𝐂𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐀𝐋 |𝟏𝟖+|

𝐅 𝐈 𝐅 𝐓 𝐘 ~ 𝐒 𝐄 𝐕 𝐄 𝐍

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

♛ A T L A S ♛

"I missed you," I found myself saying as I nuzzled myself against her warm neck. The sun was beaming down on us from where we lay on the grass. Stella's beautiful skin was practically glowing at the contact and I don't think I've seen a prettier star. 

"Yeah," she snorted running a hand through my hair. "You missed bothering me." I laughed and smiled at her because she wasn't wrong. She just makes it extremely easy for me to pick on her. "You know, you didn't have to come all the way back here, right?" Stella said more than asking, a sense of thoughtfulness etched in her sweet voice. 

"I kinda did," I smile, looking down on her as she places her head on my chest. "You don't seem happy to see me, Stella." I point out with a frown while placing a hand behind my head and the other stroking her hair. 

She closes her eyes for a few seconds as if she were deep in thought and then flips herself over so she's looking up at me. "I jus...I just don't celebrate my birthday. Or I should say I don't like to celebrate it." I willed myself to look into her eyes and I could see the sadness float through them. Sadness was not a look I wanted to see on her. Ever. 

"Can I ask why?" I spoke up after a while, my thumb caressing the soft skin of her face which seemed to soothe her. 

Stella nods her head slowly before she decides to continue, "Well...let's just say I have a terrible mother to begin with and she didn't even make my birthday the least bit tolerable."

I hum in response to let her know to keep going. My mother has taught me many things from being a therapist and one of the most essential things is how to act whenever someone talks to you. You want them to feel important, to feel listened to, so you'll just nod your head, maintain eye contact and show some acknowledgement. 

Those are just the basics and easiest ones to do especially when I'm trying to get somebody to shut the fuck up but they also happen to be an important person. With Stella, for whatever reason, I couldn't just pretend that I was interested in what she had to say.

Or pretend that I gave a fuck about what's going on with her. She's too important of a person to shut out, to take for granted. Hell, her voice could calm a thousand raging seas and tame a beast, her beauty captivates many and is as rare as a precious stone or diamond. Her wit and charm could put thousands of men to shame and have them fall on their knees before her, and that wasn't even everything that made me enjoy being around her. 

Stella starts back up again, letting out a shaky breath, "She wasn't always that way though. It was after my little sister was born that she decided to have a whole character change. I was five years old that day and my sister, Luna, was barely a few months old. My dad was away on his usual business trips but he was going to be back that afternoon for my party."

She paused and forced a smile. I continued to stroke her hair gently and caress her skin because of how rapidly I could feel her heart beating against me. "She had told me she would be in her room until my dad returned because she had loads of stuff to do in order for my party, so while she worked on that I watched my little sister. My father had just come home just as she had called for me to bring some food to her upstairs because she's swamped with all the preparations."

"My dad said that since it was my birthday, I didn't have to do any such thing because I'm a princess and princesses don't do work. If I had known what happened after that, I would've taken the tray up to her myself. When my dad opened the door to the room there were muffled voices and a piercing scream. It was my mom, she was screaming, but I didn't know what for, so I moved closer to the staircase. There she stood, with another man while my father's eyes held pain I've never seen before, he didn't even know how to react."