the stars

vii.

tom had decided to visit gus that morning.

gus was quite surprised, actually. it'd been more than three months since tom had last been over.

if he had something to be excited over about than this was it; a neighbour, even better to call him a friend.

by the time gus' suspicions over why tom had shown up at his front door settled, the two of them headed out into the backyard, where they spent the day kicking a ball around until the sun waved its goodbye.

they climbed the tree against the end of the fence and into the treehouse, switching glances every now and then to assure that they were both alongside one another.

and although they were tired, they proceeded in a game of connect-four, in which tom confidently smiled each time his colour appeared in a line.

and through sneaky glances at the sky, his gaze wafted slowly from the left to the right in capture of a hue blending from a dark purple to a baby pink.

moments like these are perfect, gus would think. it was moments like these when his eyes would reach the stars, touch them even and he was overwhelmed.

he wanted so much to reach up and touch them right now, to relinquish the urge inside of him. but his mind held him back, and kept saying 'tom will see you. what if boys aren't meant to like stars and he sees you doing this?'

and when his mind switched back to reality he could hear tom. he could hear him say already, "gus! hello?"

and gus would turn around and tom would look at him startled and gus would feel obligated to give an explanation of this blank image as red tainted his cheeks.

gus would waver slightly, shifting his legs over the wood to fold them.

"huh?" (this would have been an okay reply, as long as tom would brush it off).

"you were looking at the sky. is there a rocket or something?" just as tom said this he dragged himself over to the window and looked out. "no, but there's heaps of stars. they look so cool."

just as tom said this, gus felt so much relief. instantly, a blanket of warmth wrapped around him and said everything was going to be okay. he couldn't have been the only boy who liked the stars.

and for the rest of the night that was all that mattered.