Count The Stars

twenty-two

        I learned that Adam is sort of an astronomy nerd.

        I found that out while I was studying on his floor one day, and my eyes wandered to his ceiling where I saw a giant tapestry filled with constellations and stars. I wasn't sure how I didn't notice it before. His entire ceiling was navy blue, and nearly every square inch was covered in a star or a planet. My eyes flew around as I tried to understand what was going on, but I really was lost in the galaxy of stars all condensed into one photo right above me.

        "Holy shit," I mumbled

        Adam followed my eyes and chuckled sheepishly. "Oh, yeah. I kind of have a thing for space."

        "How did I not know this?" I asked as I shifted on his carpet so I was laying down and staring up at the galaxy.

        He shrugged. "Never really thought to tell you."

        "It looks a mess."

        "I sort of know my way around it."

        "Show me, then."

        "Well," he began, laying down next to me. I scooted away. He didn't notice. "You know what the Big Dipper is, right? That's right there. And then the end bit of the ladle points to Polaris, which is the North Star. And the handle of the ladle on the Little Dipper is Polaris. And then right by it is Pegasus, which is my favorite constellation just because it looks so normal compared to the other ones. It genuinely looks like a horse, doesn't it?"

        I let myself look over at him as he kept talking, his finger pointing to random places on the map as he explained his favourite and least favourite constellations, or significant stars and their weird names. His eyes lit up with wonder, like even though he knew so much about stars, he also knew there was so much more to learn— so much more to see. And then I was filled with excitement just listening to him.

        My quick glance slowly turned into staring without me realising and Adam turned to face me. "So that's stars."

        I fought a blush and turned so I was looking up again. My out of the blue man-crush on Adam hadn't faded much, at least not to the point where I could look deep into his eyes and not think about how easy it would be to kiss him. "That's really cool," I told him.

        "Is it really?"

        "Mate, how do you even know all that?"

        He shrugged. "Anna gave me the tapestry for my birthday when I was eight I think. I didn't really care at the time, but one day I got bored enough to actually look at it and all the shit that's jam packed into this one tiny photo. I mean, think about it, Eli. Space is fucking huge and we don't even know the half of it. I'm sure what's on my ceiling right now isn't even 1%."

        "Christ, Adam," I groaned, but a smile slowly made its way onto my lips, "you're gonna send me into an existential crisis or something."

        "Sorry," he chuckled.

        Then: comfortable silence. The kind where we just sit and look at each other for a minute; the kind where nothing needed to be said.

        But, because I'm me, I shouted "I'm gonna go take a piss!" Before I could get any more comfortable, causing Adam to jump and clutch his chest like he was having a heart attack.

        "Then go. You don't need to announce it to the neighbours."

        So I went.

        But when I cracked open the door after I'd washed my hands, I heard another voice coming from Adams room across the hall.

        "I didn't think you were coming home for another few days."