Saving Supernovas

Chapter 1

The sun was glittering off of the mountain lake like it was a valley of jewels bathing in the light. I could feel the hot sun pushing against my eyelids as I breathed in the scent around me, evergreen trees and a light touch of pollen, while a pleasant smile spread across my face at the first evidence of spring. I was lounging in a mountain meadow surrounded by barely budding wildflowers. A freshwater lake lie some yards away, and an enormous Evergreen-covered mountain loomed  just behind me. The hot wind was playing with my hair, tying the small whips into frustrating little knots. So, I ran her fingers through my thick brunette mop trying to work through the tiny tangles, but eventually I just gave up and tied it back with the scrunchie I religiously kept on my right wrist.

"You know I prefer your hair when it's down," rumbled a deep voice from behind me.  My body seized in surprise, but I tried not to let it show as I glanced over a tanned and freckled shoulder to where a man stood, propped up lazily against a hundred year old pine. "Since when do I dress for you?" I smirked back at the handsome man who was still admiring her from afar.

Looking at him was like looking through water. I could always make out a few key features; his jet blue-black hair was inky like a fresh ball point pen. He had piercing blue-green eyes, the color of sea-foam, and he had the most brilliant smile. Other than that, he was always distorted, the lines of his body never really coming together to form a solid person. He was like a misty apparition, but his eyes were always so very clear.  A hint of amusement flickered in those sea green eyes as he grazed through the soft grass and plopped down next to me amidst the wildflowers.

"Didn't you miss me? It's been ages, love."  He clasped a hand over his heart, feigning hurt before a grin of blindingly white teeth took over all of my senses.

Shaking off the clenching in my stomach, I snorted and fixed my gaze on the small lake that expanded before me. "You shouldn't take it personally. I'm having quite the bad day. Or I guess you could say a bad year," The man's smile turned down to a faint frown next to me as he observed my slightly red rimmed eyes and the fact that they were lacking their usual gleam. "But, to answer your question, no I didn't miss you," I lied as I turned to face him now, a slight frown forming on my own lips. "It was time to grow up."

"Stella," I watched the man beside me moving his mouth, but the voice that spoke did not belong to him. "Stella," he said again. No, not him. A woman's voice now.

I closed my eyes and shook my head, trying to shake myself awake. The warmth of the spring meadow left my body all too quickly, sending a chill down my spine.

"Do you ever do any work child or do you just sit here and stare into space?" The female voice said again. I opened my eyes to find that I was sitting at my cramped cubicle in the back right corner of a rather unextraordinary office building. I turned to face the voice, which I now realized belonged to the office secretary, Mrs. Gill.

I blinked a few times, readjusting my eyes to the harsh fluorescents now humming above my head, so starkly different from the golden sunshine that had been there moments earlier, before replying to Mrs. Gill. "Sorry, I didn't get a lot of sleep last night." Mrs. Gill - Patty, I believed was her first name, was a stout woman in her late fifties who had been with the company for at least twenty years. She was also the office busybody. I knew it was only a matter of time before my boss,  and every other one of her superiors, would be hearing some dramatized story about how I'd been daydreaming yet again. But I also knew no one would ever approach me about it later on. Everyone in this miserable little town was afraid of confrontation - myself included. They would just whisper behind my back until a new piece of gossip proved itself more interesting than my oddness.

My attention drifted to the stack of papers resting on the crook of Mrs. Gill's left arm. I motioned towards them, "More leads?" Mrs. Gill merely nodded in affirmation, and with a click of her tongue she set them on my cluttered desk - a little too forcefully - and then stalked back to the reception area. I blew out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. Thank god my cubical was tucked far enough back that Mrs. Gill's beady eyes couldn't watch me from behind the front desk. That woman always gave her the creeps.