Dare To Believe

chapter 9

The hug lasted for a few more seconds until Jason lightly pushed Andrew away from him.

They looked at each other's eyes, he was pretty sure that his bore the same intensity as Andrew's eyes.

"Stars are liars, Jason"

That statement again. Jason was unsure if he was talking in a figurative or in a literal way. Either way, he thinks it's weird.

''lies are spoken. Stars can't talk, so there's no way they can tell a lie.'' he reprimanded.

Andrew raised an eyebrow at him, ''You don't need to say a word to lie,'' he breathed out. ''You, for example,'' he pointed a finger at him, ''You are making looks like your okay, but deep inside you're not.''

shit. Jason cursed in his mind. Andrew's words really had a way on their own affect him.

''I'm not lying, I'm really fine,'' ironically, he lied.

''Try harder on fooling me, Jason''

Jason is afraid that Andrew is right. He had been pretending all his life. Trying to put a façade to mask what he really feels. All this time, he was telling he was fine. That everything was fine.

Like how he was telling himself that it was okay that his mom died. Like how he was making himself believe that the relationship his father had with another woman two months after his mother's death was acceptable. Like how he told himself that it was okay to leave his siblings home and live alone because he couldn't bare the sight of having another woman aside from his mom to take care of them.

Yes, he was really a liar. A freaking liar.

''Isn't it fine to lie for the sake of preserving yourself?'' Jason asked.

''lies are lies, Jason. Well, everything is a lie.'' his eyes fixed on his. ''The world we're living at, everything inside and outside of it is just a mere illusion of what we really want to see.''

''The stars?''

Andrew answered him with a nod, ''The stars you're looking at right now are liars,'' he pointed on one of the stars on the curtain of the sky, ''That is not a star anymore. It was only a reflection of what it was in the past.''

He threw a look of disbelief at him, ''What? those are just stars, Andrew''

''nope, it takes years for the light of the stars to reach Earth. What you are seeing now is an illusion of the past,'' he said. ''the stars, which owns the light, is now gone.''

Jason remembered one of the lesson on their class about how stars and their image are formatted are formed for the human eyes to see. And Andrew was right, everything he said was true.

''So, Jason. I think you really are a star,'' Andrew said.

''how did you say so?''

He held his arms with both of his hands and stared at him intently, ''What you are displaying now is an illusion of your past. You are not what you think you are, what you are now is the aftermath of everything you've been through in life.''

Jason couldn't respond, no words came into his mind. No witty comebacks. No sarcastic remarks. Just silence.

For he knew that Andrew was right, and he hates is.

''So Jason, stop being a star, stop lying.'' Andrew's voice was desperate, and Jason did not know why.

''stop being a star, so that I can reach out to you.''

Andrew let go of his arms, turned his back on him and started walking away.

Jason was left dumbfounded, still in awe of Andrew's words.

Right then and right there, Jason promised that he will no longer be a star. He will no longer be a liar, and he will try his best to be reachable as possible.

Then and there, he dared to believe on Andrew and his words.