My Butterfly

audience that had just joined us, before I glanced back down at the strings on the guitar and felt my grin widen.
    “Okay,” I softly conceded, shaking my head.
    I tickled the strings for a moment and then found a melody. It was the same one that poured through Julia’s jeep’s stereo every time she turned it on. I might have learned it a little while back. I figured there would come a time when Jules wanted to hear it and she didn’t have her CD. Plus, it reminded me of her, and it felt good to sing it. And now, it was the first song that came to my mind.
    Eventually, I started in on the words as well, and after a few moments, I heard the girls on the other side of the fire chime in. They didn’t seem to know all of the words, but they tried anyway. I caught Julia’s stare and smiled. She returned an almost-bashful grin.
    I tickled the guitar’s strings until the melody ended. Then, there was a strange, awkward silence before Rachel said something first.
    “Wow, Will,” Rachel exclaimed. “I’m not going to lie. I was really expecting a voice from the boy who starts a band in his garage only to still be in his garage forty years later with a beer belly and a mullet. I wasn’t expecting a rock star.”
    My eyes instinctively darted toward Julia but then hit the ground just as quickly as they had found her.
    “Well, I can see that maybe you two have something new to talk about, so…we’re just going to get some more hot chocolate,” Rachel said before motioning for the other girls to follow her away from the fire.
    It was only moments before Julia and I were alone with the fire’s flames again. Then, I listened for seconds to the fire’s soft popping before Jules spoke.
    “Will, that was really good.”
    My face turned up toward hers.
    “Really?” I asked.
    “Yeah, really,” she said, starting to laugh. “Will, all these years…How didn’t I know that you could play the guitar–or sing? And that good?”
    I returned my eyes to the flames, as a slight grin found my face.
    “Not many people do know, I guess,” I confessed. “I’m pretty good at keeping secrets around here.”
    I winked at her then and propped the guitar against the log beside me.
    “So, I see,” she said, smiling wider.
    “Do you write songs too?” she asked.
    My gaze stopped in her eyes. I wasn’t quite expecting her question.
    “I try, when I get a chance,” I said. “Writing’s the best part really. It’s the words that change people’s lives in the end, right?”
    She paused, as if she wasn’t expecting my answer.
    “Hmm, I guess that makes sense,” she said, eventually. “I’ve never really thought about it.”
    I laughed once.
    “I’ll have to write a song for you sometime,” I said.
    I wanted my words to have come out gentle and honest, but I was pretty sure they just came out cheesy.
    I watched her smile and then try to hide it.
    “Do you write a song for every girl you have a crush on?” she sarcastically asked, returning her attention to the fire.
    “Well, I will once I write one for you,” I said.
    She let go of her smile and then looked back at me, locking her stare in my eyes before she spoke again.
    “I’m pretty sure it’s brown-eyed girl, by the way,” she said.
    Her voice was playful again.
    “What?” I asked.
    “In the song, you said green-eyed girl,” she said, looking away again.
    I hesitated but kept my eyes on her.
    “Let me see,” I said, as I gently touched her chin and turned her face back toward mine.
    “Nope, pretty sure it’s green-eyed girl,” I said.
    I watched as a slight smile lingered on her lips.
    “Will Stephens, what am I going to do with you?” she softly asked.
    I grinned wider and took a deep breath. I could think of plenty.
    “Jules, I’m sorry about the rocks, your ball and every other stupid thing I’ve ever done,” I said, lowering my hand from her chin.
    Her eyes fell toward the ground, and she laughed.
    “It’s okay,” she said. “You get the ball down for me someday, and we’ll call it even.”
    I slowly nodded my head.
    “Okay,” I said. “But I’m not gonna stop askin’, you know?”
    Her eyes quickly found mine again.
    “I considered that,” she said. “And what if I never say yes ?”
    I sucked in a deep breath.
    “Well, then I suppose I would have spent my life doin’ something worthwhile,” I said. “My parents can’t be disappointed in that.”
    “Will,” she protested.
    I watched her toss her head back and