sky. It was casting a silvery, incandescent glow on the waves, making them appear a glittery shade of navy. Several stars were twinkling like scattered moon dust in the sky, adding to the night's simplistic beauty.

After sweeping my eyes across the stars, I honed in on the moon, squinting to make out its craters.

"The moon's really beautiful, if you think about it," I blurted.

"Yeah?" he asked, mild amusement and curiosity mingling in his voice.

"Yeah," I confirmed. "It's just- there's something about the moon that's ethereal. I don't really know how to describe it, but it's a constant in life. You can't always see it, but you have to trust that it's out there somewhere. And when you can see it, it's all bright and shiny and overcomes the darkness." I paused, searching for the right words. "I don't know. I guess it's a reminder that there are good things out there, even if you can't see them... And it's cool to think that someone hundreds of miles away is staring at the exact same moon as you. It makes me feel not so alone in life."

Turning my head, I saw him staring at me intently with a thoughtful look on his face.

"Too deep for a Friday night?" I laughed nervously, feeling my face grow hot.

And this was precisely why I didn't go to parties.

He shook his head and seemed to snap out of his daze. "It was deep in a good way."

"Thanks," I breathed.

We made eye contact for a second before he abruptly broke it.

"So, you got anything super poetic to say about the sun?"

"Hmm, let me think," I said, glad for the distraction from my social blunder. "Without the rain, we would never feel thankful for the warmth of the sun."

"Are you stealing this shit from Pinterest or something?" he laughed. "I never pegged you as a plagiarizer. Or is it plagiarist?"

"I dunno... My mom says the one about the sun all the time. The one about the moon was all me, though. I guess you could say I'm alone with my thoughts too much." And I truly was. It was only natural, being in a friend group that didn't sincerely want me. Second to my mom, books and my thoughts became my real best friends.

"That's not a bad thing. I don't get near enough time to just sit and think," he mused. "You'd be a sick writer or poet, by the way."

"Thank you."

We fell into a silence—a comfortable one. Content on being in each other's presence, Eli and I listened to the melody of the waves gently crashing onto the shore.

"Let's play twenty questions," he said out of the blue.

I stopped staring at the silvery reflection on the water and turned to glance at him, gauging his sincerity. "Why not? You go first."

"What's your favorite color?"

I groaned. "Really? That's it? You don't have anything more creative?"

"I think we've established that you're the creative one," he pointed out. "I'm just a smooth-brained football player."

"A football player that's taking a photography class," I corrected. "Use some of the creativity I know you have in there."

"Just answer the question, Hanson."

"Sage green, but any shade of green will do."

"See, it wasn't so hard," he teased.

Rolling my eyes, I asked, "What's your favorite weird food combination?"

"Putting raspberry jelly on chocolate Oreos."

I grimaced. "That tastes good?"

"Don't knock it 'till you try it. One day, I'll get you hooked on it."

"Okay," I said, drawing out the word. That was the newest item on my list of things that were never going to happen.

"Do you have any pets?"

"Nope," I answered. "I've always wanted a dog, but my mom's allergic, and the sperm donor hated them. Ever since I was little, I've planned on getting an Australian Shepherd as soon as I move out," I laughed.

"Ugh, not you too," he grumbled.

"What do you have against dogs?" I narrowed my eyes.

Not liking dogs was a huge red flag to me. You couldn't trust a dog hater, no matter how nice they seemed. They always ended up being psychopaths, just like my father.

"Nothing," he replied hurriedly. "My sister, Maddie, has been begging for an Aussie. She's six and won't fucking shut up about it. I'm sick of her whining every time my parents say no."

I chuckled. "Do you have any other siblings?"

"That's your question? What happened to being creative?" he jokingly mocked me.

"It's a follow-up question to what you said. Follow-ups don't count," I argued.

"Fine," he said, imitating my tone. "Yeah, I have a brother, too. Jacob's fourteen. He's even worse than Mads, especially when you throw Ben and Aubrey's brothers into the mix."

"I've always wanted siblings," I mused.

"It's nice to have them. They're pains in my ass, but also built-in best friends."

"Aww, are you getting all sappy on me? Who knew the great Eli Cameron was so emotional?"

"I'm allowed to have emotion."

"But you're not allowed to be creative and smart?" I quipped.

"Fuck off," he grumbled, his pursed lips begging to split into a grin.

"What is your biggest fear?" I inquired after a short silence.

"Not being good enough," he whispered out towards the water.

I turned to face him, but he kept looking straight ahead. "What do you mean?"

"Just being mediocre in life. Never being extraordinary or the best... Especially with football. You gotta be the best to go places."

"You're amazing at football, though," I said softly. I had only watched one of his games and knew he was an extraordinary athlete. You could just tell by the look of intense concentration on his face when he stepped onto the field.

He scoffed, a harsh cloud of breath escaping his mouth. "I'm okay. Decent at best. Not good enough for college level. That's a whole other ball game."

"Who told you that? The college scouts and I beg to differ."

"My parents," he grudgingly admitted.

"Hey, Eli," I said. He finally swiveled his head and looked at me. "Don't listen to them. You're practically a legend here. Hell, you shoulda heard the way some of the freshman boys were talking about you earlier—they look up to you so much. Not to mention, some of those scouts were there just for you today. They don't come all this way for shitty athletes."

My heart fluttered as his lustrous grey eyes stared into mine.

He shook his head to himself and turned to look at the water again. "Thank you, I really needed to hear that today," he whispered.

"No problem. It's what friends are for."

"My turn," he said after another prolonged pause. "Do you believe in supernatural creatures?"

I pondered it for a moment. "Yeah, I suppose I do."

"If you're one of those weird people who see ghosts, we can't be friends," he said, throwing his hands up in the air.

"No, definitely not," I breathily laughed. "There's what, 7.8 billion people out there?"

He leaned back in his chair. "I think so."

"Okay. Then, there must be at least one person out there that has some sort of superpower. I'm not saying vampires, werewolves, and all that shit are real, per se, but I bet someone can do something supernatural. Some of those Olympic sprinters probably have superpowers."

"Fair enough."

I couldn't help but tease him, "So, Cameron, can we still be friends?"

"Definitely, Hanson."

"I'm gonna need more than that." I grinned and extended my right pinky finger towards him. "Do you pinky promise?"

"Pinky promise? Are we still in third grade?"

"Yes, a pinky promise. I'll have you know that it's the highest of all promises. You can't break it. And if you do, I can cut your pinky off," I informed him in mock seriousness. "So, what do you say?"

He laughed to himself before gripping my pinky finger with his. "I pinky promise."

* * *

A/N: Thanks for reading chapter 11! 💚Please vote and follow if you're enjoying the book so far!

QOTC: Do you believe in supernatural creatures?

My Answer: Not really. It would be so incredibly cool to have werewolves and vampires, but it's not realistic. I would love to be a werewolf and have a mate like all the Wattpad girls haha. I'd love to cuddle with a big, friendly wolf (or dog) haha