Stellar

two

Everything was going as planned while I played on my phone, until of course...

"Hey what the fuck you doing up here for?" I feel the bench sink a little bit next to me and I look to see Mattia sitting down, straddling it. I set my phone down and sighed. He scooted closer to me when he realized something was up. I refused to make eye contact with him until I see his hand slide onto my thigh. Meeting his gaze, I see he has a concerned look on his face.

"Tell me what's up." He says calmly, gripping my thigh a bit. I sigh once again and find the courage in me to tell him the story of my childhood trauma. As I explain the story, his eyes never leave me and neither does his hand on my thigh. It felt like the biggest weight was lifted off my shoulders and I almost feel a sense of relief. Mattia's expression turned from concerned to a more contemplating look, which I didn't favor that much. He looks into my eyes.

"Do you trust me?" I look at him confused and he stands up, lending me his hand. When I don't take it he moves closer to me, his arm still outstretched. Reluctantly, I take it and he begins to walk me towards the water.

"Wait what are you doing?" I try to pull my arm back but he turns around, holding my arms gently. My breath stops when his body comes close to mine.

"There's nothing to be afraid of, watch." He walks backwards, stepping his feet into the water. When I look down, my heart begins to pound and I start to shake.

"M-Mattia I can't."

"Shhh look at me." I draw my head up to look in his eyes and he continues to go deeper into the water. I don't let go of his arms as I feel my feet hit the cold substance. I gasp, but I don't pull away. Mattia encouragingly nods his head, telling me not to look anywhere except him. My body slowly submerges and the water begins to come up to my chest.

"Mat," I gasp," I have to get out, I can't I-"

"It's okay." He lets go of my arms and wraps his arms around body, pulling me into his chest. I grip onto his shoulders, scared to even open my eyes. The rising and falling of his chest and his warm body comforted me, it made me feel safe. Opening my eyes, I look around and see how deep we made it with no harm. I jerk my head up to look at him.

"See? You're okay. That wasn't too bad." He says calmly. My grip on his shoulders loosen as I slowly pull away from him, gaining the courage to roam around myself. He looks surprised but lets me go. My feet are still touching the rocky floor and I manage to take a few steps around in the water. I smile wide, giving him a few glances and I start to swim around. Mattia's smile is just as wide as mine, he watches me swim circles around him. After a few laps, I make my way back in front of him.

"Did you see that! What I just did!" He looks at me with the proudest smile that just warms my heart.

"I sure did."

"Thank you." I attack him into a tight hug as he lifts me up, my feet slightly leaving the ground. He gently sets me back down when I hear someone call me.

"Bibi! Come try the swing!" Kairi yells right before he swings down, splashing into the water in front of us. I give Mattia a look and he nods his head, signaling me to go. He gives my back a little push as I start to swim to shore towards the tree, where the swing is hung. As I grab onto the rope, I look down at them. They all cheer me on when I feel my stomach drop again. My eyes dart to Mattia who gives me an encouraging look, holding up a thumbs up. I take a deep breath. I build up some speed, gripping the rope tightly. I close my eyes as I feel the wind gush under, getting goosebumps all down my arms and legs. I feel my body crash against the water's surface and my whole body plummets. When I open my eyes, I look up to see the surface of the water becoming more distant, the sun's rays becoming dimmer. A flashback from my incident takes over my mind as I start to struggle, flailing my arms in hopes to get to the top. I start to panic as my lungs begin to burn. My mouth opens to scream when I feel my body get forcefully pulled above the water, I gasp for air start coughing. I can only make out inaudible yelling and a few blurry figures around me.

"She can't breathe!'

"Get her out!"

"Put her down over here!"

My body is taken out of the water and placed on top of a few towels. I can't control my breathing and I can feel my heart pounding out of my chest. Two warm hands cup my face.

"Albie, hey. Albie, look at me." I fix my eyes on the face in front of mine and I attempt to take slower breaths. I slowly calm down and my vision and breathing seem to fall back to normal. Looking around, I see everyone's heads looking down at me. I meet Mattia's gaze, his hands still cupping my face gently.

"What was that? Are you okay?" Ale kneels down placing his hand on my shoulder. I manage to nod and everyone just sits in silence, watching me. I feel them grab my hands and rub my arms in comfort, while I just lay there, wishing today never happened.

After everything that went down, we all went back to my house. I explained to everyone why I acted the way I did at the lake and they understood completely. We decided to just get changed into comfortable clothes and watch a movie in my room, take our minds off the little incident. I couldn't help but feel guilty that we were just sitting here. Yes, I had an episode already today but it's summer! We should be doing something.

"Hey do you guys wanna go do something?" Everyone looks at me concerned and confused. "Oh c'mon. We might've had a little... whatever today but we should still have some fun."

"What did you wanna do?" Tate asks walking over to me.

"I don't know. Maybe like a late night drive or a walk in the woods. Just something." I see everyone start to think about it.

"We can go for a drive down that little side street I go to all the time. I just sit there to look at the stars." Mark jumps in.

"Look at stars? You mean to bang a girl?" Mattia chuckles making the others laugh, Mark's cheeks become red. I watch him glance at Tate and rub the back of his neck.

"Fuck it. Let's go." I grab my keys and everyone follows. We pile into my car , barely fitting and I start to drive to our destination. We lay a few blankets on the hood and roof of my car so we could all sit and look at the stars. Mattia, Ale, and I took the roof while Mark, Tate, and Kairi sat down on the hood.

"Yo this is sick." Ale says admiring the millions of stars and constellations.

"It's beautiful." I say.

"Aw just like you." I look up at Ale who had the cheesiest grin on his face, leaning his head against mine.

"Aw shut the fuck up." We let out a couple laughs and I suddenly feel someone's stare burning through me. I look over and see Mattia just looking down at me, smiling.

"Can I help you kind sir?"

"I'm good, just looking." He winks, making me smile and roll eyes.

"Thanks for looking out for me today. For real." I place my hand on his knee and gently pat it. His hand grabs onto mine, making my breath hitch.

"Of course, that's what friends do."

I enjoy the feeling of safety and comfort this boy never fails to bring me. I give him a kind smile and he returns the same as we both bring our gaze back to the sky. There's a small silence among all of us when suddenly, we spot a small flash in the sky.

"Yo! It's a shooting star!" I hear Kairi as he points up to the small orb of light. We all watch in awe, when we realize it's... kind of coming towards us. It was very small but the closer it traveled, the brighter it became.

"Why does it look like it's coming this way?" Mark starts to scoot off the car and stand off to the side. The rest of us follow as we inventively watch the tiny meteor. It's getting brighter and brighter as we watch and it seems to be shooting straight at us now. Oh fuck.

"Duck!" I scream, grabbing and pushing Ale's and Mattia's head down. I felt the sharp gust of wind pass over us and hear a small fiery crash. I hesitantly look up and thankfully, everyone is still intact. All of us slowly turn to look behind us a see this tiny rock. A small, purple, flaming rock.