Like the stars

NINETEEN

Graduation wasn't that far away. Less than four months.

Everyday we got closer and closer and I should have been worrying about college and my finals but I wasn't.

I wasn't scared or nervous. I was enjoying the present, the moment with Harley because I had never been more happy.

Family dinners with her. Dates with her. Shopping trips with her. School work with her. Doing nothing with her.

I loved it.

We were sat in my room after school. Dad was working late, Lauren was at work and Carter and Zoey were downstairs. As much as I loved having my girlfriend and my family together, I wanted alone time. At lunch Zoey and Parker sat with us. At dinner it was all of us. It wasn't common for us to be by ourselves and I wanted that. I was being selfish, wanting to keep her all for myself.

The topic of college hadn't been mentioned between us, it was like we were trying to delay the inevitable because the reality of it was that we wouldn't be going to the same college.

That was okay. I'd miss being with her everyday but technology exists. I'll drive to her or catch a flight as much as I can, just to see and spend time with her.

I would fight for her.

"Do you ever want to move back to Phoenix?" I asked quietly as she lay against my chest on my bed.

I loved moments like this. Moments where we could just relax and talk. We would ask each other questions, deepening our knowledge of each other.

We had played video games earlier where, annoyingly, she had won, then we played against Carter and Zoey on teams and we won. I was happy about that win. And now we were relaxing.

She shakes her head slightly against my chest. "No. I didn't fit in. Everyone knew I was a genius. I got full marks on every test, even the ones I didn't study for. I knew the answer to every question and I knew it before they even finished it. Everyone knew about me and some wanted to be my friend so I would do their homework. It was a constant cycle of them befriending me and I'd like having a friend so I'd help them with tests and homework and stuff. After I helped them they cut me off and never spoke to me again. It happened a few times before I realised what was going on. I should have been smart enough to know but I was blinded by the want to make a friend. Afterwards, I told them to fuck off. It's how I perfected my glare."

Anger pummeled me once again and I wanted to hunt down all the people that belittled and used her for her brain. She helped me study sometimes but I didn't care about that. I didn't care about her brain or how smart she was. All I cared about was her, as a whole. Fury boiled beneath my skin at all the people who caused to her build her ten foot steel walls.

"I did wander where you learnt it. You could kill people with it." I tease, reeling back the anger. She slapped my chest and I laughed.

"Ever since I was eight I've wanted to be an astrophysicist and work for NASA." She said. I was threading my fingers through her hair, my eyes nearly closing at the comfort and warmth she provided me with.

"You'd be the smartest one there." I smiled.

She met my eyes and rolled hers. "NASA is filled with geniuses. I'd fit in."

"Still." I shrugged as best I could, sitting up and leaning against the headboard, dragging her with me and making her straddle me. "You'd be the best scientist." She rolled her eyes while I laughed.

I knew one day she would get her dream. She was amazing and the smartest person I have ever met in my life. I wouldn't let her go, never and I knew that I would be following her as she went to work parties, watching and listening to her talk and laugh with her work friends and colleagues while I held her bag and coat. I would be known as 'Harley Nickels' husband' and there was no cell in me that resisted. I would wear that title with pride.