“Imagine a starless sky.” Angela kept her chin turned upward. It was a new year, and her and her best friend, CJ—Cedric John—watched the fireworks. The best way to describe them was like strings of glitter that shot up into the sky, and danced and flickered with the night. And the best way to describe CJ’s expression when Angela thought out loud, could be only described as pure judgement. That was normal for him. Angela always knew when a question would spark that reaction; it didn’t stop her from asking, though.

“What?” CJ said.

“Imagine a starless sky.” She laughed to herself, unbelievingly. “It would be so less pretty, huh?”

The two of them were watching the fireworks from her porch, and CJ had turned towards her, aghast. He was really very dramatic. She would never tell him that, though. He’d only get mad. On second thought, maybe she should tell him.

“Angela, we hardly see any stars,” CJ stated. “We have light pollution.”

“Then imagine the light pollution wasn’t there, and we could see the stars. Now imagine a starless night,” she told him.

“You can’t imagine something that’s not there, Ella,” he said, referring to her by her given nickname.

“Of course you can,” she explained, “that’s why it’s called imagination. Because you see in your head what isn’t real or what shouldn’t be possible.”

“I don’t get you.”

“Then imagine you do.”

“I can’t because I don’t!”

Angela giggled to herself and looked back up at the sky. It was always funny when he got this mad over something so little. Since he would get angered over little things, it made everything more exciting to say things that made him angry.

“Ok, I have something for you,” he said out of nowhere. A red firework went off in the distance, illuminating his face as she turned her attention back to him.

“Shoot,” she said.

“Imagine yourself not being able to imagine,” he replied.

She closed her eyes, deeply considering this. CJ thought she’d never open them. When she got like this, it felt like hours of her just staying still, not talking. It made him all sweaty and uncomfortable. Or maybe he was just impatient.

She finally opened them.

Definitely impatient.

“Are you crying?” he marveled. Her eyes were wet, and a tear slid silently down her cheek.

“You must live such a miserable life, Cedric,” she answered.

He scoffed and rolled his eyes. He would never understand Angela completely. But for a small moment, he did imagine he really could—what relief he felt. Maybe he wasn’t completely hopeless after all, but he would never tell Angela that. She would bug him for forever, more so than she already did.

“Ok, CJ,” she interrupted his train of thought, “what’s your New Year’s resolution?”

“Would it make you happy if I told you it was to get better at imagining?”

“Well, no, because it’s not real. Or something that, I think, could ever physically happen.”

“Now you understand me.”

Angela paused and chuckled to herself. He’d gotten her there, alright. She should’ve seen it coming. That was alright by her. As long as it gave him some amount of satisfaction.

It very well had to have, because he was smiling at the ground, looking as though he was doing victory laps in his head.

Angela smiled at him and looked back to the fireworks.