∼❧Stars Will Fall
POV: Layla
"Did you-did you wait for me here?"
"Yes! I hoped you'd come back here so I could talk to you!" He didn't seem to see how creepy that sounded.
"Okay...ehm no! You do that again, and I'll call the cops on you!"
"What?! Why?"
The nerve of that guy! " Why? Because it's scary! You can't just do that or follow people-"
"I NEVER said I followed you. I said I waited, very patiently, might I add. I think I said something bad last night and I wanted to apologize." He was sincere, but this was still awkward.
"Ehm, thank you? Look, I'm waiting for my mom. We have to go back home-"
"Ugh! I would love to meet your mom. Nicole Madi. And your father, Richard Hernandez. I would be delighted." Again. Creepy. But also not my dad's name.
"Oh my god! You're a goddam stalker! Stay away from me and my mom, alright!"
I was walking towards the car, but I heard his footsteps behind me. "No! You don't understand. I'm not a stalker! I promise I'm not. It's really hard to explain, but I think I need your help."
"Oh I think you need help but not my help," I pointed at the hospital behind him. "So go get your help!" I looked him up and down and noticed he did wear the same clothes as he did last night. "You really waited here all night? You didn't go home?"
"No, I don't really have anywhere to go. Which is why I need your help!"
"Okay, listen, I'm sorry that you have nowhere to go... you should look for a shelter, but I can't help you! You should leave now before my mom comes back..."
He's fixing his hair, frustrated. "You don't understand I was up there," he pointed to the sky with both hands. "And then I saw you here and somehow... I ended up down here?" He said the last part a lot slower than before, probably realizing he sounded crazy.
"Alright. Sure. Whatever buddy...as I said-"
"Layla, who's your friend?" I flinched when I heard my mothers voice.
My mom appeared behind Blaine, looking between the two of us. Her eyes looked tired. Crossing her arms, she settles her attention on me.
"Blaine. From school. He was just about to-"
"If you want, you can hang out with your friend... It's alright. I need to handle some stuff at home anyway. Here," She pulled out her wallet and handed me some money. "For a taxi or an Uber or whatever..." She did look like she needed some time and space. And more importantly, sleep.
"Yeah ah...thanks mom. I'll see you later." She got in her car and drove away as quickly as she drove here.
"So your mom is nice," said Blaine in a careful tone. "But we were talking about me and my problem, so..."
"Okay, why should I care?" I started to walk back to college.
"Because I'm pretty sure it's your fault that I'm here! So please just listen to me, I need your help," He walked beside me, trying to put on a friendly smile. "Why aren't you going to get a taxi?"
"No. I'll walk. I could use the fresh air," he nodded and kept walking.
"What do you think you're doing?" I stopped abruptly and turned to look at him. "I don't know what you want from me!" Blaine seems to think for a moment.
"I don't think you'll believe me if I tell you the truth... but maybe you can try to have an open mind. Then we could really talk." He explained happily.
"Hm...," what could go wrong. Worst case scenario, he's a murderer and he'll kill me. But I'm going to die anyway...so why not? "When was the last time you ate something?"
"Eating? Oh, right! People love food!"
"Yeah... they do so want to grab something to eat?" I was starting to think I needed to talk to this guy like you talk to a child.
"Now that you mention it, I feel like I'm starving!" He sounded excited to be hungry? Such an odd boy...
"Follow me then..."
We walked until we got to a little café. The place was still decorated for Valentine's Day. Everything was pink and red. Hearts everywhere. They should have made the decoration in pastel colors, everything looks way too bright, if you looked at it long enough it would hurt your eyes.
"Here," I handed him the money my mom gave me for the Uber. "Just get whatever you want. I'll sit back there." I pointed at a table in the corner of the café. It was secluded enough.
"What about you?"
"I'm not hungry..." I took a seat at the table and waited for him. Looking around, I realized that there were a lot of couples in this café. Maybe this is like a popular date spot? It did have a romantic feeling about it. Like this is where you'd take your girlfriend to propose or ask her to adopt a cat together.
