Star-Crossed | Boy x Boy

𝑳𝒖𝒘𝒖

"Do you think Jamie will throw a fit if I get red cups for her party?" I asked Aster. He shrugged, itching at the neck of his sweatshirt. Aster insisted on coming with me to run errands, so I insisted he cover up his beautiful muscles. I was sick of all the girls and even some old ladies gawking at him. "Well that's no help," I mused, setting the pack of SOLO cups back onto the shelf. I sighed. "I want this party to go well for her, but its so hard to plan for her sometimes. She can be so picky."

Aster snorted. "Trust me, I know."

It'd been almost five months since the incident with the drunk, and thankfully he hadn't come back. Aster, Elaine, Jamie, Adam, and Adam's new boyfriend Lake hung out at the coffee shop regularly now, and liked to play boardgames in my living room. They all got along great, and Lake really loved Adam, even if he was a bit prickly at times. Graduation was in a few weeks, and I didn't have my college, occupation, or even the apology card to break it to my parents picked out. 

"Hey," an old man tapped me on the shoulder.

I turned slightly, setting down the paper plates I had been inspecting. "Hi! Is there anything I can do to help you?" I asked. 

The man nodded stiffly. He was wearing jean overalls, a plaid shirt, and had wispy white hair that framed his wrinkled face. He had a big nose and almost cloudy gray eyes. "Are you one of the kids that's graduating at the end of May?" he asked shakily, trembling as he sat on his cane. 

I blinked. "Oh, yeah, I am. Why?"

The man grinned. "Well all that construction is finally over, which means that we need some students coming to our new university."

I froze. I remembered that big brick building they were making where the old museum used to be. Mom had stopped complaining about it ages ago, and even though we passed Main Street on our way to the coffee shop nearly every day I hadn't given it a second thought. Was it actually a university?

"I see you look intrigued," the man rasped. "I supervised the building, and my son is the dean of the establishment. We have a few spots left open for new recruits, so I was wondering if you had any interest in joining us."

I winced. "Uhm... I don't know."

Aster came up behind me and grabbed my hand, squeezing it encouragingly. We'd started officially dating ages ago, and our four month anniversary was just around the corner, but I was so distracted with graduation parties for my classmates that I hadn't had time to think about what to get him for a gift. 

"We have a lot of curriculars, and there's a great public speaking course you can take if-"

Aster nudged me. "Hear that? Public speaking. That's like what you did with your speech."

I shook my head. "I didn't read it. The sheriff did."

Aster frowned. "But you're really good at writing, if you took this course you could actually speak about it in front of crowds. You love nature as much as I do, and you write beautifully. You should try it."

The man looked between us. "It is a great opportunity, and we have a couple teachers that graduated from Harvard that were happy to come teach for a couple years." He shoved a couple stacks of paper plates into his basket. "I'll be looking forward to your application," he said, and rolled his squeaky cart away.

Aster shoved me. "You have to do it!" he insisted.

I smiled. "Do you think they'll accept such a late application?"

"I'm sure!"

I grinned. "I'll put it together when I get home, tonight is Jamie's night. I'll tell them all about it in the morning!"