Lost Stars

xiii. meteor

Whenever the thought of her future man ever crossed Elle's mind, she would always think that he would be a mixture of sweet, kind, caring, hardworking, and a lot of more positively perfect things, but she was also scared of his perfection being the birth of a tedious, very uneventful, and a monotonous life that would make her question herself over and over again about where in her life did she go very wrong.

She imagined herself to be a lonesome housewife chained to make apple pie while she waits for her husband to come back to work. She imagined herself with kids that would ultimately just drain her of her already diminishing energy. She imagined herself having the tiring duty of having to smile every time her husband yelled the typical Honey, I'm home. and having to ask him of the events that have played on through his day, even if she couldn't care less as all of the love flowed out of her for this man that was lawfully her husband.

But never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined that the world would be as playful as it was to strategically put Jack into her life, and finally give her the most beautiful rainbow in her mundane life. She knew that she made a lot of bad choices in her lifetime, but she must have done something right to receive such a spitfire to spice up her day.

Jack Kingston was the epitome of spontaneity. He would do everything he wanted the moment it crossed his colorful mind, and he wouldn't think twice about pulling her in along with him. And Elle was more than happy to dive headfirst into anything so long as she was wrapped in his arms. A single touch from him would send a full blown electric current through every nerve in your body, and it made her feel more alive than she ever thought was possible to bear. Everything about him was alluring. Magnetic. Hypnotizing to the point that it made her dizzy sometimes. And behind the shell was a man who had so much love to offer.

These were the thoughts that pounded through her very being as she lay on her bed with his lips on hers and his arms wrapping around her as if it was where they belonged all this time. Jack's back was slouched against the headboard, and a grumble of pure ecstasy grumbled through his chest as he held onto Elle as she curled into him with her hands supporting her weight as they buzzed with contentment as they savored the warmth that crawled up her fingertips.

Their lips moved against one another in a slow yet consuming tempo that both of them tried not to lose themselves in it too much, only letting their fingertips brush paradise. But it proved to be harder as Jack felt her graze her fingers slowly down his chest with only his blue shirt acting as a barrier between her fingers against his skin.

"We probably should stop before either of us loses control." Elle giggled as she pulled away from what seemed like the forbidden fruit, but she kept their faces in close range. She looked down onto Jack's lips as they pulled up into a gorgeous grin as they were soon on her lips for one more chaste kiss before ultimately pulling away. "I'm on the verge of it"

Elle pulled her body off of him and landed  beside his body but not without feeling his arm pull her body closely beside his. Elle absentmindedly threw her arm over his chest, and they just laid there together  as they took in the sweet silence that the room gave them as a form of solitude but better, since they had each other to be with.

"What are you thinking about?" He whispered as his lips grazed the top of her head like the smoothest silk when he noticed that Elle was zoning out into the crevices of her mind. She had that empty look in her face that comes when one is deep in thought.

"Nothing." She said in a sharp and snappy tone as she nestled her head further into his muscular chest, taking in his alluring scent, and pulled herself closer to him by tightening the vice grip that her arm had around his abdomen. She snapped her eyes open momentarily and looked up at him to see that he was staring down at her with the clarity that he knew her better than she thought.

"I'm just thinking right now, Jack." She whispered to him. His gaze tearing through her like a knife. "Tell me about it. What are you thinking about?" He kindly asked of her, but it was a bigger thing than he made it off to be. Elle's thoughts were part of the reason that she was labeled as an outcast, the others being that she didn't want to be as shallow as they were. Telling her thoughts and exposing them would render her completely vulnerable and exposed, and it still held the possibility of warding him away like it did with everyone else.

"I feel empty. I feel numb. It's a meticulous thing, really. It doesn't really seem like I'm alive. It's like I'm watching someone live their life instead of mine. Like an indefinite entity cursed to roam the earth without the capability to feel as it basks in the hunger to be seen." This was the biggest gamble she ever took. She was actually willing to risk the person she cared about the most. This would either end in two ways: it may bring them closer like never before, or it would serve as the sledgehammer pounding on the remains of their relationship debris.

But she got her answer when he started sitting up, Elle's head slipping off of his chest that she needed to sit up, and she was more than ready to bawl her eyes out with the thought of him getting off of the bed and walking out of the door and leaving her in his subconscious mind, while he remained as fresh as ever in hers. She was already preparing herself for the pain by hanging her head down to hide her shame, but she wasn't expecting to be pulled towards him in a warm embrace that engulfed her into a divine level of comfort.

The first thing that crossed her mind was that it was a hallucination; a wicked craft conjured up by her mind in attempt of a last resort of some sort in a cruel sense. But as the seconds flew by and grew into minutes, she was still in his arms, and she realized that this was reality. He was holding onto her like he was protecting her from the dangers that the world has. She felt like he was protecting her, like a bird after it broke its wing. It felt like nothing in the world could ever hurt her ever again because this one person who chose to pour all of his affection onto her, a girl who never ever came close to blending in and was probably screwing everything up since birth, but he made her forget all of that and made her feel special.

"I hope that me being here with you gives a little spark in your life, Elle." He modestly whispered as her rested his chin upon her head. Elle internally scoffed. He definitely succeeded in his hopes, since him being here was like a hundred fireworks going off all at once. That was Jack Kingston in Elle's eyes.

"You're more than that, Jack." Elle whispered to him with a deep gaze in his eyes before breaking it off by standing up and walking over to her table on the other side of the room. "What is that?" She turned her head and saw Jack staring at her bookshelf. They played hot and cold until her hands finally touched the special book that piqued his interest.

"It's just my photo album." She said as she pushed her fingers in between the gaps between the books to pull it out and wave it at him. It was a leather bound book with a few patterns engraved in it, as well as the words Elle's Memories with 07.12 below it. It was the day her father secretly sent it through post in an attempt to avoid a messy divorced argument between him and her mom before he passed away. It was her birthday.

Her eyes lingered on the numbers longer than she intended them to, but when she looked back at him, he opened his hands and extended his arms before Elle tossed it over to him and walked over to peek over his shoulder.

"Oh, isn't this that girl you always hang out with?" He said as he pointed to a picture of her and Melissa. It was during kindergarten when everyone was still friends with everyone else, and they were actually invited to this boy's party. And even if it was taken many years ago, both of them still held the same resemblances to their present selves, almost like a foreshadow of what they would look like in their adolescence, which it essentially was.

They spent the remainder of the day huddled up in her room on her bed laughing at all the other pictures of Elle through her awkward preteen stage, and Elle wouldn't have had it any other way.