Blaine came to our table with a bunch of pastries. He put one single chocolate muffin in front of me while he put...all his other food in front of him. "I know you said you didn't want anything, but look how tasty that looks!" He's acting as if he's never eaten before.
"Thanks...," don't know why I thanked him, my moms the one who paid for it. "What did you mean by that?"
"By what exactly? I think I said a lot of stuff..." he was talking with his moth full as he stuffed it with a large chocolate chip cookie.
"You said it was my fault. That you're here. And that you had nowhere to go..." I said carefully.
"I...ah. I just made that connection. Because I was up there," he pointed up again. "Doing my job. Shooting some arrows-"
"Shooting arrows?!" I squeaked. "What the fuck..."
"Not to kill people!" He answered after seeing hos confused and upset I looked.
"Then for what?!"
"To make people fall in love!"
Okay, he's insane. Delusional. Or he has a psychotic break. Dammit, and we were just at the hospital. We could have just stayed there. Maybe I can just take him back there. "Sure...honey. We should go back to the hospital, perhaps THEY can help you there! Do you...do you have your arrows with you?"
"No! That's not how it works. I mean, right now I don't have them physically with me, but I can conjure them! I learned to do that!"
"Aha sure...," so I hope he doesn't have any weapons on him. "We should go now." I got up from the table, hoping he would follow me.
"What about your muffin?" He did follow me, and he also took the muffin with him.
"I don't like chocolate muffins...just eat it."
"Who can you not like chocolate muffins? They taste divine...," He ate it while he walked behind me. "Why are we going to the hospital again?"
I thought about what to say for a moment. "Because you said you needed help? Or do you not?"
"No! I do...but I was thinking you could help me," we stopped walking, and he looked at me with his big brown eyes. "I'm not sick, so I don't need a hospital. They can't help!"
"I'm sure they can find a way to...help you. To get home or contact your family." I started to walk again but was abruptly stopped when he grabbed my wrist and stopped me. It didn't hurt, though.
"We don't have a family. Not really..." I eyed him carefully.
"Who is 'we'?"
"Me and the other cupids. There are A LOT of us!"
Now, the thing with the arrows to fall in love makes sense. He thinks he's cupid. Or 'a cupid'. So delusional. Oh, and the Valentine's Day obsession. I guess he's at least harmless, then. I put my hand on his arm and smiled at him gently. I should just try to not upset him or make him angry.
"Sure. If you say so. But we should-"
"You don't believe me!" He didn't sound particularly angry, more frustrated.
"I didn't say that! Blaine, please...let's just go to the hospital. They will help you any way they can. It'll all be fine-"
"No, I can prove it to you!" He stepped back a little and extended his hands. He held them over each other and seemed to concentrate very hard. Suddenly, a ball of golden light appeared between his palms. He held it in front of him and pulled his right arm up to his body. The ball of golden light turned into a sharp golden arrow. "See! Arrow!"
I was frozen...then I remembered that we're still in the middle of a sidewalk, not far away from the café. I grabbed him by the color of his shirt and dragged him into an alley. He stumbled after me into the alley. The moment I grabbed and began to drag him, the arrow disappeared again. Good, we don't need some TikTok of him to end up on Fox News.
"What... was that?!"
"I thought we already discussed this? Cupid," he pointed to himself. "With arrows. But no diaper. Or wings. But a handsome face." He smirked stupidly.
"But how...? Do that again!" I pointed to his hands.
"Do I have to?" He whined a little. "I just did it...," I gave him a pointed look so tell him that I'm not joking. "Alright."
And he did do it again. I was mesmerized. The light, it looked so beautiful and golden. When the arrow appeared, I grabbed his hands to inspect them. Just to make sure it wasn't some weird trick. Technology is scary these days. He looked a little flustered as I looked at his hands and his arms.
"Are you...," he swallowed slowly. "Looking for something?"
