frosting. I was, without a shadow of a doubt, the moonchild here in Dunsmuir.
I glanced at the guy out of the corner of my eye and ducked my head when I felt my cheeks heat. “Uh, yeah. He’s getting beer and after dinner snacks, I think.”
“Well, what are you having? The usual? And what can I get you, hon? Are we still doing the birthday cake, too?” She directed the last portion of her question at him. A smile lit up her face as she pointed back and forth between us. “Happy Birthday to you both.”
I felt his gaze lingering at the side of my head, so I turned to look at him. He stared down at me with an odd expression on his face, before turning back around. “Yeah, let’s do the cake, and”—he paused, glancing down at me—“Happy Birthday, kid.”
“Happy Birthday…” I trailed off, waiting for him to tell me his name. As he dug into his back pocket, pulling out some cash from his weathered leather wallet to pay, he finally gave me what I wanted.
“You can call me End.”
Without another word or even a glance back, he left, taking all the air from my lungs with him.
That was when I first knew Endymion and I would never work. He was otherworldly, and I was…me. Too plain, too young, too quirky to ever capture his attention. That didn’t mean I’d ever stop trying.
Over the course of the years, while Endymion and his family got settled here in Dunsmuir from Lake Tahoe, my crush on him only grew, to the point I was sure everyone in town knew about it except him. He always called me kid, and he never looked at me twice. It was like I was insignificant.
I wasn’t smart enough.
Interesting enough.
Pretty enough.
Or maybe I was just too young, and therefore, off his radar.
For the first few weeks they were settling in, I did everything I could to run into him again. It wasn’t easy. I was still in middle school, and he was heading to high school. We didn’t exactly hang out in the same crowds. Fortunately, I did see him every once in a blue moon at the grocery store and at the mall, but each time, he never looked twice.
Not that I expected anything different. I wasn’t the kind of girl you looked twice at. I was the girl who would go most of her life unnoticed, and I had come to terms with it.
I took to writing his name in my journals and wondering if one day he’d notice me. Little did I know, the competition would make that feat nearly impossible. In a small town like ours, when a hot guy moved in, the girls, and even the women, flocked toward him. They tried to covet and steal what I laid eyes on first.
Endymion got the most male attention I’d ever seen in my entire life. It was probably his looks, his unique name, and the mystery surrounding him. Whatever it was, I wasn’t the only one in town fighting for his attention. And the likelihood was, I never would be. Endymion and I would never work out. We were destined for failure, that was all I was sure of.
August 2008—Past
On my way home from school, I heave a deep sigh when I glance around at the groups of kids. Everyone who walks home has their own cliques. Everyone but me. It’s usually just me and my best friend, Julia. We walk to and from school every day, except when it rains or snows. That’s where our parents draw the line. But today, Julia missed school because she’s “sick,” leaving me to my lonesome. I don’t have very many friends besides Julia, and the ones I do have are more acquaintances than anything else. Which is precisely why I’m walking home all alone.
I let out a surprised squeak and clutch the thick book to my chest when a few of the high schoolers run past me, hooting and hollering. One of them clips me in the arm, nearly making me drop my pride and joy. A few years ago, my dad bought me this thick book filled with legends from Greek mythology. Those faraway tales speak to me on a different level than regular fiction, which is why I don’t enjoy reading anything else.
Right when I think their horseplay is good and over, another one of the jerks bumps into me as he runs by, and, this time, instead of my