Brighter Than The Stars: Book One

Alternate 2.4

With no empty seats available in the crowded living room, Madeline sat herself down on the large section where the staircase curved, setting her coffee down beside her, and took her phone out when she felt the vibration in her robe. 

Mrs. Baker: Happy Thanksgiving, Maddie! Hope to see on your break! 

Madeline smiled down at the text. She'd become close to the woman in the four years she spent in high school, and sometimes she forgot just what it was that brought them together in the first place. 

Elijah. 

She'd been his mentor before hers, which gave Madeline some sort of connection to him, although that connection was broken long before the woman entered her life. 

Elijah slid her coffee further away, and came up behind her, positioning himself between her body and the wall. "Well, that was uncomfortable. Thanks so much for leaving me to fend for myself."

"You did it to yourself," Madeline pointed out, watching as he shifted both their coffee cups closer. "Why the hell did your mind automatically go there?"

"I didn't realize I was making noise during my nightmare," Elijah defended. "I thought he was just trying to play the cool parent."

Madeline snickered as she rest her head against his chest. 

He picked up his coffee cup with one hand, and draped the other across her lap. "Still a pretty cool parent, though. He's looking to see if there are any hotel rooms available in the area, so we can stay a couple more days."

When her phone beeped again, Madeline glanced down at the new text.

Mrs. Baker: Are you going to the Pointe Christmas festival tomorrow? We can meet up there for a cup of cocoa. If not, I'll catch you around Christmas. Just know that Elijah misses you just as much as you miss him during the holiday's. Seriously, Maddie. You meant absolutely everything to him. 

"You're still talking to Mrs. Baker?" Elijah asked in a higher tone than usual.

Madeline assumed once she graduated, Mrs. Baker would disappear from her life. But every holiday and every break, she'd receive a text from her, making sure Madeline was okay. Sometimes they'd meet up for a coffee or have lunch, other times they'd just keep it to texts. "When you told her to watch out for me, she took her job very seriously."

Elijah took the phone from her hand, pressed a couple of buttons so the camera came on and faced them, and tugged swayed his hand until he found a decent angle. Once the picture was captured, he handed the phone back to her. "We can go to the festival tomorrow," he told her. "Even if we can't find a hotel room available. But you have to promise me, if I have another nightmare, you'll get out of the bed."

"I'm fine," Madeline tried to reassure him. "Seriously, it doesn't hurt."

Though he was behind her, she felt the power of Elijah's stare. "I'm not kidding, Madeline. Having you next to me helped, but they can get pretty fucking bad. And by bad, I mean violent. So if it happens again, you get out of the bed, and out of the room."

What he described as nightmares sounded more like night terrors, which was something she'd have to dive deeper into if she wanted to understand it. Which she did, because it was a part of him, and she wanted that place in his life he'd never allowed another person to have. So she nodded against his chest. "Promise."

"Good." Elijah pressed a kiss against her head, and smiled against it when her grandfather whistled, listening the mood. "Text her back."

Madeline took a long breath, forcing herself to move on from the heavy topic by choosing an amusing way to reply to Mrs. Baker, and wrote the text. 

Madeline: I don't think he misses me anymore. 

Elijah chuckled behind her. 

Mrs. Baker: Oh, honey, of course he does. I know it doesn't always feel that way to you, but that boy's never forgotten you, and never will. 

Madeline: If he missed me, he'd be here with me.

Madeline: Oh, wait. He is. Never mind. 

Mrs. Baker: ... 

Mrs. Baker: Is there something you want to share with the class, Ms. Martin? 

Madeline joined in Elijah's laughter, and sent her old teacher the photo he'd just taken of the two of them, Elijah looking perfectly handsome despite barely having any coffee in him, and so adult with in his glasses and overgrowing scruff. 

"God, look at you," Madeline said as she continued to admire the photo on her screen. "It's been almost two weeks, and sometimes I still can't believe it."

"See how happy I look?" Elijah pointed at the screen. "That's because of you."

"I'd tell the two of you to get a room," her grandmother yelled out, "but you already have."

"Just make sure you marry her before you knock her up," her grandpa chimed in. 

Elijah just laughed, seeming to take the comment with an ease she didn't expect. "How about her and I start with living in sin, then work our way up from there?"

"A little sin keeps us young," her grandma told him with a wave of her frail hand. 

He wrapped both arms around her, pulling Madeline tight against his chest. "So how 'bout it? You want to move in with me once your lease is up in six months?"

Now he was asking her. Not strongly hinting. Not saying it would make things easier. Straightforward, one hundred percent asking her. And not to share a bed to keep the nightmares away, but to share a life. 

"Planning that far ahead, huh? You sure you won't get tired of me by then?" Madeline asked, already knowing the answer. Or at least assuming she knew the answer. All she knew for certain, is she'd never grow tired of him. 

Elijah's lips smiled against her temple. "Pretty safe to say that's not going to happen."

"Hear that, Mitch?" Her grandpa called out. "He's already asking her to move in with him!"

"Wouldn't be the first time," her dad responded from the kitchen. 

Madeline's phone rang next to her coffee mug. Once she saw the name on the screen, she handed it to the man beside her. "Pretty sure this is for you."