What happens when you can't even recognize your own parents, but you're able to identify the most notorious playboy in school? //
Asher Thomas lives in a world where she isn't able to recognize people's faces, including those of her parents and even...
Aaron and I are huddled together in a sleeping bag, having pitched our tent under a patch of sky uncrowded by the trees. After a day of swimming in the pool under the waterfall and hiking through the forest, we lay exhausted under the night sky, talking about nothing and everything. The stars listen to us wonder what Becca Jarvis's career path will be, engross ourselves in some deep shit about the universe, and our own plans for the future. My unhealthy consumption of reality TV has actually spurred me in the direction of film, and currently, I'm enrolled in the California Institute of the Arts. I'll start their community arts partnership program in the fall. I've already begun writing a script about a documentary on prosopagnosia, to raise awareness and shine a light on a daily life with those suffering from face-blindness.
Aaron seemed to enjoy Leaves of Grass much more than I anticipated, and he's seeking an English major. He says his life is much too interesting not to write about, which is hardly disagreeable. He's drawn up an outline for a memoir, but says he can't base 300 pages on his high school years. "Just wait," he tells me. "Some jacked up shit is gonna happen to me in college, and I'll have a bestseller for it."
Aaron's going to the University of California in Los Angeles. "I'll show up to your dorm in the afternoon and you can read my books and I'll watch your movies," he declares. Then, with a grin: "Hopefully you get a roommate who's never there. Or you don't even get a roommate. Then we can make-out until you forget even how to make-out."
Time with Aaron makes it feel as if it speeds by in light years. We joke, we laugh, we make new memories after an infinite list of past reminiscences. Now, under the stars, his hand is under my shirt, his nose bumping along my jaw. With a dimpled smile, he leans in, easing his lips against mine. They are smooth and soft against my own, unrushed, unhurried. We have all the time in the world, and then some.
Aaron leans back, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me up to his chest. There's a full moon tonight, and I can make out his features clearly: the warm blue eyes and small, crooked smile. The freckle on his neck, soft lips set above a clean-shaven jaw. All mine.
Aaron and I lay together under the stars, starring up at the vast, ebony sky. I can make out feathery wisps of the Milky Way, a small blanket for the heavens. Stars splatter the sky like gemstones, glimmering from their jet-black cove. A beautiful, harmonious cosmos. Long, velvet arms reaching around the globe, hugging it close.
I press my cheek against his chest, eyes still locked on the sky. "You've called me 'a cosmos'."
Aaron vibrates with a small chuckle under me. "Yes."
I pull my palms up to his chest, resting my chin on the backs of my hands. "Explain?"
Aaron's hand caresses my hair. "It's long, and it's fucking weird," he mutters, biting the inside of his cheek. I roll my eyes. "I have all the time in the world, Blakely."
"Hm." Aaron's thumb lightly traces my lips, thinking his story over. "You can't laugh at me."
"I won't."
He puckers his lips. "Laugh once, and I'll stop."
I pinch my fingers and zip them across my lips, throwing an imaginary key over my shoulder. Aaron chuckles at that, loosening up a bit.
"I used to not know you very well," he begins. He grins at the thought. "You were so out there, so different ... it was intriguing. Refreshing.
"You weren't like the others. You listened. You saw past my money and my status. You were simply here for me, and I never had anyone in my life like that before." His fingers still on my cheeks.
"You were like my own cosmos. So unknown, so diverse ... the secrets to you were never ending, like the universe around us.
"You were the brightest of the stars. I felt like a puny planet in your presence, but I'd lost my gravitational pull, and I was spinning out of orbit. Somehow, you pulled me back in, and you kept me grounded."
His lips curl into a broad smile. "I learn more and more about you every day, Asher Thomas ... just like the cosmos."
I lick my lips, at a loss for words. Aaron's confession has me winded, and I don't know how to recover.
I'm tempted to joke about how deep and meaningful all of it was, because honestly, I don't know how to react. No one has ever had this insight about me, and all my emotion is bubbling up to the surface and overflowing like a kitchen sink. I want to kiss him and cry at the same time, and I want to ask him to repeat everything so I can record every second of it – even if every word is already locked in my memory.
"That was the most beautiful thing I've ever heard," I finally say, voice quiet. Aaron shrugs one shoulder, cheeks red. "Yeah, well, don't bet on me sprouting that deep shit again anytime soon."
We lay back down, gazing at the stars, Aaron's speech burned into my mind. I dissect every word, memorize each syllable, mouthing them silently - pure exquisiteness that now only lives in the minds of Aaron and I.
Cosmos. Unknown, yet the being that keeps us alive. Filled with wonder and fascination, as mysterious as it is familiar. Perhaps we are all the cosmos, not just one person – we are all different. We all have our secrets. We say others don't know us well, but maybe, they know us better than we do ourselves.
One can isolate themselves from others, and build their walls deep, or they can don an astronaut helmet, and launch themselves into the heavens. They can discover what happiness they cannot find in their isolated planet, and they can keep that joy close to them forever. It is up to you to break down walls or build new ones.
My journey has been long, but my spaceship still dwindles on the outskirts of the universe. There is an entire world out there, unexplored, unfound. It's waiting for you with open arms; waiting for you to trust, and waiting for you to change.
Safe travels.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I know the title says this is where the story ends but there is one more chapter left !! :) Thank you for this wild ride. After the last chapter I'll add in an authors note. Everyone who has read even one word has been incredible, and I thank you for every second you spent on my lil book. XXX
