013 - mustard

Jones and Sally sat alone in the car in the parking lot. He looked at her, into those eyes that told him nothing at all. She stared out the window, into the nighttime sky, then back to him.

The parking lot was almost completely empty now. Just a few lone vehicles randomly spaced throughout the place, probably belonging to employees of the closed stores who were dying to just go home.

Sally shifted her eyes away from looking at Jones back to the sky outside the glass window. The night was not clear, and clouds obstructed the stars, although for their part, the stars were trying valiantly to shine through.

"Sally, I took you here so we could get away from it all, all the confusion," Jones started, trying to get her attention back. "I was just wondering, had you given what I said to you any more thought?" The nervous hopefulness in his voice was palpable.

She looked so uncomfortable, he thought, as the seconds ticked by waiting for her response. She was unmoved, and her eyes continued to stare out the window. "Jones, what does that one look like to you?"

Trying not to act defeated, trying to not act as if his question had just been ignored, he instead opted for fake enthusiasm. "Well, let me see! Which one are you talkin' about?" he asked, cocking his head to see out her window.

"That one," she pointed. "Tell me it doesn't look just like a deer, with antlers!" He squinted, tried to see it, and then realized that he was going to agree with her anyway. "Oh, yeah, I see it."

Why wouldn't she just answer his question? "Jones... isn't this perfect? I wish everything could stay this way forever, but I suppose it can't."

Goddamn this girl with her energy, her ability to say so much using this overcast night sky. In an instant, in these innocuous words, he had been shot down. He felt himself filling with regrets as he suddenly started the car, and put it in reverse to pull out. Sally was taken aback by this sudden movement.

Catching one final glimpse out his window, he saw the same cloud. "Actually, it looks like a broken heart," he said, trying to make it sound like a joke. Sally just looked down to her hands in her lap.