Wish Upon a Star (NitW)

Train Tracks

It was late, that much was obvious to Mae. She stared out the window in her room, looking up at all the stars in the skies. Then, she has an idea.

'Why don't I just go outside to get a better view? Sure the dusk stats are cool but I wanna see the big guys!' She thought to herself.

'Or, you could lay down in your bed, go to sleep, and imagine a better life with a less effed up version of yourself' a voice, her voice, thought back.

Mae frowned, looking away from the stars and towards her mirror. In the darkness of her room, with only the moon to shed any light, Mae could only see her dull red eyes staring back at her.

"Oh shut up." She said aloud to her reflection. Frowning at it all the while. 

'Can little Mae not handle that she's a basket case? That she's a waste of space? That she's only a burden to her family? Look at them, fighting to keep the house because of a deal they made due to you.' The reflection seemingly sneered at her, that's when she jumped out of bed.

'Well it looks like I'm not going to sleep.' Mae then opened her laptop and checked the time.

3:46am.

"I guess it's a good thing I don't have a job. Otherwise I would be exhausted in the morning." As Mae spoke aloud to herself she put on her shoes and grabbed a light jacket to wear. She then carefully snuck out of her room, down the stairs, and then outside.

Once outside Mae felt herself relax, she was absolutely someone who thrives indoors but with the amount of restless energy she just needs to get out. So began her slow walk around Possum Springs.

Unknowingly in her walking, zombie walking is probably what it looked like due to her not really paying attention, she ended up at the train tracks. There she saw someone she didn't expect.

"Lori?" Mae said questioningly.  Lori jumped and whipped her head around before relaxing when she saw it was just Mae.

"Hey adult." She called over, relaxing onto the grass again.

"Kid, why are you here? Shouldn't you be at home? Wait don't you have school tomorrow...today? I'm a few hours?" Mae asked her, coming over to sit next to her.

"I could ask you the same. Weren't you planning on going job searching today?" Lori shot back. Mae grinned and narrowed her eyes.

"Touché kid, touché."

"Seriously though, why are you here? This is pretty normal for me so...." Lori trailed her sentence off.

"I don't know, was just thinking and somehow ended up here." Mae said.

"Do you come to the tracks with your friends or something? Your subconscious probably sought out a place of comfort, because no offensive Mae, you look like crap." Lori stated.

"I don't come here a lot anymore. Gregg, me, and..." Mae trailed, looking at the tracks.

"You, Gregg, and who?"

"Casey." The name was said in just a whisper. Lori tilted her head to the side slightly.

"Casey...wasn't he the adult who ran away?" She asked. Mae flinched slightly.

"I guess you could say that."

The two girls were silent. Lori knowing that her voice wasn't needed and Mae in thought. After a few minutes, Mae spoke.

"Did I ever tell you that Casey loved the stars?" As Mae said this, her head was tilted up, gazing into the star covered sky.

"You've never really talked about Casey..so no."

"Well, when we were still in high school all three of us would go up to the cliff by the church and just lay near the edge, staring up into the sky and talking about everything. Hopes, dreams... Casey wanted to be a star." Mae spoke slowly.

"He wanted to be a ball of gas?" Lori said. Mae rolled her eyes.

"No you nerd, he wanted to preform music, become a literal rock star in a sense. He used to look at these stars and just go off about how he would do something so amazing that maybe one of the stars would be named after him."

"So did he?" Lori asked, looking at Mae.

"Did he what?" Mae questioned, looking back at Lori.

"Is he out there doing great things?" Lori said, "I never really knew him and no one really talks about him so if anyone knows it's gonna be you, Mae." She continued on, adding more detail to her question.

Mae flinched at the question, eyes growing sad and dull.

"Who knows. For all I know, he's probably dead." She spat out the word dead like it had personally assaulted her, though with that hunting accident a few weeks back, it probably had.

"Well...I don't know if it helps but he was almost Star." Lori spoke quietly. Mae looked at her.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Well according to some dude who made a documentary about the stars, the nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff." Lori said, seemingly quoting word for word.

"We're all made of starstuff." Mae repeated back, lowering herself so that she was laying with her back on the ground and starting straight up into the night sky.

"At least according to documentary guy." Lori said, following Mae's lead and laying down on the ground.

"Well I like it." Mae said.

"You do?" Lori asked.

"Yeah, cause at least now I know that Casey was a star. No matter what anyone says about him, he was a star." Mae spoke quietly, looking at the constellations above her head.

"Mae...are you okay?" Lori asked. Mae nodded her head slowly and mutely.

"I'm fine, just feeling nostalgic." She responded after a brief pause

She'd be okay, just as long as Casey will be a star.