He Said We'd Be Stars

BAZ

Simon's phone buzzes like crazy at about one in the morning. It's so insistent, it wakes me up.
I nudge Simon. "Can you turn that thing off please?"
He grunts and picks it up. I cringe as the light hits my face. iPhones need to have darker screen settings. Simon's hair is sticking in all directions, and when his eyes widen at the texts, he looks like a mad scientist just discovering a wormhole.
"What's so important?" I grumble, grabbing his pillow and putting it over my face.
"Penelope found a picture of that lady I was telling you about," he whispers.
"Can we talk about this in the morning? I'm tired," I whine through the pillow.
He sighs and grabs his pillow from off of my face. "Okay."
I turn over and fall asleep, but not before I hear Simon say happily, "This pillow smells like you now."
***
Simon decides that drawing back the curtains at nine in the morning is a good way to wake me up.
It's not.
Especially since his phone woke me up at one.
"I was so comfortable, Snow," I groan as I sit up in our bed. "Why'd you have to wake me up?"
"Because I need to talk to you, Baz. Penny found that lady I was looking for," Simon beleaguers me, sitting down next to me. He's dressed already.
"Yeah? Who is it?" I ask.
Simon takes out his phone and shows me a picture of a blonde lady and Penelope's mum. I know why she looks familiar to Simon. She has the same, unremarkable blue eyes as he does.
"Why is she so important?" I say, laying back down.
"I don't know," Simon says, frustrated. "But I know she is. Why else would she make a point to tell me that stuff?"
"The bit that confuses me the most is the fact that she used the exact same wording as my mum did when she Visited," I say, trying to riddle out what is happening. An idea strikes me.
"Simon, did you actually see my mum when she said that I was her rosebud boy?"
He scratches at a spot on his neck. "Not exactly. She was yelling through the window, but it was quieter. And different. As if she were crying."
I get up and start pacing. "What if, and I'm just thinking out loud here, but what if it wasn't my mom who was out there?"
Simon stares at me. "You think I got a second Visiting?"
I stop pacing. "And it was from whoever that woman is."
***
Simon hangs up his phone and sighs. "Penelope told me that it was a woman named Lucy Salisbury. She said she was going to look through some genealogy book to see if she had any living relatives."
Simon and I are in the car, driving over to the library. I need to pick up a book or two to sort over the weekend. "She doesn't need to. We're going to the library anyway, they'll probably have stuff," I say to him, not taking my eyes off the road. I did that once and a bus almost ran us over.
"Okay, I'll tell her not to," he responds, pulling out his phone and sending her a text.
I park the car in front of the library and get out of the car.
Simon runs up the stairs behind me. "I thought the library was big," he says, looking up at the simple-looking brick building I'm trying to unlock.
The door swings open and he gasps. "It is," I tell him.
Simon's jaw hits the floor as he takes in the giant stacks of books from floor to ceiling. It's pretty magnificent, but I don't have time to gawk or look at how adorable Simon is when he's gawking at everything.
"Jason," I call out, "you had stuff for me?"
Jason pops his shaggy head out from behind a stack of books and almost knocks his glasses off. "Yeah. It's here."
I grab Simon's hand and pull him along with me. He's still staring open mouthed at everything. I roll my eyes as we walk to the desk Jason's standing over. I introduce Jason to Simon, and Jason smirks. His younger brother was in his sixth year when I went back for my eighth, so he told Jason all about Simon and I. (One of the few downsides of dating Simon Snow.) Jason then props open a large book and points to a passage. "We can't figure out what language this is. It's not Latin, Greek, or an ancient language either," Jason says, sounding perplexed.
I look at it for a minute. "Did you try comparing the characters to the keys?"
"Yes," he sighs, exasperated. "Alexa is no help whatsoever. She insists it's English, but she can't read it."
I'm about to roll my eyes, but I stop myself. "Did you try Olde English?"
Jason nods. "We think it's a hybrid language, but we're not sure."
"Try mixing Latin and Olde English," I tell him. "I need to find something, though, so I'll stay out of your hair."
He shrugs and leans over the book again.
I walk down the row to the left. Simon follows.
"He seems nice," he says conversationally.
"Yeah, he's great when Alexa messes stuff up," I reply, turning a corner and scanning the spines. I stop at a musty emerald-colored book and yank it off of the shelf. "This is the one. Let's take it back home and examine further."
Simon peeks over my shoulder. "Mage Genealogy? Is this book enchanted? Because I am not touching it if it is."
I laugh at him, because I can't help it.
A blur of long red hair whips around the corner. "Baz!" Alexa says cheerfully, skipping over to me. Then she sees Simon. "Hello, aren't you the Simon Snow?" she asks cheerfully. Alexa smooths her hair over her shoulder, and her green eyes have that same glint they have when she's looking at me. It doesn't take genius to figure out what's going on here. Apparently she didn't get the memo that Snow is mine. (Perks of having one clueless co-worker.)
"I- I guess so," he stammers, clearly taken aback at Alexa's forwardness.
She laughs breathily. "You guess so?"
I cut in. "Alexa, we were looking for this book, but we found it."
She glares over her over her shoulder at me, and then turns to chat up Simon when she sees his face. He's looking at me for help. He looks so painfully awkward.
God, I love you.
"Also, would now be a bad time to mention that Simon and I are engaged?" I say sweetly.
She glares daggers at me, but her tone is light. "No, not at all. Why would you think that?" Alexa saunters off.
Simon looks at me, and starts cracking up. I can't help it, I laugh too, even though I can't help thinking, Poor Alexa.