Flight risk. [h.s]

022.

"Proud that I overdosed on cocaine? Yeah, I'm sure, Pretty boy."

"No." I refuse. "He would be proud of you for recovering and getting the help for that incident. I'm proud of you too,"

She sits up straighter on my lap and smiles while tipping her head back to the sky. I watch the side of her face contentedly as she looks up and hones her focus on Polaris.

"You know Polaris is the only star in the sky that is stationary?"

I raise my eyebrows. "Really?"

She nods rapidly, her whole persona lighting up as she tells me these little facts about the star that her Grandpa taught her.

"Yeah, it's been aligned above the North celestial pole for almost 2,000 years now. That's why people use it as a compass because it doesn't move from that spot."

I nod, tugging her closer as I wrap my arms tighter around her waist and pull her back into me. The warmth that spreads from her only grows more as she leans fully into my touch and rests her head against my shoulder to crane it backwards comfortably.

"Tell me something else about it?" I suggest, knowing that this is keeping her mood elevated as she brings her wine glass to her lips again.

The faint stain that lingers on the swell of her lips from the red wine makes me want to lean forward and kiss her but when she pulls them into a simple smile, I know I can't interrupt her.

"It's not actually the brightest star in the sky." She tells me, running her cold fingertips up and down my hand, specifically tracing over the cross tattoo on the side topside of my thumb.

"It's not?"

"Nope," She pops the 'P' with her lip. "The brightest star is called Sirius. That's so bright that some people mistake it for Jupiter or sometimes even Venus. I don't know why people think that Polaris is the brightest star. Maybe we all just hear what we believe and take it as gospel."

Pursing my lips, I finally drag my eyes away from the side of her face and tip my head back like she is doing to look at the star shining very considerably in the sky.

"So, if it's not the brightest, how do you know this is the North Star?"

Giggling under her breath at my lack of knowledge, Arlie lifts my hand and starts to guide my finger in the air while tracing the pattern of stars like a dot-to-dot puzzle.

"See here?" She whispers, leaning into my ear. "This is Ursa Major..."

"What?" I laugh, smiling like a madman when she kisses my cheek and giggles against my skin. "In English, Arls. I'm not an expert like you,"

"The big dipper," She chuckles before moving my hand a little to the left and starting to complete the same tracing pattern but with a smaller shape.

"This is Ursa Minor..."

"Let me guess? The little dipper?"

Smiling widely, she bites the end of her tongue cutely as she nods proudly. "Who's not an expert now?"

I shrug, pretending to brush my hair off my shoulder with a flick but because it is growing longer and longer it just swings back into place.

"And then here... that bright one in the corner, that's the North Star, H."

"Oh,"

She leans back into me again as we both admire the far-off star in the distance.

"Did your Grandpa teach you all of this?"

She nods, her smile faltering from her face as she takes another sip of her wine so she doesn't need to reply straight away. Swallowing thickly, she looks down at the ring that I gifted her on her birthday just gone last month.