Limitless

Chapter I: The Last Of You

 When I was younger, I spent all my free time staring at the stars through a cheap telescope given to me by my father. I longed to spend my days in the perpetual void that is outer space, but little did I know, only 12 years later would I be risking my life to escape what had become my new home.

 At age 12, it had been decided that I would be immediately enrolled in high school, regardless of the fact that I was meant to be finishing 6th grade. I was super smart, I guess. My mother had always said that it seemed like I was born with all the knowledge of the stars. 

 "You must have lived with aliens in a past life!" she would always say.

 As I grew older, my fascination with astrology grew and I began to study astrophysics at the young age of 14. I finished sophomore year easily, with time to spare to read every book about space that our school library provided. My teachers and parents decided I should start college as soon as possible, which was ridiculous. They wanted a 14 year old to take college classes? But of course I had no say in it, so I had my PhD in astrophysics at age 19.  That was about 10 months ago. 

 I barely had time to make friends with all that school work and studying. Nobody likes a nerd. But I did meet someone.

I met Alex.

Alex was a girl I had known would become an important part of my life from the moment we met. One day in 6th grade, I saw her doodling planets on her wrist instead of completing her math assignment. It was only her first day at my school. Her mom dragged her away from Arizona up to California. She was quiet. She never raised her hand or spoke to anyone in class. She rarely ever moved unless it was to sweep her long, sleek auburn hair out of her face. She loved galaxies more than anything and so did I. But the galaxies I loved were the galaxies of freckles upon her nose, and the galaxies of gold in her deep brown eyes. The way her eyes sparkled when she spoke about the stars was brighter than the sun and it was hard to not become completely lost in her passion.  She was like me, just in a less devoted way.

 After 6th grade, everything got kind of crazy. When she was in 7th grade, I was in my freshman year of high school. That was the year we started dating, too. She sent me a cheesy note that said "My love for you is limitless, much like outer space. Would you mind becoming the Sun to my moon?" and it had a necklace with a Sun charm on it. She has one with a moon charm. I think that was pretty cute. I said yes, of course. I was in love with her. In love with a girl at age 13. 

 Being in different grades at different schools didn't stop us from being together. Every day after school, we met behind this big abandoned warehouse and we laid a blanket out on a big field. We would sit there and just talk about... everything. And one day she kissed me. It was the day before my 16th birthday. She rolled onto her stomach and rested her chin on her hands, just staring at me as I attempted to come up with theories about how the solar system was created.

 "You know, you're really hot when you go all nerdy like that." she said. I still remember how I felt my face flush after she said that. I must have been as red as Antares. 

 Alex got on her hands and knees and leaned towards me. 

 "Do you wanna?" she asked hesitantly. I nodded eagerly and leaned forward with my eyes closed.

 It wasn't how I imagined my first kiss, to be honest. But it was better than I imagined. Her lips were soft against mine, my hand placed gently against the back of her head, pulling her closer, and we seemed to pull away at the exact same time. Alex's eyes were wide and she ran a hand through her slightly mussed hair. 

 "That just happened!" she exclaimed excitedly. I giggled. Unfortunately, not all my memories of Alex were as pleasant as that one.

 The last time I saw Alex was 8 1/2 months ago, the day before I took off in the OSTS-Mars ship.

 "We're working on sending everyone to Mars. It'll be better there after we fix the atmosphere and start planting crops. I'll see you in a year... or more. I don't know. But this isn't the end." I said as I grabbed her by the shoulders. "I'm sorry it has to be like this. I'm sorry I chose this over you." She smiled sadly.

 "No, don't be sorry. I'm happy for you. This is what you want, right? Go out there and make us all proud, mo cruinne" she whispered. Alex always called me mo cruinne. It means "my world" or "my universe" in Irish. 

 We kissed passionately before I wrapped her in a tight hug.

 "You'll always be my moon." I said without breaking the hug.

 "You'll always be my Sun." she responded. I didn't want to let go.

 The hardest part of going to Mars was not figuring out what to pack or the 7 month journey there. It was letting go of who I loved.

Authors Note:

Okay, so I think that could have gone a lot better but it also could have gone a lot worse. I actually know nothing about space or astrophysics so I'm learning by writing this which is pretty rad. If there are any mistakes go ahead and point them out. Also, it's 2:30 A.M. so I'm surprised I didn't make this more emotional considering I get really angsty after 1:00 A.M.

Anyway, yeah. Tell me if its absolutely horrible or if you love or whatever. (Preferably the 2nd one because I have no confidence.)

Share with your friends and stuff so I'm less of a loser! Love ya!

-S.