Chapter Thirteen: Celestial Reminders
The night was quiet.
Stephanie stood alone on the balcony outside her room, the wind gently brushing past her cheeks, carrying the scent of stillness and something unspoken. The sky stretched wide above her—ink black, endless, scattered with stars. The moon hung low and full, glowing like it always did when she needed a little bit of comfort.
She had always found peace in the night sky. Maybe because it reminded her of things she couldn’t touch, couldn’t hold, but still somehow loved.
She looked up at the moon.
It reminded her of Stanley.
So close, yet so far.
There were moments in her life when he felt just like that moon—glowing, present, within reach—but never truly hers. There was always a distance. A quiet barrier between what could’ve been and what was. Even when they laughed, even when their shoulders brushed in the hallway, even when his messages made her heart skip, there was always something holding them back. Timing. Choices. Other people.
The moon was beautiful. So was what they shared. But she knew now that beauty didn’t always mean belonging.
And then her eyes shifted upward—just above the moon—to a small, brilliant star.
It was the one she always searched for without meaning to.
That star was Kian.
Always shining. Always there. Even if he didn’t know it.
He reminded her of light—gentle, consistent, never asking to be noticed but impossible to ignore. Her feelings for him had burned in silence, steady and patient. She never demanded anything from him. She just… loved. Quietly. Freely. And now, gently letting go.
Stephanie hugged her arms around herself as the cool breeze picked up. The sky had become a memory book—each star, each glimmer, a page she had lived through, cried through, grown through.
She whispered to the sky, “Thank you for letting me love, even if it wasn’t forever.”
And maybe that was the lesson she was learning all along—that some people are like the moon and the stars. You don’t get to hold them. But you’re better for having looked up and seen them.
She closed her eyes and breathed in.
Healing takes time.
But under this sky, she knew she was on her way.
VOUS LISEZ
When I'm Ready Again
Roman d'amourStephanie's heart has always been a puzzle-caught between the crush she barely understands, the admiration she keeps to herself, and the friendship that quietly blossoms into something more. From the first day of junior high to the last day of grade...