"Yeah-no! I mean, there is nothing!" I don't understand what's happening. Maybe I'm delusional. The brain cancer is messing with me somehow and causing hallucinations. I leaned against a wall and took a deep breath. It felt like my lungs couldn't be really felt with air. I pinched myself and looked up at him to see if he was still here. He waved at me with a ridiculous smile. "This is ridiculous..."
"But you believe me now? Right?! So you can help me?"
"I guess... I believe you. But I can't help you! With whatever you need help with, I can't help you!" I want to believe him, because if I don't that means that something is wrong with me. Dying of brain cancer I can handle, but I couldn't handle losing my mind in the process.
"Just listen to me first, okay? Please, I don't know what else to do..."
"Fine. But not here," I gestured around the dirty alley we're still standing in. "Let's go to my dorm room. We'll need some privacy."
I hope by the time we got there, Mackenzie was with her girlfriend, Aubrey, where she was most of the time. I'm surprised she hasn't moved in with her yet. Not that I wanted to get rid of her or something. She's a perfect roommate. Between the two of us, I am probably the more annoying one. If I'm not in class or at work, I'm at the dorm. But she hasn't complained yet.
When we walked into the room, it was indeed empty. There was a little post-it on Mackenzie's mirror conforming that she went to Aubrey's. She loves to use post-it's and uses them whenever she can.
"You can just sit down there," I pointed to my bed. "So we can talk."
He looked around the room before sitting down on the bed. While he was still studying my side of the room, I sat down on my desk. "Your room looks...stale."
I raised my eyebrows and looked at him with a questioning look. "What do you mean?"
"It's very-I mean, it's just a little empty, I guess? Your roommate decorated her side of the room...why didn't you?" He glanced at Mackenzie's side of the room, and his eyes were stuck on a picture of her and Aubrey.
My side of the room was empty, but I liked it like that. It looks clean. I didn't have any pictures on my wall or on my desk. You could clearly tell whose side of the room is who's. Mackenzie's side was very colorful and decorated but also messy. Her clothes were laying on her bed and on the floor, but at least she kept her desk tidy.
"Why are we talking about my dorm room? We should be talking about you. Not me."
Clearing his throat, he looked back at me. "Just trying to make conversation," he was fiddling with his hands nervously. "So, what do you wanna know?"
"Wha- Everything! Obviously!"
"I don't know how much I'm allowed to tell you. This never happened before. Or at least not that I know of..."
"You mean one of you being here?"
"Yeah! I didn't even know that was possible! Or how it happened."
I thought about that for a moment. "How about you tell me just about that day for now? Can't be too much sensitive information, right?"
"Good-yeah good idea!" Taking a deep breath, he started at the ground.
"I'm listening!" I was beginning to get impatient.
"Alright! You're gonna think I'm weird," he mumbled to himself. "So it was my first day on the job. I just joined division 3 after graduating from the academy-"
"Okay wait!" He looked a little annoyed that I interrupted him. " So you guys have a school? And divisions? What does that mean?"
"That's the stuff that I would say is sensitive information...," he furrowed his eyebrows. "But yes. Anyway. So, my first day. I was posted just outside the hospital and that's when-" he stopped talking and looked at me again. He seemed hesitant to tell me.
"When what?"
"That was when I saw you! And all of a sudden there was this pull. This feeling. Everything was fuzzy for a moment, and then I was here. Walking around in the streets and just looking at stuff. It was so overwhelming!" His eyes were scanning my face for a reaction, but my face was expressionless.
Okay, so he really doesn't know how he got here. "So you thought it was my fault because you saw me right before it happened?"
"Yeah-I'm pretty sure I said that already. Saying that out loud, that does sound a bit stupid."
"Can I ask you some questions?"
Blaine looked conflicted. "I don't know..."
"Technically, hear me out, technically nobody told you to NOT share any information. So you wouldn't break any rules or laws or whatever." I tried to convince him.
"I guess you're right...," He said happily. "Ask away!"
"You went to a cupid school? What's that?"
