Maverick Effect (Chapter 25)

He sat under the shade of a willow tree, just looking around.  He smiled, but it was a sad smile.  Everyone was out there enjoying themselves, enjoying being around each other.  He wanted so much to join them, to be one of the group.  Yet he couldn’t.  He was the outsider, people shyed away from him.  People would make him the outsider in conversations, in games, in just about everything.  It was the way it had always been, the way it may always be.  So, he just sat under the tree, watching the world around him.  He watched her, them move, running and laughing.  He watched the way the light shined in their hair, watched the way they moved and the way they interacted with each other.  Yet, when it came to them he was the invisible man.  It was the way it had been and the way it probably would always be. 

Maverick awoke to Natalie gently shaking him, concern evident in her beautiful face.

  “Mav, are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be alright.”

  He kissed her to reassure her and lay back down.  Natalie looked like she wanted to ask more, but gave up and snuggled close to him again.  Ten minutes later she was asleep again.  Maverick sat up in bed slowly and looked out the window.  It was the first memory dream he had since he had left home the first time.  He figured it wouldn’t be the last.

-Damien