There was a girl who collected stars...

Memories can be our stars

She.

She was fair, bright green eyes with a hint of brown as the sun hit her, smile as smooth as the wind on your face. She had hair as brown as caramel and eyes that were soft like honey. She was an introvert, spent all her time in her room, staring at the stars on her ceiling. They glowed not just in the darkness but glowed even when the white walls seemed too opaque to see anything. She collected the stars from the sky, she collected them every time things did not feel right.

Now, all of us wish we could actually just reach out into the blackness and steal a star, but, alas, we cannot. She, however, was special, in her own unique way.

She couldn't collect stars, so she collected memories. These memories were akin to the stars for her. Every emotion, every word, and every thought were as priceless to her as a star from the sky. They meant everything to her. Each night, she would go to her balcony that was laden with greenery, flowers of every kind, standing out in the night, and look up at the black abyss with wonder. She busily wrote down in her little brown paper book, her memory of that day, stuck pictures that she had so carefully printed out and used every colour of the rainbow, to recreate the happiness she had felt that day. She did this every time she had a good day, because holding onto all her good days, in one vintage looking light brown book, would make her feel like she was holding a jar full of stars, anyway.

It was another ordinary summer morning, she walked around the block that day. It was the same day that reminded her of someone she once used to know. As she walked, someone grazed passed her shoulder and made her stumble, quite literally. The girl had auburn hair that fell loosely around her face. A black hoodie and black jeans, she took her breath away. It felt like those moments from the movies, a moment where your constellations aligned, where everything in the world felt right, for just a few seconds. A familiar face was what she was. A lover from what felt like another life, now. Same face but different person, 'Was that even possible?', she thought. She hadn't seen that face for years. The memories came cascading down like a waterfall in a forest.

She learnt from her once lover, that this was her last day in town. "I am going back home, tomorrow," she said.

So, they did what all old acquaintances do.

They spent the rest of the day catching up on all the years, moments and feelings they both had missed. They got coffee, and some lunch and drove past their places of nostalgia. It was a memory she never wanted to forget, a feeling she never wanted to stop feeling. The sunset passed them by, the stars came out and said 'Hi' as they sat there in a pool of happiness.

"How do you say goodbye to someone twice?' Miss Auburn said. Well, it was saying goodbye to a lot more than just, each other. It was saying goodbye to all the memories, under those very stars. It was getting that closure. It was the feeling of wanting to stay but having to leave. It felt like those stars had come down from the sky. They were now in her hands waiting to be penned down.

She drove back home in silence, wrote down her last memory with her favourite Auburn- haired friend. Stuck more photos, basked in the last moments of nostalgia, before finally closing that jar of stars she held. A tear slipped and rolled down her face, as a shooting star grazed across that same night sky. It wasn't a memory of sadness, it wasn't a memory of letting someone go, it was a memory of something that could have been but didn't.

That memory was her shooting star, it passed her by so quick, before she even realized. It makes you wonder, if after all this time, could her collection of memories remain in her heart and come back to her every once in a while, just like the stars that we see, when we look up, every night, at the sky. 

This story was submitted by Stuti Singh (aestheticboobear). All copyrights are reserved. Any kinds of plagiarism on this platform or any other will result in legal actions against the offender. We are open to any and all reviews. Please comment what you liked the most about the story to motivate our writers :)