CELESTIAL [M.T+I.L]

VIII

3 Months Later

*

"So you're telling me, that you really thought it was necessary to bring up that story of when Stiles got drunk and kissed me?" Isaac snorted, snaking an arm around his girlfriend's waist.

Malia looked up at him. She was exquisite. Her hair was ruffling in the light breeze, looking slightly tousled but nevertheless perfect. Her lips were stretched into a wide smile,and her eyes were crinkled at the corners from the fit of laughter she was in.

Isaac had never been more in love in his life.

"Yes, yes i did," she said, awarding him with another winning smile, and making his heart do a million back flips.

Isaac rolled his eyes, and Malia nudged him in the ribs, a small laugh falling from her lips.

"You have to admit, that was classic - it's even better that I've got it all recorded," she said, gesturing to her pocket. "You two gave me and Lydia quite the treat."

Isaac scoffed but said nothing, and instead, took her small hand in his own, and led her into the café on their right. He led her towards a small table near the pantry, and pulled her seat out for her, before sitting down himself. Malia smiled gratefully, resting her elbows upon the table, and looking out of the large, although faintly dusty, glass window panes.

She watched the dusk time light settling in, creating a hazy glow across the scenery of Beacon Hills. A small cluster of fireflies were gathered lazily around a lampost, their bodies lit up in an orangey brume. Everything was tranquil and peaceful: and so was Malia.

Isaac stared in wonder across the table at her.She radiated calm and beauty effortlessley, and he watched as she let an escaped strand of hair drift into her eyes, before she brushed it back with a flicker of annoyance. She caught his eye.

"What?" she said, a little harsher than expected.

Isaac laughed.

"I was just admiring you," he confessed, reaching across the table to capture her hand in his, and intertwining their fingers.

She smiled softly and relaxed once more, leaning back in her chair, and letting out a small sigh of elation. Finally, Malia could say that she was happy. No, happy wasn't enough. Elated, joyous, ecstatic - she was on cloud nine, and had no intentions of ever coming down. She was so lost in her own thoughts of pleasantries that she didn't notice the waitress looking at her expectantly, tapping her pen a tad impatiently against her notepad.

"Sorry - I'll uh, just have whatever he's having," she muttered, gesturing towards Isaac.

The waitress nodded, and gave them a half hearted smile before disappearing back behind the counter.

Malia turned her attention back to Isaac.

"Do you have that maths homework with you?" he asked, but was only returned with a slight grunt of annoyance.

"Come on," he pressed, grinning nonetheless. "We made a deal, remember? I make sure you do maths, and you get to stay in school with us."

Malia rolled her eyes, retracting her hand from Isaac's grip, but reached into her bag, and pulled out a hefty notepad. She dropped it with carelessness onto the table, before fishing a half chewed pen out of her pocket.

Isaac smiled at her, and opened the notebook, and began going through some of they key parts of trigonometry, unaware of the fact that Malia was barely listening. The only reason she'd agreed to let him go through Maths with her was so that she could watch the way he focused on a question, or the way his brow furrowed ever so slightly when he didn't get the answer he wanted, or the way the corners of his lips would be upturned in a small smile when he knew he'd finally cracked the answer.

"Malia?"

"Hm?" She snapped out of her daydream. "Oh yeah, yeah, uh.... triangles, yeah." She tried to smile in what she hoped was a confident manner. Fortunately, she was saved from having to answer to Isaac's questioning gaze by the waitress returning once more, with a plate stacked high with several sandwiches, Two rather large cakes, and two immense glasses of hot chocolate, topped with cream, marshmallows, and a dusting of chocolate sprinkles.

Malia raised her eyebrows at Isaac, who shrugged, and began tucking into a small mountain of cheese and cucumber sandwiches.

"What? I was hungry, and you said you'd have whatever I had."

Malia shook her head in disbelief, but reached for a cheese and tomato panini herself, and was glad for a distraction from the book of jumbled numbers and confusing explanations in front of her.

It took them a mere twenty seven minutes to demolish the entire pile of sandwiches, wolf down the slabs of cake, and to start on their final courses of hot chocolate.

Malia took a sip and let out a small sigh of pleasure. She grinned at Isaac across the table, who was wearing a similar moustache of cream and chocolate to her, but didn't seem to care.

*

There were two teenagers, one a gangly boy, sitting across from a ferocious young girl. Neither of them knew it yet, but their series of happy moments were to soon become a trail of misfortune and disaster.