Clay & Hannah -The night was ours

The heart shaped rock

After much pleading during the week from Justin I relented and gave in on what he wanted us to do for the next brotherly bonding time together, secretly I was glad that he wanted to do something that I love to do in my spare time, go star gazing in the back garden. The astronomy nerd in me was so happy that I got to share this part of my life with him

I brought some of my astronomy stuff down from my bedroom and laid them out on the garden floor, setting up a telescope and an image capture to print out any good star constellations we might see tonight in the clear sky. Justin moved the telescope slowly left to right taking in the natural beauty of the stars in the sky

'This is fucking amazing Clay, why haven't we done this before' he exclaimed excitedly

'Do you even know what you're looking at Justin in the sky'? I questioned

'That doesn't even matter to me .....It's so breathe taking isn't it looking up at the stars'

'It is Justin you can lose track of time looking up at the stars'

'Can we do this again some other time I've really enjoyed myself tonight, honestly I have'

'Yeah' I exclaimed excitedly. 'I can show you another spot where I've been before, breath taking views of the night sky there'

'Awesome' he sighed happily

Justin looked back down into the telescope to stare at the stars in the night sky closely, my gaze landed on the memory box that sat on a table, mum and dad had asked what was kept inside the box that I carry with me around the house most of the time

'Did you ever take Hannah star gazing?' Justin asked

I snapped out of my train of thoughts and turned towards Justin who was looking directly at the box as well. 'Yeah it was one of the best nights of my life'

I sniffled lightly at the thought of that night replayed in my mind before I turned back to the telescope, I pressed my eye down into the eyepiece of the telescope and searched the night sky for the Corona Borealis than for a specific star, I found the one I was looking for and felt a few tears sneak free and trickle down my cheeks as I looked at the star.....

I could feel Justin sitting down next to me on the blanket as I looked up from the eyepiece to him, he handed me a bottle of root beer and the memory box, I thanked him for bringing me the box as I wiped the tears away with the sleeves of my hoodie

'You ok Clay' he asked

'I am now' I informed him, lifting the box and holding it close to me

'Why were you crying?'

'I wasn't.....'

Justin shot me a dirty look knowing I would try to fob him off with any excuse I could come up quickly with, I felt terrible as I had promised him before I wasn't going to be closed book anymore and open up to him. I handed Justin the memory box as I didn't want to cover it in my tears while I took a swig of my cold drink

'I want you to look for something in there' I instructed

'Ok what is it I'm looking for?'

'Look for a rock. It's the only rock in there'

Justin found what I asked in a matter of seconds and held it close in his hands as he placed the memory box down in the middle of us, he observed the rock closely and how it was shaped so smoothly on one side of a curve before it hard brittle side of the other down the middle in a straight line

'What shape is this supposed to be anyway Clay?' he proclaimed

'It was once a heart shaped rock'