Brighter Than The Stars: Book One

𝒞𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝒯𝓌𝑒𝓃𝓉𝓎-𝒪𝓃𝑒: 𝒟𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓂𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒪𝒻 𝒴𝑜𝓊

Sunday night was perfect. They ate dinner on the couch while watching some movie about racing, and she'd fallen asleep sprawled out with her head on Elijah's lap. He'd woken her up at around ten, legit carried her to bed, and they'd fallen asleep with his arm wrapped around. The two nights before, he'd started on his own side of the bed, then magically showed up come morning. But that night, and every night since, this was how it'd been. With one arm draped over hers, Elijah would kiss her cheek, say 'goodnight, dream catcher' and fall into a blissful sleep.

While her sleeps were also blissful, it wasn't due to a solid eight hours of sleep. Instead, just as Elijah had invaded her heart, it seemed he also had a knack for invading her dreams. Falling asleep with him pressed against her wasn't doing her any favors. And when she awoke with a light sweat across her body in the middle of the night, Madeline would feel his erection pressed against her ass, which only led to a second, far more graphic dream.

There was a particularly strange dream on Monday night. Madeline was at the graduation party, and Marty was just getting into his douchery. Elijah showed up out of nowhere, after apparently going to her house and asking her parents how to find her. Marty was made to look a fool, and they'd made love in the pool house of whoever's place that was. Tyler Reynold's, maybe? Just as Marty predicted, Madeline was fully willing to 'pop her cherry' with Elijah after five minutes.

Unfortunately, Tuesday night wasn't much better. She'd tried staying up later than him, citing the need to finish an assignment due on Friday. By the time she made it into the bedroom, Elijah was asleep on one side of the bed. She crawled in on the other side, and he awoke to the bed dipping, making his way over to her.

The good news was, minus that, they'd grown more relaxed around each other. The shock of having one another back faded mostly, and now an easy friendship was beginning to form. There was still some 'intensity' there, as Eva put it, but it was in small moments rather than completely taking over every waking moment of the day. It helped that he returned to work, and she went to school. It normalized things a bit.

Now it was Wednesday, and all the work she had to complete before the start of the break was completed. With Elijah having his volunteer work that night, it would be awhile before he arrived. Eva was out on another date with the one guy she'd started dating last month, since everyone would be going their separate ways in a few days. Kendra was upstairs watching a movie in her bedroom. Gwen, who was the red-head who asked Elijah what his favorite sex position was, was off somewhere enjoying her favorite.

So that just left her roommate, Destiny. Madeline was watching a romance when Destiny returned home from her late class. Since she found straight romances boring, the two decided to switch to 'Secondhand Lions'. She'd only known her for a few months, but they'd been getting along just fine so far.

"You going home for Thanksgiving?" Madeline asked as she grabbed a handful of the popcorn between them.

"Nope. Too many religious family members worrying about my soul spending eternity in hell." Destiny let out a snort. "Fuck that. I'm going to Andrea's for the holiday. Her family's awesome."

"Well, my family's full of heathens, so if you ever want to join me on break, feel free."

When a knock sounded against the door, Madeline shouted it was open, and Elijah walked through, a duffle bag in his hand that he dropped off in the entryway.

Destiny looked over her shoulder at him only for a second before returning her eyes to the screen. "So, you're the guy that's got the whole house jizzing in their pants, huh?"

Elijah chuckled at her, seeming to enjoy her indifference, and sat in the chair to the side of Madeline. "I take it you aren't as easily impressed?"

Her roommate shrugged. "I wouldn't take it personally. I'm in a committed relationship, and you don't have a vagina. I'm Destiny, by the way."

"Well, Destiny, you are officially my favorite of all her roommates," Elijah told her in a completely serious tone, then turned his attention to Madeline. "My friends want us to go out to dinner this weekend, by the way."

"At our favorite restaurant?" Madeline asked with a teasing smile, popping another kernel of popcorn into her mouth.

Elijah let out a sigh, shook his head, and slumped into the chair. "Don't remind me."

Destiny grabbed her own handful of popcorn. "What?"

"You know our story by now, I'm guessing." When Destiny nodded, Madeline continued. "Him and his friends eat at the Hollander all the time, too."

For several seconds, Madeline wasn't sure if Destiny wanted to laugh or cry, but the silent chuckle shaking her body answered that question for her. "I'm sorry, I know it's not funny, but it is kind of funny. Or at least it will be someday."

"Someday," Elijah agreed, "but I think someday is a ways off yet. So, how 'bout it, Maddie? You game?"

It was a bit nerve wracking, if she was being honest with herself, but it was only fair since Elijah had already met all of her friends. Plus, it wasn't like she was his girlfriend, hoping for their approval. The way she decided to look at it was that it was just another way of Elijah incorporating her into his life here, and Madeline wasn't about to turn that down. "Sounds good."

Elijah smiled over at her. "I'll set it up. They've known about you for a while, after Shawn was going through my shit looking for something, and found your photo. So, they know most of the story, and went nuts when I finally caught them up on the last few days. They wanted to meet up tonight, but I wanted to give us a few extra days."

"I appreciate that," Madeline admitted. They were still in the early process of getting to know each other again, so a few extra days of doing that would hopefully make meeting his friends a little more relaxing.

"I'll call them up tomorrow. But right now, I think I'm just going to head up and crash. It's been a long fucking day."

Madeline gave him a nod. "Movie should be over soon. I'll be up in a bit," she told him. "By the way, top drawer's yours. I tried making more room, but I'm a girl, and it isn't that easy."

Elijah laughed as he stood and kissed her on the head ever too briefly on his way passed. "One drawer is all I need. Mind if I grab a shower?"

"Go for it."

"It was nice meeting you, Destiny."

"You too," she called out over her shoulder. After hearing Elijah's footsteps grow faint from the climb, Destiny grabbed another handful of popcorn. "Alright, he's unnaturally good looking."

Madeline nudged her roommate, a smile taking over her face. "Did you notice the opposite sex?"

Her roommate just shrugged. "You've admired beautiful women who've passed us on campus. Same thing. I'm not imagining fucking him like the rest of you, but I see what the big deal is. Well done, Maddie."

"It isn't like the two of us are dating, or anything," Madeline reminded her.

Destiny just popped another piece into her mouth. "Uh-huh."