Aurora and Elijah's Guide to The Stars

chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

Have you ever wondered how many stars there are in the galaxy?

Aurora Delaney, who very much likes being called Rory, recalls a faint memory, of a piss-drunk (and probably high on ecstasy) Kat Loraine calling her in the middle of the night, slurring and giggling like an 8 year-old, asking her if she ever wondered how many stars there are in the galaxy. And that was probably a dead-giveaway that Kat desperately needed a ride.

It was expected really, because Rory's and Kat's friendship was mostly limited to small talk in free periods, or sitting in the same table in the cafeteria. She always considered it as a default friendship that rarely left the school walls and where the only thing in common was Period 2 History and Maths after lunch.

As usual, just as she had heard Kat's voice, she'd put her on speaker so she'd be able to put on some shoes, squinted at the light from her phone and sighed a small 'hello' that Kat had reciprocated with a cheery 'good morning, sunshine', although it was never a morning, less of that a good one, and Aurora wasn't feeling like sunshine at all.

And after that, it's routine, Kat muttered the address and Rory had to guess the rest, until she'd find her sitting on the sidewalk, smelling of tobacco and weed and alcohol, cheery as fuck for a 2 am drunk student with school the next day.

The first time Kat ever called Rory herself was an exception. She didn't seem cheery as much as disappointed, maybe because her other (closer) friends didn't bother driving to get her, and she was asking help from the girl in History class who always rolled her eyes and audibly sighed in exasperation because she said it once, and she'll say it again: Columbus was an ass.

Rory later learned that Kat started drinking when her dad passed, and at first, the people who picked her up were doing it because it seemed like the right thing to do, but then they stopped, and Rory didn't really knew why.

Until she got in the car with her, and that seemed to clear everything up. She expected Kat to be cheery, because that's how sober Kat is, or maybe sleepy because that's how normal people are. But Rory soon found out that Kat Loraine's drunk self is far from normal.

Kat, apparently, liked to cause an existential crisis to her designated driver (purposely or not), and for some reason she used to open the window of the passenger seat and didn't stop asking questions about the meaning of the universe and where we go after we pass, and where her dad is now.

And whether it was annoying or enlightening, it was definitely not timely appropriate, which was probably the reason Rory was the only one willing to get out of bed in the middle of the night and save Kat's drunk ass (and it's not only because Aurora is nice, but because Kat's ass, drunk or not, is extremely cute).

What if all of this is a dream?

What if you had multiple lives before this one but just can't seem to remember?

Have you ever wondered how many stars there are in the galaxy?

And Rory used to listen to Kat and not muffle her by the songs on the radio, because Kat is cute when she's passionate about something and if it's 'Let's make Rory question her existence' then so be it. Most of the time, she or Kat simply forgot about the deep questions in the morning; Kat, because of her hangover and Rory, because she simply had too much to worry about than the abstract number of how many (most likely) dead fiery rocks were present at a certain time in a certain place (and sometimes because Rory needed to forget that Kat was straight, and that listening to her rambling about stars was the closest she was going to get inside her mind).