Thousands of twinkling and glittering stars lit up the black night sky. It’s so beautiful, I thought as I gazed up at the sky. I wish I could stay here forever, but I couldn’t. Heather and I were slowly walking up the street towards my cottage. It was like we did every summer night after we said goodbye to our other friends, but tonight was different.
The night was warm and still and I could hear crickets chirping and an owl hooting deep in the woods. The big fluorescent streetlights were faintly buzzing above us, helping to light our way. Our bare feet were padding softly on the pavement, and we were crying. Tears ran down my face, and I kept wiping them off. I must look like a wreck, I thought, because I had been crying all night.
“Next summer will be here before we know it,” Heather sniffled.
“Yeah,” I agreed, “but we have to go to school between now and then, which will make it seem way longer.”
“We need to plan for summer 2011, because it will be epic!” Heather exclaimed.
“Totally!” I grinned. We laughed a bit about our joke. It was because I told her the story about how when I was younger one winter my mom, my sister, and I were at a hotel with an outdoor heated swimming pool and a bunch of teenagers were out there. The teenagers kept yelling, “That was so epic!” Naturally, my sister and I would run out on the balcony, yell, “That was so epic!” and run back inside.
Then in the sky a glowing light streaked by. It was a shooting star. We stopped talking and stood still. It seemed like the whole world held its breath. I smiled, it wasn’t the first shooting star I saw but it was the most special one.
We wandered up to my cottage, then we stood there for a second looking at it. It looked so bright in the darkness, with all the light streaming out of the windows. I could still hear crickets chirping. My nose was stuffed and I was still crying a little bit.
“That was pretty cool,” Heather finally said.
“I guess that means next summer is going to be awesome,” I smiled.
“Oh you know it,” Heather agreed.
“Do you want to sit on the porch?” I asked.
“No,” Heather replied, “the sidewalk is fine.” Heather and I sat down on the rough sidewalk, instead of the porch. This feels weird, I thought. Every night we sit on the porch and talk, not the sidewalk. We talked for a while and even laughed a little bit.
It was time for Heather to go back to her cottage, and I wouldn’t see her again for a long time. I started to cry again. We both stood up from the sidewalk and brushed the dirt off our shorts. Heather and I hugged each other, and I could feel the tears sliding down my face again.
“At least it wasn’t as sad after we saw the shooting star,” Heather sighed.
“Yeah,” I nodded, “bye.”
“Bye.”
“I wish you could stay another week.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“But we’ll see each other soon.”
“Yes, we will.”
“Bye,” I said again.
“Bye,” Heather said for the last time.
Heather turned around, strode down the sidewalk. She looked back one last time and waved. I waved back. Then I stood there for a while watching her get smaller until I couldn’t see her because the big pine trees were covering her. I stood there for a little while longer. Then I sighed and started up the stairs. Tonight was sad, but it wasn’t terrible, I thought as I trudged into my cottage, and I was already excited about summer 2011.