Plot Twist

man amongst the stars.

"See that one?" she asks, giddily.

"You've been watching these for the past couple of days! Don't they all look the same?" I tease her, laughing.

"No! Besides, tonight is the brightest and the most that I've seen. Did you see it or not?"

"Yeah, I saw it - hey, there's another one!"

"That was a good one..."

She pauses for a moment and I'm left in silence, taking in the falling stars over the mountains' silhouette in peace.

"Are you asleep?"

"No, no, I'm awake," she says, looking over at me.

She's exactly like I imagined her. Red hair, falling just below her shoulders, big green eyes with a sprinkle of freckles across her nose.

How is this even possible?

"Are you asleep?" she asks, teasing.

I yawn. "I should've brought some coffee along."

"I only have granola bars with me. You can have one if you like," she offers. I shake my head. "You sure? Okay."

She pauses. "How did you start working at the coffee shop?"

"It's kind of funny, actually - the man who runs it was going on vacation and he had nobody to take the morning shift for him, and since I was in that shop pretty much every day, he asked me to do it for some money." I smile over at her. "And I did, and he was pleased with how I did, so I got a permanent spot working there."

"Nice. Why'd you spend so much time in there?"

"I like to write in there and, well, there's free wifi." She laughs. "No, no, it's true! And there's also good coffee, and nice people, and then I ended up working there."

I want to add "And I met you!" but I can't do it.

"Do you work anywhere?"

"Not really anymore - I was working before, helping out with some children's camps or whatever to save up for all this equipment -" she gestures to the camera behind us - "but now I'm traveling a bit, so I can't."

"You like working with kids?"

"Yeah, they're fun to be around. I sometimes wish I was still one, you know? Not caring, just having fun and all that..."

"Yeah, I know what you mean."

There's a lull in our conversation, and then she says, "See that one? It was over there, just over the mountains, and it was so bright, too!"

I saw it. I saw it, and I'm so grateful for her bringing me out here to see it, but I'm scared that I'll never be able to watch the stars again without thinking of her, thinking of her and wishing, hoping that there'd somehow be a way that I could stay with her, be with her -

Because I think I like her. Like I really, truly like her.

But I can't - because of the plot twist.

Because of the plot twist, she'll be ripped away from me and her world will be shattered, crushed -

"Elias?"

I'm here, Elle. I'm here.