I remember the first time I saw him. It was a late, hot summer afternoon. Sometimes when I think about it, I think it latest forever, but really, it ended too soon. When I first walked up to him, he was standing there all by himself, looking up at the dark, gray sky.

“Hey.”

“Hi.”

“What are you looking at?”

“I don’t know.”, he said as he looked over at me and smiled, looking back at the sky. I just stood there looking around and then looked up at the sky. I didn’t see any damn thing that was of interest to me so I looked back down at the grown while he looked up, “What are you looking at?”

“Grass.” I said, as I started to kick it a little. I looked over at him and then crossed my arms, looking down at my shoes. They were too dirty. When did they get this dirty?

“And that’s interesting?”

“To some people.”

“Who?”

“People that study horticulture.” I said, realizing what I said sounded really stupid. He just laughed in response and looked down at the grass.

“Yeah well that doesn’t interest me.”, he said, looking back up at the sky, “Who the hell cares about the grass?”

“The horticulture people.”, I said as I shook my head and started to walk off.

“Where ya going?”, he asked as he looked over at me. I stopped and turned around, walking back up to him.

“I’m talking bullshit and I think you need some time alone.”, I said as I turned back around and started to walk off. I walked slowly thinking that he would call me back but after a few steps he never did. So I kept walking when -

“You didn’t have to leave.”

“Well.”, I said as I turned around and walked back up to him slowly, “I won’t leave I don’t guess. I won’t talk about horticulture.”

“Good.”, he said, “Because that bores the hell out of me.”

“Well me too.”

“Then why are you talking about?”

“Because you said that there was nothing interesting about the grass.”

“Well there’s not.”, he said as he looked back over at me, “You’re just looking for a fight.”

“You have an attitude problem.”, I said, looking at him. He just laughed at me and looked back up at the sky.

“Yeah, well I’m not the only one.”, he said as he kept looking at the sky. I just rolled my eyes in return and turned around, walking away.

And I didn’t see him anymore after that. I went back the next night to see if he was there, but he wasn’t. He was there the next night either. I went and checked almost every night but I never saw him again. I wondered if he ever found what he was looking for up in the sky, but I didn’t know. He had an attitude problem. Maybe he was an alien and was waiting for his spaceship to take him back to his native planet. Maybe he just liked looking at the stars. I had no idea what he was doing.

I stopped going there every night after a while. I realized that he wasn’t going to go back and I would just have to forget about him.

Or so I thought.

Then one late September night, I got bored so I decided to walk down the docks and I saw someone standing there. I couldn’t make out who it was at first so I walked closer gradually, taking my time until I realized that it was him. It was the same guy that I had seen standing there a few months ago. It was the guy that had the attitude problem.

I walked up closer and stood beside him on the dock and he looked over at me, rolling his eyes. I just rolled my eyes in return since he did the same thing.

“It’s return of the horticulture girl.”

“Sure, make fun of me.”

“What are you doing here?”, he asked as he looked back over at me.

“I was bored. What are you doing here?”, I asked as he started to laugh a little, leaning his elbows down on the dock and propping himself up.

“Thinking.”

“Bout what?”

“Life.”, he said as I looked over at him, not saying anything, “It’s fucked up isn’t it?”

“What is?”

“How life works out sometimes.”, he said as I looked at him, “What’s your name?”

“Leigh.”, I said, looking down at the grass, “What’s yours?”

“Nick.”, he said as he looked over at me, “Sorry I was a acted like a bitch.”

“It’s okay.”

“I’ve been going through a lot of shit.”

“Okay.”

“And I just get so pissed off that I need to be alone and you were just trying to be nice -”

“You don’t have to explain anything to me.”, I said, looking up at him and noticed that he was crying, “What are you crying for?”

“Everything.”, he said as he looked back up at the sky. I just stood there looking at him as he wiped his tears away, “Life’s fucked up and it never goes the way that you want it to.”

“I know, but you don’t have to cry about it.”, I said as I leaned over the railing looking down into the water. My hair fell in my face and I tucked it behind my ears and looked back over at him to see him looking at the sky.

“You ever notice that I’m always looking up and your always looking down?”, he asked as I started to laugh a little.

“Nope. I’ve never noticed it.”, I said as I smiled over at him and he looked over at me, smiling.