Constellations

Chapter 3

"I heard from the girls at school that..."

Oh crap.

"...you got into the girls' locker room? No, let me rephrase that: they found you hiding inside the locker. What the hell was that? And instead of kicking you out, the school lets me stay in the same house as you? Next to your room?"

She stood in front of her room, one hand on her side and the other on the door; ready to slam it shut. He was completely dumbfounded, and utterly speechless; even if he had any explanation, he knew she'd be having none of it.

"I really don't want it to be this way, but man... that's creepy, alright," she sighed. "Stay away from my room."

And just like that, the door closed shut.

---------

"She hasn't talked to you anymore after that?" Nathan asked from across the phone.

"Not so far, no," he said, trying to keep his voice down. Not even a small hint of frustration was in his voice, just annoyance. "She sounded pretty stuck-up from the start, anyway."

"Damn," he sighed. "She's cute, though. I thought you said she's chill?"

"Nah, she's not." He's silent for a while. "A little, maybe," he admitted, his voice coming out a little smaller, "She seems chill at first. I don't understand why she's making such a fuss about it."

"What you did does sound creepy, though. And she's a girl, dude; of course she'd react that way."

"But Derek stuffed me into the goddamn locker, I didn't do it!" Timothy said, exasperated.

"Well, she doesn't know that. Man, I think she's gonna avoid you for pretty long," Nathan replied. "Do you think she'll talk to me then?"

He raised one of his eyebrow, not amused. "No. Uh, should I talk to her again? Maybe try to explain what happened instead."

"Well, good luck with that."

Beep.

---------

Looks like school tomorrow is going to be hell.

He slumped on his bed, groaning in frustration. She was still trying to be polite and smiled at him at dinner earlier, and had no problem at all with his parents; but as soon as they both were on their way back upstairs to their respective rooms, she's back being cold as ice.

God, at least let me live in peace with this girl who's gonna stay in the same house as me for the next 12 months, he thought. I know it's my own fault, but she's not even letting me explain.

There's always one thing that could make him feel better, however. He took the telescope set he's had since childhood, setting it close to his bed, facing out the window.

Ever since he was a little boy in elementary school, he's always been fascinated with astronomy. At the very least, when he's peering into his telescope, it made him realize that whatever problem he had at the moment no longer mattered as much; compared to the vastness of the universe outside of his reach, the many galaxies and constellations millions of miles away, only visible as bright specks from where he is.

Well, that, and the fact that everything about space is just awesome.

He took the telescope down slowly, away from his eyes, after a good while peering into it. It's settled already; he'll see what will happen tomorrow. He won't even mind if she doesn't want him near her room at all, at the very least he just wanted to be able to talk to her normally again.

On the bright side, she seemed to be friends with some of the girls in their classroom already, but mostly Vikki. For now, he's just glad that all the worries she had when she first arrived here didn't happen.

Why am I thinking so much about her now? Timothy shook his head. Ugh, it's probably time for me to sleep.

Just before he retreated into bed, however, he still thought of what she might be doing in the next room.

I hope she sleeps well tonight.