I had woken up in the middle of the night for no reason and I could not go to sleep for the life of me. I tried counting sheep and made it up to 312 before I decided to call it quits. Since sleep was nowhere in sight, I got up drink some water. I poured myself a glass as I scrolled through Instagram. I saw that Ariana had posted something on her Instagram about 10 minutes ago, so I decided to text her to see if she was awake. She responded almost immediately.
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I waited a few minutes for her response, but after not getting one, I decided to make myself a bowl of cereal. I poured the Cocoa Puffs into a bowl and poured the milk after. I ate a spoonful of the chocolate spheres before my phone vibrated against the table.
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Before I could think about it, I immediately responded with a yes. I sent her my address before putting my bowl in the sink. Since Camila was a neat freak, I did her a favor and washed the bowl and put it away. That seemed to kill the time because as soon as I was done, Ariana sent me a text letting me know that she was outside.
"Good morning." I whispered with a smile since Camila was sleeping down the hall.
"Hey." She gave me a smile as she walked in. "Is Camila sleeping?"
"No, we both are just naturally awake at four in the morning." I retorted sarcastically.
She hit my shoulder and I laughed. She then put a finger on her lips to quiet me down since I laughed a little too loud.
"We should go outside." I suggested.
She nodded and followed me as I tried my best to open the balcony door as quietly as possible. Before shutting the door, I quickly made my way back inside to get us two blankets since it was chilly outside. I made my way back to the balcony and threw a blanket to Ariana before shutting the door behind me. I sat on the chair next to hers and leaned back as we looked down at New York. It wasn't quiet, but it was as quiet as it would ever be. Like they always say, New York is the city that never sleeps.
"I hate New York."
I turned to Ariana who was looking up at the sky and she looked over to me before laughing. "Sorry, I didn't mean that."
"What?" I laughed.
"I don't hate New York." She clarified. "I just hate how you can't see the stars from here."
I looked up at the dark night sky and realized she was right. It was pitch black, with no stars in sight. With all the light pollution in New York, I'm not that surprised.
"When I was little, I wanted to be a star so bad." She spoke, still staring up at the sky. "And not the celebrity type of star. I wanted to literally just be a big ball of light in space type of star."
I looked over to her and admired her side profile as she would not take her eyes off of the sky. The moon illuminated her face making her seem flawless. She then sighed and looked at the floor before looking back at me.
"My grandpa died when I was little and my mom told me that he turned into a star, and that if I ever missed him, I could just look up and night and talk to him. Sometimes I still do." I told her. "So yea, I guess it kinda does suck that there's no stars."
She paused for a moment and turned to me. "You think they can hear us when we talk to them?" She looked up again and sighed. "Do you think Mac can hear me?"
I nodded. "I think he can."
She looked back to me and gave me a small smile.
We talked for what seemed like minutes, but when the sun started creeping up, I realized that we had been talking for almost 3 hours. By now, the streets began to get more noisy as people got up to go to work or school. I stood up and walked over to the balcony to get a better look at the sunrise.
"If sunrises and sunsets were a song, what song would they be?" I asked, turning around to face Ariana while leaning back on the railing.
She stood up and walked over to the balcony, standing next to me. "Would it be basic of me to say 'Here Comes the Sun'?"
I snorted. "Yes, but my answer is no better. Mine is 'The Circle of Life'."
She laughed as I yelled out the intro of The Lion King. I'm pretty sure the words I said were completely wrong, but at least it made Ariana laugh.
I looked over to her before checking the time. It was almost time for Camila to get up for work. I silently prayed that time would just freeze, at least for a few minutes. I just wanted it to stay like this forever. But sadly, I watched as the time changed from 7:22 to 7:23 and I knew that Ariana would have to leave soon.
I turned my phone off and put away in my pocket, enjoying these moments with Ariana.
