• Chapter 1: Brad

    Brad looked up at the sky, sitting on the bed of his orange truck. He looked around at his friends, who were just staring into the fire. Everyone had been completely silent since the news that Alan was moving had gotten out. The four had been the closest of friends since 7th grade. Thinking of how they would cope (since Alan was the one who always would stop the fights), Brad took a sip of his beer, and then looked at the stars.
    “Honestly, we’re 26. Didn’t you figure one of us would move sometime?” Alan said, trying to make people understand.
    “Not really. Didn’t we all agree our junior year not to ever leave, so that way we could keep the band together?” asked Jake.
    “You know what, I’m pretty sure we did. Do you enjoy breaking promises, Alan?” asked Keith.
    “Guys! We all know our music isn’t taking off, so it only makes sense for Alan to get an education, especially outside of Wyoming. Everyone knows the best colleges are in the east. I think it’s great that Alan got accepted into a college out east. I know it’d be a challenge for all of us, and impossible for most of us, and by most, I mean us three, sitting on our lazy asses, drinking a beer, staring into a fire, playing music. Don’t blame Alan for leaving; he needs to make a living other than minimum wage,” said Brad, trying to stop anything major from happening.
    “Thanks, Brad,” said Alan.
    Just then, all four of the guys looked up, noticing an extremely bright shooting star at the same time. Once it passed, Brad lit a cigarette and stood up. “Well, I’ll see ya’ll tomorrow. Well, at least Keith and Jake. Bye, Alan.” Brad gave Alan a hug, then headed for the front door of his truck. He unlocked it, and then started to open it. “Damn door. Can anyone help me?”
    Keith got up and started to push very forcefully on the door near the hinges. He pushed somewhat up, but mostly in. Brad pulled on the handle again. “Thanks, Keith. You can keep what’s left of the beer.” Brad got into his car and drove home.
    Brad walked into the familiar home that had a constant smell of French vanilla.
    “Hey, Brad,” said Ralph, the owner of the house. “Did you have fun?”
    “Yea, but Alan just told us he’s leaving. He’s packing tomorrow, then leaving the day after. I know this is un-related, but were there supposed to be shooting stars tonight?” Brad asked Ralph. Ralph was a very smart man who studied all sorts of legends, myths, stories, and he had recently started into astronomy since he had exhausted all of the other topics. He had adopted Brad and welcomed him to stay for as long as he wanted, since he believed Brad would get a better education from him than any college, since he had attended Harvard.
    “No, not that I know of. Why do you ask?”
    “Well, we all saw this very bright shooting star. It was beautiful, but I didn’t remember you say anything about shooting stars, so I thought I’d just check to make sure I didn’t miss anything,” explained Brad. He was a little worried that this would worry Ralph, and he would start searching everywhere for an answer. He didn’t like to trouble either Ralph or Maria (Ralph’s wife) since they were kind enough to have taken them in when he was 8, and they continued to take care of him 18 years later.
    Brad walked to his room and laid down on his bed. Although it was 11:30, he couldn’t sleep. The thought of the magnificent shooting star streaked through his mind. He looked around, trying to forget it, and suddenly his thoughts were on Alan. He thought about all the fun times they had in the room, such as the times they used to always pretend to be extremely famous rock-stars. Suddenly, he almost wished he knew what it felt like to be famous for music. They had no chance to know the feeling since their singer was now gone. His eyelids began to slowly grow heavier with exhaustion. He slowly went asleep, while his active mind had slowly wondered back to the thoughts of the extremely bright shooting star.