My Star In The Sky

Chapter 10

Imani didn't get in much trouble like I thought she would, but it was my mom who made a scene in the kitchen. She went on and on about how we're not supposed to sneak into town, how my window was open all night, and how we could've been kidnapped.

"Well we closed the window when we got back," I say. "And I just want to spend more time with her since we don't have that much of it."
My mom puts the roast on the stove and takes off her mittens.
"Just be safe, okay? I'm gonna have to start making the rules more strict around here if you can't follow them."

As annoyed with her as I was, I still apologized and promised to not sneak out again so I can just go to the cafe. But part of me actually agrees with her and I get she's just trying to keep us safe.
"Good," she says as she kisses my cheek. I had to wipe off her lipstick.
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The bell rings as I walk into "Downtown coffee." It's not very many people here except for a group of ladies and a couple sitting by the window. I'm wearing my same old baggy shorts with a tank top.

"Hello, welcome to Downtown coffee," says the woman while she's looking down at her phone. Her name tag reads, "Kate."
Kate has short, wavy black hair and a ton of eyeliner on.

"What can I get for you?"
I put my hands in my pocket and look up at their small menu that's on the wall.

I've never been here except for that one time I went with Owen the week we moved into town.
"I'll just get a... small breakfast sandwich with a coffee."
Kate finally looks up from her phone and says, "Any sugar or creams?"
I shake my head.
"To go or for here?"
"For here please."

Without a word, Kate nods and walks into the kitchen.
"Ooookay..." I whisper as I turn around to find a table. After a couple of seconds of looking, I see a boy about my age sitting in the corner. His back is facing towards me, but he has short blonde hair and he's reading so I immediately assume it's Charlie.

I walk up to him and sure enough, it is him. I walk up to his table and he looks up from his book, then looks back down. He probably hates me.
"Can I sit with you?" I say in a low tone. After a few seconds, he says "I'm waiting for someone," without even looking up at me.

"Who?" I ask.
"It's none of your business."
He's right. It is none of my business, so I just turned around and found somewhere else to sit. I feel sad though. I don't want him to hate me, but maybe he should. But the more that I think about it, I should be the one hating him because he never told me he was dating Imani and he practically ghosted me after.

I try not to think about it as much, so I just watched the little tv that sat in the corner on the wall, and eventually, my sandwich and coffee came shortly.

15 minutes later when I'm scrolling through my phone, someone sits a drink and a book on the table and sits across from me. I look up and it's Charlie.

"I'm actually not waiting for someone," he says, looking down.
I smile and sit my phone down.
"I wanted to talk to you. About Imani," he says.
"Of course. What's up?"
Charlie inhales and exhales and says, "I know you guys are together, and I'm really happy for you too you know. I just feel bad that I got between you guys in the first place and If I knew that you had feelings for her all this time, I wouldn't have gone out with her."

Kate walks up to our table and gives us a check. We smile and say thank you.

"But you–"
"Yes, I know I stopped talking to you and it was a shitty thing to do and I'm really sorry for that."
Woah. I've never heard him curse before.
"It's just you guys had gotten into it at the time and I didn't want to make things worse so I just left you alone and I shouldn't have done that."

I fold my arms, and smile because he looks nervous. My mom told me that life is too short to hold any grudges and I want my best friend back so I say,
"It's fine Charlie. I was mad at first, but It's hard to stay upset with you for long."

He pulls up his glasses and smiles.
"Do you wanna go out sometime? I mean, hangout?"

I let out a laugh and said, "I'm down. Now that I think about it, we've never hung out outside of school."

"Yeah."
"Mind if Imani comes?"
He shakes his head.
"Not at all."

That night, we all went to the arcade and drove go karts, laser tag, and mountain wall climbing. Last time I and Imani went karting was when we turned 10 and was able to drive by ourselves. It's all nostalgic when I think about it. Especially since it was during winter and everything was decorated, Santa was out at the mall asking kids what they wanted for Christmas, and it was snowing out.

Imani used to come over on christmas eve and spend the night because her mom always worked, but it was fun for her as much as it was for me. We would hide out on the stairs and try to catch santa and every christmas we'd end up falling asleep. I miss those times.

When we left the arcade, Charlie had to go home and help his mom with dinner. He says it's a traditional night where he passes the slice of cake to the one he loves the most since he's the oldest. "It's a Brazilian thing," he says.
It wasn't dark out yet, so I sent my mom a text and told her I will be at Imani's house for a few more hours.
'Okay. Make sure you tell her mom I said Hey. Love you.'
'I love you too.'

"Do you want something to eat," she asks after we close the front door and take off our shoes. "My mom is still at work, so all we have is left overs."
I turn on a light because it's super dark in the hallway and say, "I'm fine. I'm still full of the wings I had earlier."

We walked upstairs and once we got to her room, she lays down.
"The medicine they're making me take makes me feel so sleepy all the time," she says.
I lay on the bed with her and caress her hair.
"My mom says I shouldn't be out a lot either. It'll make things worse."

"Maybe you should take it easy," I say before I look for the remote and turn on the tv.
"I can just start coming over. I don't want you to get even more sick."
She starts to smile, but it quickly fades away as she runs to the bathroom to throw up.

I follow her and see her on her knees in front of the toilet. "You okay?" I say as I sit behind her to hold her hair back.
She retches and vomits again. I should be disgusted, but for some reason I'm not.
"Here, take your medicine." I open the cabinets to see all of the prescriptions she has to take. 7 bottles. "Which one is it?" I say.
She coughs.
"It's the biggest one with the green cap."
I grab the bottle and fill up some water with her little cup that's sitting by the sink.

When she finally stops throwing up and flushes the toilet, she swallows the pill.
"Yuck," she says. "I need to brush my teeth.
I smile.
"Yes. Yes you do."

Imani makes a face and then playfully hits me.
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Imani is lying on my chest as we're watching a movie. The fox and the hound.

After a while, I start to feel my chest getting wet. Is she crying? I didn't move, nor did I say anything. Maybe I should've. Maybe I should've comforted her and kissed her forehead, but I was afraid I'll cry too and won't be able to stop.

The crying stops and her breathing starts to get slower, so I assumed she was asleep. My mom was texting me and telling me that I need to be heading back home, so like I did at the hospital, I replaced my chest with her favorite plush pillow and wrote a note.

"I have to go home now. I hope you're feeling better now and always remember that I love you to Neptune and back.
P.S, I would say I love you to the moon and back but Neptune is further and I just love you that much." ♡