Love Among the Stars

0.3

"Nina?" Soda said the next morning, knocking on my bedroom door. I sat up, rubbing my eyes as I looked towards my clock.

"It's only 10:00, Soda!" I yelled at him. "What do you want?" Ten o'clock may seem late in the morning to wake up for some, but for someone who's not a morning person, who got to sleep at two in the morning, it wasn't so late.

"Get up, I have plans for us!" He exclaimed, smiling. I got up, pulling my night shorts down so they didn't seem so short. Slowly, I opened my door, and peeked my head out, but just my head.

"Soda, I told you after we walked home that I was putting Bonnie to bed and then going to bed myself. You kept me up another hour and all we did was watch TV and talk. I'm tired now. What do you want?" He chuckled.

"You lazy bum. Get dressed. I'll be waiting," he said. I rolled my eyes.

"If I must," I responded. He nodded. "You must." Giggling, I shut the door and ran back into my room. Opening a drawer, I picked out a pair of Jean shorts and a plain white t-shirt.

"Okay," I said, walking out of my room as I pulled my brush through my hair. "What are the plans?" He stared at me, put his hands in his pocket as he tried to subside his laughter.

"Nothing special really. I figured we could go to breakfast or something?" He suggested. I stared at him.

"You woke me up for an 'or something'?" I responded, my voice sounding more harsh than I meant to. He shrugged, looking down at the floor.

"I thought you'd be more excited. You just got back yesterday, I thought we'd want some to spend some time together catching up," he explained. I instantly felt bad.

"I always wanna spend time with you, Sodapop," I said, giving him a hug. "Now... Are you paying?" He smiled, returning the hug.

"Yeah, I am. Now let's go." We walked over to a Denny's, talking about the past year of our lives as we went.

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"Wait, so you saw Sandy?" I exclaimed. "What did she say?" He shrugged.

"She didn't want to see me."

"I'm sorry, Soda," I responded with a sigh. I felt bad.

"It's okay. I'm over it now. I'm over her, I think anyways." That made me smile. I never really liked her. She was jealous and always saw me as a threat to her and her relationship, but it's not like Soda and I had any feelings for each other. She was the one who ended up cheating, anyways.

"You ever wonder if that baby was actually yours? I know she cheated, but..." I stopped, not knowing how to say that he had had sex with her too.

"Not really," he shook his head. "I wonder what he looks like though. If he has her eyes, or his nose. Things like that. Sometimes I wonder what his name is, and if Sandy will ever tell him about me. Things like that," he spoke softly as he said this, picking at his pancake.

"Maybe he looks like you. With your smile, and your nose. With Sandy's misty blue eyes and your hair. Maybe Sandy'll have him grease it just like you," I said. He looked at me for a minute, taking a deep breath. Then he looked down.

"I don't want to be a father yet." I nodded and looked down at my food. He did the same thing, staring at it like it was the world's most interesting thing.

"Would you ever?" I asked him after a few moments. He shrugged.

"Maybe. If I find the right girl." I looked up at him just in time to see him wink at me. My heart raced as I wondered, a bit sadly, if he had found the right girl yet. If he had ever thought that it could be someone he knew now.

"Hmm," I responded.

"What about you?" He asked. I nodded immediately.

"Yeah, I want kids. Just one though. Maybe two." We both looked back down at our food after that, trying to get off of the subject. Things had never been so awkward between us before, and I couldn't figure out what had changed. I couldn't bare to see it get any worse, so I decided to bring up something that we'd definitely need to discuss sooner or later.

"Soda? I think we need to talk about next year," I decided. That brought his face up. His eyes met mine and he dropped his fork.

"You'll be here for at least a little while, right?" He asked, sounding sad, and maybe even a bit nervous. We got used to spending the school year apart. Sometimes, especially when his parents were alive, we'd spend Christmas with them. Before last year, when I'd only visited for a few weeks, we never spent more than the year apart. Next year would be different, thanks to college starting.

"Soda... I got accepted to Stanford. Early admissions. Not sure how, with my grades, but I did," I told him. He tried to smile, but it just didn't look real. He knew I knew.

"That's all you've ever wanted," he said slowly. "You wanted to grow up and go to Stanford. You never had any other choices. Just Stanford. You wanted to live in California and start a singing career, maybe writing, you could never decide. After a few years, you'd finally settle down and get married. You'd have two kids, a boy and a girl, because that's what you've wanted, a brother and you got a sister instead. The boy would be older by a year or two, and you'd all live in a big two story house with enough room that the entire gang would be able to come and visit as much as they want." My eyes widened.

"How in the world did you remember that?" I exclaimed. That was my dream when I was a kid. A really little kid, probably six or seven. I used to say it all the time, I'd tell my neighbors, waiters at restaurants, and every new person I ever met.

"Nina? I have something to tell you," Soda said suddenly, not answering my question. It sounded so important that it made my heart race. I just hoped he wasn't going to shoot me down. I silently prayed that he wasn't going to tell me he didn't want me to go, because this was all I've ever wanted. As a child, I was so excited over a life I never knew if I'd have, and now I was going to have a shot at it. Even if it meant this would be my last summer with Soda.