Asterism

24. the sun

Guys...the long awaited is here...

Aiden's P-O-fucking-V!!!

We're getting inside HIS head today, ladies and gents!! This is a very long chapter (9,000 words long) so make sure you're settled before getting into it! Also, it's important to know that this isn't an ordinary 'chapter,' this is also an internal monologue introducing him and his views on important parts of the past before he can be within the present. There were things I wanted to address before he reacted and acted in the present events on Asterism. Keep in mind there are past jumps, and many walks down memory lane that are necessary to get comfortable in his mind.

I'm honestly so excited for this. I've been working for months to find his POV, to feel that what I wrote was truly about Aiden Matthews, and not what I 'thought' was Aiden Matthews...if you know what I mean. For those who were around to read 'Spitfire,' a book I had originally published with just his POV, throw all memories of the deleted works out the window. Look at this chapter with a clean slate. This is the real Aiden and I hope you all love him ;)

Comment your reactions/enjoyment/sadness/happiness as you go! I spent so much goddamn time on this chapter, lmao. But I'm proud of it, so do vote if you'd like future chapters to be in Aiden's POV!! It was nice seeing things from a different perspective. I love Marley's mind, but it was a change I found a fun project!

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WHEN I reflect on the morning of October 16th of 2017, of the morning I met Marley Hoover for the first time, I picture a solar eclipse.

In this space metaphor, Marley is obviously the sun. The metaphor couldn't fit her better. Besides the spitfire in her, the fire in her eyes and in her quiet strength, sunshine is all she is in everything she does. It's all you feel when you're around her, it's all you see when she smiles, it's all you hear when she laughs. She radiates life. She's warm. She's light.

And then there's me, who a moon metaphor couldn't possibly embody better. I don't give light, flowers don't bloom where I stand, warmth doesn't seep into those I touch, but, I am necessary in my own way. The moon ensures the constant of the tides in oceans that the sun filled, the moon ensures that day is longer than night. The moon may not bring life, but it protects the sun and what the sun creates. That's who I am. I look after, I take care of, and I defend. In this way, Marley needs me as much as I need her, and we rely on the opposing qualities in each other to find the perfect balance in ourselves.

Just like the sun and the moon need each other no matter how many thousands of miles of distance stands between them - that was Marley and I. Before that morning we had never spoken to each other, but she was always there, and we were always subconsciously aware of the other half of each other. Whether we passed in the halls or didn't, didn't matter. Day after day my sun orbited the same planet I did, and I protected the balance she created in us. We fulfilled each other regardless of the space between us.

Our dynamic changed the night of October sixteenth when I truly laid eyes on her for the first time, when there was no busy hallway or classes or friends or commitments or late bells ringing. When there was nothing but air between us, and she saw me, she finally looked at me. Into my eyes, our solar eclipse. Because it wasn't even each other that we were seeing, not really. It was the dark planet below us once she had temporarily disappeared from it.

It was the understanding that whatever light I ever had was her, and whatever safe place she ever had was me.

Ever since that morning, despite anything that tried to split us apart, there was nothing that could stop the inevitable, there was no one that could ever be to either one of us what we are for each other. Our fights don't matter in the end, a difference of opinion can't sway us for long, because like the sun and the moon, there is only one thing that could change our reliance on each other - the destruction of one. And in that case, the sun would remain if the moon turned to ash, but if it was the sun that exploded? The moon would have no fighting chance. It has always been too close to the sun to ever survive such an event.