Cosmic Collisions (Novel)

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen:

Elliot trudged up the staircase, sweat pouring down his back. He hadn't realised just how hot the engine room had been until now. He entered his bedroom glad to finally have some time to himself. Him, Rosiee and Taylor, with the help of Mason and Melody had used almost every single jellyfish to try and mend the wires and restore the ship's energy. They truly thought that it would work, but it might take a long time.Sitting on his bed taking his shoes off, he thought back to his first memory of him and Finley together.

He must've been seven years old, while Finley was only four. They'd just come back from SpaceSchool with Finley's Auntie, Freya's Mum, and Elliot remembered how they chased each other around the Space Pod with 2-year-old Freya trying to catch up to them. He also remembered playing hide and seek with Isla, Finley and Charlotte. He smiled at the memory; Isla was the best at that game. Sometimes they'd spend a full 20 minutes looking only for her even when they'd all found each other already. A sharp knock sounded on his bedroom door and felt a sudden case of deja vu. Finley was the only one that had knocked on his door, everyone else called out and just entered it as if they owned the place.

Remembering that someone was actually out the door waiting for his answer, Elliot said, "who is it?"

"It's Mason,"

Hearing the nerves in his voice, Elliot knew that he couldn't just send him away as he said, "come in, Mason!"

Mason entered the room, his deep brown eyes glancing at Elliot who was still sitting on the floor with his back to the bed and looking around at the mess on the floor near the desk on the other side of the room from the plummeting that the Space Pod took.

"Hi, what's up?" Elliot asked as Mason came to sit next to him, moving slowly and in pain. He noticed that Mason clenched one of his fists tightly and thought it was unusual.

"Well, this might be a bit strange, but Isla told me that you'd all known Finley ever since he was born and you called him your boyfriend three days ago when he... uh... died," he glanced down as he spoke suddenly very interested in the floor. He continued with a slight tremor in his voice, running his hands through his strawberry blonde hair, "I was wondering how long or... umm,"

Seeing Mason's face as he was struggling to get the words out, Elliot took over, answering his question, "We've known each other all his life so when he died, I-I just... Anyway, I called him my boyfriend because we'd just admitted that we like each other the night before I left my Childhood Space Pod. We didn't know that he was also going to be coming with us and we-we kissed," He turned away from Mason to hide his tears that filled his eyes.

"I'm sorry. This was stupid. I should probably go. I..,"

Mason got up to leave as Elliot called after him, "No, don't worry. It's fine," he turned around to face him and slowly came to sit back next to him, wincing yet again due to the pain in his stomach where the bed had cut him.

"Because these were meant to be part of Finley's service, I thought you might like one, " as Mason spoke he opened his fist and a tiny jellyfish popped out, floating right into Elliot's out-streched palm. "I asked Rosiee about feeding them and she said that since they've been 3D-printed they don't need to eat, but they need a lot of water," he added, watching Elliot's reaction.

He smiled at Mason, touched by his gesture of kindness as he watched the jellyfish float off his palm and pulsated towards the window bumping into it. He turned back to Mason and said, "Thank you very much, Mason. I appreciate it,"

"Great!" the 24-year-old replied, "What should we name it?"

Elliot looked back at the glowing creature thinking for a moment until he said, "the only name I can think of is Finley, which somehow doesn't sound quite right for a jellyfish,"