Stellar

four

"Holy shit." I uttered under my breath. No one said a single word, Mattia didn't even move a muscle. All I could hear was the shaky breaths of Ale and Tate next to me. We watch Mattia slowly turn around, his eyes wide in fear. He looks down at his hands as they tremble. I try to walk over to him but he flinches and backs away from me.

"No, no don't touch me."

"Mattia it's okay jus-"

"No I don't want to hurt you." He gives the group a glance and runs out of the room. I hear the front door open and slam in the distance.

"Shit." I interlace my hands on top of my head.

"What...just happened?" Kairi walks over and plops on my bed. No one answers because frankly no one knows.

"Should we go after him? It's the middle of the night." Mark suggests.

"I can go after him. Y'all stay here." I grab my keys and start to head out of the room.

"Hey," Ale says to me making me stop in my tracks,"be careful." I give him a smile and walk out of the room. He couldn't of gone far, he left on foot. I get in my car and aimlessly drive down my street, constantly glancing at both sides of the road. Suddenly, I see a figure walking ahead, their head hung low. It was Mattia. I speed up a little and park as close to him as possible.

"Mattia!" I yell hopping out of my car. He turns around and freezes in his spot.

"Albie please, don't come near me." He backs away the more I walk towards him. I don't listen and continue walking in his direction.

"Albie, please." Before he can turn away, I grab his hand. It was cold and trembling in my grasp. He looks into my eyes. I can't explain this feeling I get when I'm with him. Even as small as something as looking into each other's eyes, I feel so secure, safe, loved. No, no I can't be in love. He's just my best friend... that I've had feelings for this entire time and haven't noticed it until now. Well fuck.

"Please come back. We can figure out whatever this is, together." I grab his other hand, giving them both a comforting squeeze. He looks at me, a little hesitant.

"We should also get some sleep." I let out a small laugh, making Mattia give me a weak smile.

"Come on." I lead him to my car and he gets in the passenger seat. I hop into the drivers seat and look to see him looking out the window. I grab his hand again and he looks over at me. I feel his body relax at my touch. I give him a small smile and he scoots closer to me. Not realizing it, I lean in closer too. I watch as his face becomes inches from mine, his hot breath hitting my lips. I close my eyes and feel his soft lips against mine, my stomach instantly filling with butterflies. I slowly pull away and when I open my eyes, his eyes are that glowing purple color. I gasp and jump back in my seat.

"What?" He gets a rush of fear and pulls down the mirror. He gasps as the purple color slowly goes away, revealing his dark brown eyes again. He flips the mirror back up as he falls into a trance, looking straight ahead.

"What is wrong with me?" He calmly says, drawing his attention towards me. I can see an almost hurt yet fearful expression in his face. I put my hand on his thigh comfortingly, he puts his hand on top of mine.

"We're going to figure this out okay?" My attention is drawn in front of me as I see the sun start to rise. I take that as my cue to start the car and start making my way home.

When we return home, everyone is in the living room watching the news. They all look in our direction and instantly get up to hug Mattia. After the little reunion Kairi grabs my arm.

"Hey, you guys might want to see this." He drags us to the living room and we plop down on the couch. The news headline says,"Research Resurfaced- Foreign Meteorites." Oh fuck.

"Coming in just this morning, a small meteorite has been found in a local neighborhood in Totowa, New Jersey. The object was spotted on a meteor radar and was said to have been directly ejected from a neighboring planet. The discovery of it's precise location was found this morning and it's initial landing was caught on a nearby street cam. The video shows a group of teenagers who have seemed to witness the meteor's landing and have supposedly tampered with the foreign object. The teenagers have yet to be identified and will be used as a direct source to inform scientists of their discovery once they're found."

"They can't be serious." I say, standing up. Mattia's face turns pale and the others start to pace around the room.

"Used as a direct source! That means those weirdos are going to want to see if they can do tests on us. They probably know one of us is... infected." Ale paces back and forth in front of the TV.

"Everyone let's calm down!" Mattia's voice booms, making everyone go silent. "There's no doubt that they know one of us got...infected or whatever, but there must be a way to cure it right?" No one knows what to say. Alejandro's head shoots up, like a light bulb went off and he sprints out of the living room.

"Where are you going?" I ask, running after him, the others following. He runs into my room and jumps into my desk chair, vigorously typing on the keyboard again. I watch him pull up the same article as before and scroll all the way to the bottom. He highlights what seems like an address and he plugs it into a map, bringing up the exact location of the laboratory where the monkey was tested. Ale also was able to find the phone number of one of the medical technologists that work in that laboratory.

"God damn Ale." I say in awe. He smiles and begins to dial the phone number into his phone.

"Wait, what are you going to say?" Tate gently pushes the phone down in Ale's hands. "Plus, you kind of have a younger sounding voice, no offense."

"None taken."

"Tate's right. Someone with an older voice should talk. If they realize a teenager is calling they'll try to track us down." Mark states. Everyone nods in agreement.

"What do we even say though?" Kairi asks again.

"Here, give me." Mark takes the phone and begins to ring the number.

"Hello, this is Dr. Williams."

"Hi there, I'm calling to ask some questions about specific tests done on a subject a couple years ago." Mark deepens his voice.

"What subject was it, sir?"

"I believe it was the simian?"

"Oh yes, our ape. What questions did you have in mind?"

"Well, I was wondering if the monkey was ever cured." I could hear everyone hold their breath.

"The subject was...yes in fact cured last year from the substance. Is there a reason you ask?" Everyone's eyes lit up at her response.

"I just happened to be curious. Do you know what treatments were done to cure it?"

"I unfortunately can't answer that question due to privacy policies. I apologize."

"Oh okay. Thank you for your time." Mark hits the end button and hands the phone back to Ale.

"Well it's curable!" Ale tries to lighten the mood.

"How in the world are we supposed to figure out how to fix this shit?" Kairi asks, looking between everyone's faces. Ale slowly turns towards the computer, the map of the laboratory still pulled up.

"I guess we'll have to pay them a little...visit."