Rejects // Punk Luke Hemmings

Happy Birthday!!

We walked along the shore, the feeling of the first day of summer still coursing through us. All day, we had been down town with the rest of the band and their respective counterparts, and it was one of the best days I'd had since moving here. With Christmas in sight, everyone was beginning to get in the festive spirit, and it was really a big mood lifter.

Our feet left tracks in the wet sand, only to have them be wiped clean by the cool water eager to make contact with them. We walked and walked, leaving behind no trail of ever having been where we were. And I was alright with that.

Soon we stopped and sat down at a spot that was just out of reach of the water, but still close enough that we could feel the foam lap at our toes. As the day came to an end, we just sat there, shoulder-to-shoulder, hands entwined, minds clear of anything but the moment.

"What if the sun and moon were in love?" he asked me. Puzzled, I looked up to the dying gold flames bleeding into the ocean. The sky, streaked with oranges and pinks, was beginning to give way to purples and blues.

"What?" I replied softly, frowning a bit.

"What if the sun and moon were in love?" he said again. "What if the sun looked forward to rising and setting because that's when he got to see the moon? And what if the moon was visible in the late afternoon because she snuck away from the stars just to see the sun's rays? But they can't be together. It's just another tale of star-crossed lovers...literally."

I giggled, my eyes wandering up to catch the first faint glows of starlight. The ocean waves were turning dark as their foamy crests kissed the shore. "I never thought of it like that," I confessed to him. "That would be pretty amazing though."

His eyes were glazed over, galaxies beginning to spin inside of them as he continued to write the story. "They can't be together due to elliptical orbits and planetary rotations. Still, they long for each other every day and savor dawn and dusk, the only times they can be graced with one another's presences. The sun's lips left craters on the moon's skin and she tossed her white light into his hair." We had stopped talking at this point, the soft sand dipping underneath our tows. Shadows danced in and out of the pier as I leaned into him, resting my head on his chest, on the place I called home. My body longed for his stories. I wanted his words to sink into my bones and melt into my core.

"What happened next?" I whispered, cold waves lapping at our ankles. His strong hands stroked through my hair.

"You tell me," he breathed. We pulled back from one another ever-so-slightly so we were face to face. As I looked him in the eye, I was lost momentarily in the deep blue pools of emotion.

He flooded my thoughts, every second of every day, and in doing so, he taught me how to swim. He taught me to rise above the waves and fight through the currents and riptides. But most of all, he was the reason I made it back to the shore.

I let my hand trace over his sharp jawline as the rest of the story tumbled out of my lips.

"They both lived happily ever after," I smiled softly. He grinned as he leaned forward and placed his lips to mine.

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I want to first off thank jkervs1234 for this gorgeous piece of glory you just read. Yesterday she sent me the only submission I got for the one year birthday thing I wanted to do, and I'm glad I didn't have to choose between this and anything else. I almost cried because of it, and I just... Thank you to her for making the ending of this even better than I could've ever done. (She wrote from the part when Luke first talked and on. I only added the first part.)

Second, I want to thank you, my amazing readers. I can't thank you enough for clicking on my story and putting faith in it. I love each and every one of you and I never expected it to get this far.

To those of you who have stayed up to ungodly hours of the night just to tell me you finished it in a day, because I know there's at least one of you out there, thank you. I know that feeling of loving a book so much you won't go to bed until it's done, even if that means going to bed at 5 am. You make me so happy.

To those of you who have ever or will ever spam me in the future, you rock. I notice you all and I want you to know how happy that makes me.

To those of you who have made a point to get to know me as well as others I. The comments, I cherish the conversations we've had. They make me happy just thinking of them.

And on that note, I bid this story farewell and move on to the next. Losers will be updated very soon, so stay tuned. I love you, stay strong if your fighting through something, and know you are all the reason I have gotten through a lot of battles myself.

~Celia xoxo