Stargazing

"Asher, I have repeated myself so many times. The flight got cancelled," I reiterated slowly.

On the other side of the phone call, Asher sighed audibly, "So where are you now, El?"

I followed his question with a sigh of my own, "I'm in this dump of a hotel room, which the airline provided," I said, while occupied by trying to remove the curtains from the window. The room was unbelievably stuffy, and the broken air conditioning did not help the case.

"Sucks for you, I guess," Asher's laugh made me frown, "I'm in Hawaii already. It's so nice here...you know, the sun shining bright..." he trailed off. I could almost imagine the teasing smile colonizing his lips.

I stomped my foot on the wooden floor, "Oh shut up, will you? It's midnight here and if I could –," I got cut off by a knock on the door, "who is it?!" I yelled, taking the phone off of my ear.

"Airline staff," a muffled voice called back from the other side of the door.

"I'll call you back, Ash," I said into the phone, and hastily hung up on a probably confused Asher. I fixed my shirt, ran a hand through my brown locks, and walked to the door to open it.

I was met with the lady who had provided me this room. Her dark eyes already reflected an apologetic look before she even began to speak.

"I'm so sorry to interrupt Ms. Gren, but, um...," she hesitated and shuffled her feet before continuing, "but, uh, this young man here is willing to pay for this very room." As if on cue, a man, my age, stepped out from behind the lady. He wore a dark hoodie accompanied by an indifferent facial expression.

I blinked before asking, "This room? As in the one I am standing in right now?" My eyes were fixed on the lady, but in my peripheral vision, I saw the young lad roll his eyes.

"Um, yes, ma'am," the woman stuttered.

I shook my head, confusion plastered all over my face, "I'm sorry, but no. There are twelve hours before my flight, and you clearly don't have any other rooms available."

The woman stood there, unsure of what to say.

The man stepped forward and thrust his hand towards me, "Hello, I'm Aiden."

I took his hand with only slight hesitation; his calloused fingers fit perfectly with my smooth ones. His grey eyes had me absorbed, so when I finally dropped the handshake, I realized that I might have held on for too long.

"I'm El," I said, nervously tucking a piece of hair behind my ear.

"I need this room," he said. Maybe if he had asked more politely, I might have even considered it, but his straightforward declaring statement got me raged.

"You think you can just walk up here and de –," the airline staff's lady stepped forward to calm me down, but Aiden spoke first.

"It's alright," he said to the woman, "we can work it out. Just send Emily up here, please." That was all it took for the woman to walk towards the elevator and leave the hotel compound.

I crossed my arms and stood in the middle of the doorway.

"Listen, El, I have a little kid with me; Emily. She's very sick and needs to sleep. That's why we need a hotel room," as Aiden continued to speak, I felt the guilt making its way through my veins, "and I was wondering if you don't mind sharing the room?"

I blinked in shock for a few, long seconds before finally comprehending his words. I dumbly nodded and held open the door for him to come in. Guess I'm not that stubborn, a voice whispered in the back of my head.

"Thank you, El. I appreciate it," he said.

***

Once Emily was put to sleep, the awkward silence began its course through the room. I sat by the window, staring out at the skyline. I searched for stars in the sky, but barely any were visible, all due to the artificial light that engulfed the city.

"No stars, huh?" Aiden's voice made me jump. I looked to see him leaning against the bed frame, eyes trained on me.

"Nope," I said, turning back to look out the window.

"That's always my problem with cities. The lights make it so hard to spot the stars." I nodded in response, not knowing what else I could say.

I casually crossed my legs, and asked, "so, is Emily yours?"

He chuckled in response, "Nah. I'm only eighteen. Not much older than you, I assume. She's my brother's daughter. He...uh, he passed away yesterday. So, I'm taking Emily back to her mom, in Hawaii," he said, taking a seat on the couch in front of me. He diverted eye contact, but I could see the moisture well up behind unfocused gaze.

"I'm so sorry," I mumbled and looked away.

"He was in a car crash. God, I used to love cars," he laughed humorlessly, "I wanted to be a professional racer."

He finally looked me in the eyes, and we maintained the communication through them until I shied away and looked back at the window.

"Uh, I don't even know why I'm telling you this," he said, "I guess there is a comfort in knowing that you are a stranger, so...," he trailed off.

"I get that," I replied, "I'm all ears if you want."

Aiden gave me a lopsided smile, "Hey, you were so mean to me before. How can my poor heart forget that?" he put his hand over his chest dramatically.

I rolled my eyes in response, "Oh please. You would've done the same thing if you were me."

"Nuh uh, I'm an angel," he tried to keep a straight face, but ended up laughing quietly.

I joined in on the laughter, but soon yawned.

"You can take the bed. I'll take the floor," Aiden said.

***

The bright light from the window made me stir in my sleep, and eventually had me open my eyes forcefully. I ran a hand over my face, and opened my eyes to be greeted by the sun breaking through the glass.

I rolled over on the bed until I blindly found the bed-side table. With my eyes still closed, my hand hovered over the wood, trying to find my phone. When I felt a folded piece of paper where my phone should have been, I opened my eyes and rubbed the sleep out of them.

I lazily sat up in my bed and for the first time did I realize that Aiden and Emily were gone. I quickly grabbed the paper from the table, hoping for it to lessen my confusion.

Followed by a phone number, the paper read:

I heard that if you're with the right person, you can see the stars at any time of day.

-Love, Aiden

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