Stars

00:08

[dedicated to Nabilah, who is one of the best supporters and a hella lovely friend]

.*.*.

Arlando closed the book entirely now. He didn't bother keeping a bookmark. His heart was beating rapidly against his chest with both pain and desire as images or that night flickered across his mind like a movie. His eyes closed and he pushed himself up and set aside the book. He rested his head on the headboard, his head pounding and his heart aching.

The blonde haired woman with the blue eyes and the lovely, forever-fresh red lips. The woman he met at the ball that was hosted by his best friend. The woman who stole his heart, his first love.

He now knew why his brain had chosen to forget her, the enticing woman who he'd spend countless nights thinking of during his university days as he tossed and turned around in his bed that was situated in his dorm room. When he told Landon what he wanted, Landon was all in for the journey. Kathleen Ryburg, however, couldn't be part and parcel of the package no matter what he tried to do. He had given up the one thing that kept him on his toes and made him feel alive just to pursue his desires. He was selfish and after all these seven years he still hadn't found what he was looking for. He'd left Kathleen for no reason after all.

Deciding that he could no longer keep his curiosity in he reopened the book and flipped through the pages till he reached the seventh chapter, his mind full of wonder with the most prominent thought of what their breakup felt like to her. Did she feel her heart shatter to pieces just like he had? Did she fall apart, slowly disintegrating just like he had? Did she die just a little inside just like he had?

He commenced to read the last chapter in the book, his heart shattering all over again.

.*.*.

CHAPTER SEVEN

You wanted to meet up with me by the lake again, specifically at midnight because it had become tradition and that was the time when the world around us slipped away and we created our own world with the beautiful, blazing stars. We created a world every time we met up and all that the world consisted of was the stars, you and I. It was a beautiful world. That night was the last night that we both got to live in the beauty of this world because by the end of that night, it crumbled down and disintegrated into nothingness like it didn't even exist in the first place.

You were lying down on the blanket, one hand behind your head while the other tapped your knee. This is how we met up most of the night but one thing was different upon my arrival. You. You'd usually be watching the stars, your face soft and free, your hazel eyes alight with happiness and content. You looked the most brilliant when you watched the stars but that night, you didn't. Your eyes bounced from one star to another and your posture spoke in large volumes. You were nervous but for what I simply could not tell.

I approached you and plopped myself down next to. I didn't lay down. Instead I sat there, looking down at you and what seemed to me as a few hesitant seconds, you looked at me, your hazel eyes holding that unreadable expression from the night that we talked of our future - your future, the night that I felt the most connected to you. That night was almost a year ago.

"What's wrong?" I asked, tugging your sleeve to get your attention. Even though you were now looking at me it was clear that your mind wasn't here, it was somewhere far away.