No one did.

Tears stung at my eyes. Breath, I commanded myself. You will not cry. I sucked back the tears and dragged my butt up to my room, where I changed into my pajamas and crawled into the welcoming warmth of my bed. It was early, but I was exhausted.

Outside my window, the clouds had parted. The moon smoldered against the blackness of the sky, the stars twinkling harmoniously around it. I felt that same strange pull that I always did whenever I looked up at the night sky. It made me feel like I belonged up there, shining with the stars.

Sometimes it felt like it was the only place I did belong.

Chapter 8

I had this feeling that maybe, just maybe, school was going to be different today. Okay, so perhaps I was being a little overly hopeful here, but I was still crossing my fingers that the tension between Alex and I would lessen now that we’d had our semi-bonding moment.

Of course, I hadn’t forgotten the crazy story he’d told me about the fallen star. Last night, I’d even dreamt about it.  In the dream, I was the star falling fiercely from the sky. When I woke up, I still felt like I was falling.

Honestly, I didn’t mind the dream, and the break it had given me from my repetitious nightmare—it was nice to take a break from dying. And since the little parking lot incident, I hadn’t seen any sign of the glowing yellow eyes roaming around in the real world, so that was an added bonus. I’d also decided to push Sophia’s harsh and hurtful comments out of my mind. I was going to have a good day today. A good, worry-free day.

At least I hoped.

My morning went by pretty okay. Nothing too traumatic happened. I did have a bit of a concentration problem, but no one seemed to notice. And when astronomy class rolled around, I felt myself getting excited. The feeling was new to me and, I’ll admit, kind of a fun one.

I took a seat at my table, feeling restless for Alex to show up so I could see how he was going to treat me. But when the bell rang, Alex and Ailsin were still a no show. And my heart sank. Their empty chairs were a painful reminder of the old days when I sat all by my little lonesome. As bad as things had been between Alex and me, I still felt a small ping of longing for the chairs to be filled.

“Alright everyone.” Mr. Sterling walked up behind his podium, balancing a stack of papers and folders in his hands. “Open your books to page fifty-eight while I take role.”

I sighed and opened my book.

“Worried I wasn’t going to show?”

My heart just about leapt out of my throat, and my body did this weird, excited spasm thing, causing my elbow to knock my pen on the floor. I scooped it up as Alex took a seat, pulling the hood of his jacket off of his head.

“No worried,” I said. Great. Not only was I socially incompetent, but now my speech was becoming impaired. Deciding it might be best to keep my mouth shut, I fixed my eyes on my book.

He laughed to himself as he flipped through the pages of his book. “That sounded convincing.”

I tried again. “I wasn’t worried.” The pitch of my voice was a little high, but at least I got all the words out this time.

He laughed again and gently tousling his fingers through his hair. “Okay, if you say so.”

I opened my mouth to argue that he was wrong, but Mr. Sterling cut me off by starting his discussion.

After Mr. Sterling had finished talking, he took the class to the library for some project time. However, this time he stuck around to keep an eye on everyone. I guess yesterday he’d busted a few of the people that had cut out early.  Fortunately, Alex and I weren’t one of them.

Alex and I selected a table near the back corner to set our things on. During our walk over, he’d informed me that Aislin was still sick so it was just going to be him and me.

“So which should we work on first?” he asked, dropping his bag onto the table. “The map or the report?”

“Um…since we don’t have any of the supplies for the map,” I slid my messenger off of my shoulder and hung it on the back of a chair, “I don’t think there’s anything else we can do except work on the report.”

“Do we even know what we’re doing it on?”

“No, but looking through some books might help us come up with something.”

He held back a smile. “Well that and the internet.”

I glanced over at the Computer Station, which was crammed with people. “How about you go over to the computers, and I’ll go pick out some books.”

“Sounds good to me.” He headed off for the Computer Station.

I turned for the bookshelves. As I passed by the New Release Section, I couldn’t help but stop and skim over what was there. Nothing was too catchy, except for one with a dark purple star on the cover. It made me think of the fallen star story Alex had told me about yesterday. Out of sheer curiosity, I decided to read the back to see what it was about.

Halfway through, electricity shockwaved up my spine and I just about dropped the book.

“That doesn’t look like it would be very helpful for our project.” Alex came up to the side of me and leaned against the shelf.

I held up the book, showing him the cover “Hey, it has a star on the cover.”

He laughed. “So it does.”

“I thought you were going to look stuff up on the internet?”  I asked him.

“Yeah, I was until I realized there really isn’t any point of us splitting up since we haven’t chosen our topic yet.”

“Oh yeah, good point.”

He flicked the book I was holding with his finger. “So what’s it about.”

I glanced down at the book, then back at him. “From what I read off of the back, I think it has something to do with witches.”

For some reason, this seemed to entertain him. “Witches huh? You really do have a thing for the supernatural, don’t you?”

I put the book back on the shelf. “I guess you could say that….” I was so confused. “But how do you know that?”

He shrugged. “Whenever I see you reading, it seems like the book is a science fiction one.”

I gave him a funny look. “Have you been watching me?”

I thought I detected a flicker of panic on his face, but it disappeared before I could be absolutely sure.

“I wouldn’t exactly call it watching you...” He dragged his finger across his lip and sauntered past me, tracing the tips of his fingers across the base of my back. It sent an eruption of sparks surging through me. “More like…observing you.”

It was the first time he’d touched me on purpose, and it almost seemed like he’d done it to distract me.

I tried not to flinch at the sparks firecrackering all over my body, causing my blood to sing and my heart to pound.

For a moment, I thought I might faint.

Alex watched me very closely, as if waiting for me to react to his touch. It was like he thought I was going to freak out or something. I very easily could have too. But I fought hard and managed to keep my cool.

At least on the outside anyway.

A gap of silence passed by. The sounds of clicking computer keys and soft chatter trailed through the air. Beneath the lights, Alex’s green eyes shined like glass. It was amazing how staring into his eyes could make me feel like I was losing myself.

If it wouldn’t have been for a guy—whose name I think is Jason—scooting past us, I’m fairly certain we may have stood there forever, just staring at each other.

But the Jason guy ruined the moment.

Alex sighed, seeming disappointed, and motioned me to follow him as he headed back toward the astronomy section.

We didn’t speak to each other as we searched through the titles of books. I found one on the Milky Way that sounded interesting and sat down on the floor.

“So do you want to know what I think is funny.” Alex flopped down on the floor next to me without a book. “That we chose our project based on what would be the quickest and easiest, yet I think out of the entire class, we’ve probably gotten the least accomplished.”