"After we're created, we get sent to the academy where we learn and then put into a division." I wanted to ask what the divisions are, but he cut me off, knowing that all of that confused me. "There are 3 division. The 1st Division are the teachers in the academy. The 2nd Division is the analysis and research teams. They just watch people all day and study them and find couples, boring, if you ask me. Then there is the 3rd Division. The tip of the arrow," he winked at me playfully. "If you will. We're the tactical team. We're the ones making people fall in love, but we get our orders from the 2nd Division."
"And who set that system up?"
"Eros did. Apparently, after the earths' population grew he figured out that there were too many people for him to take care of, so he created us. More cupids. We're not as strong as him. We don't live forever like he does, but still we live a couple of hundreds of years. But eventually we die."
That makes sense, I guess. "And how do you decide on which Division you're going to be in?"
"So...you're at the academy and learn a bunch of stuff. Our history, human history and about psychology and emotions. All that crap," he waved his hand dismissively. "And after some time, and taking some tests, you'll be assigned your division. Some get theirs sooner, some...later. Which isn't bad! It's totally normal! Some of us are just late bloomers. Nothing to be ashamed about! That's what my teacher always used to say..."
"And you got yours assigned later, I assume?"
"Hmpf-yes..."
"How much later?"
"Mhm...it took the teachers a couple of years to find the right place for me. I was a bit difficult." His body language told me he was embarrassed.
Maybe they just banished him here or something? Because he's kind of a loser? I think I read somewhere before that gods banished other gods, so the idea wouldn't be too far off. But would they banish him without telling him. Just dropping him off here without any idea what to do or what he did to deserve this seems cruel.
"What are you thinking about?" He asked nervously.
"Nothing. It's just a lot to take in," rubbing my forehead, I sighed loudly. "And now I'm getting a headache..." I opened my drawer and took out some painkillers.
"You take a lot of these?"
"Lately, yeah." I took the painkillers and wondered what the hell I should do with this guy. He can't stay here, but he has nowhere else to go.
"Is that why you were at the hospital. Are you sick?" His concern didn't surprise me. He seems like an empathetic person. And he has seen me at the hospital twice now.
"Yes." Please stop asking questions.
"Well, I hope you get better soon." Why does he have to sound so damn nice and sweet?
"Thanks but-yeah, never mind, thanks. I just don't know what you want from me now?"
"To be honest, I don't really know myself. You were my only hope..." he said playfully.
"Please don't say that. Too much pressure, for fuck's sake!"
"OKAY! Language! Okay, no need to use nasty words. People use those a lot, you know?"
"Yeah...alright, sorry. I'll try not to curse if it makes you feel better. We need to make a plan. I don't know what to do with you or where to put you, to be honest... You can't stay here! That's for sure."
"Why not?"
"Because I don't live alone here! And you weren't even sure that you're allowed to tell me all this stuff, do you want to bring another person into this?"
"...no." He said mishit.
"Right, so I have to figure something out."
I could ask my mother if he can move in with us. He seems harmless enough, and my mom is at work most of the time anyway. But then I would need to come up with a lie as to why he needs to move in with her. Unless...ugh. Unless we both move in with her and I just tell her he's a friend or...boyfriend, and he wants to keep me company in those difficult times. My plan was to live as long in the dorms as possible, but I guess it wouldn't be awful to move back in with my mom already. And I can't just throw him out on the streets. For now, there is no indication that it was his fault he was sent here.
"Layla?"
"Hm? What?"
"You kind of zoned out there for a second...hey, ehm-I'm really sorry that I'm putting all of this on you. This is really not fair..."
"I guess a lot of things aren't fair..." I said thoughtfully.
"What do you mean?" He asked carefully.
"Since we're sharing secrets-You know how I said I was sick?" He nodded his head. "I'm the kind of sick that's not going to get better."
"Oh ehm. I don't really know what that means-"
"Basically... I'm dying. I have cancer. And I won't get better... Personally, I think it's unfair! Not that other people would deserve it more than me, but-ugh! I did everything in my life right and still somehow ended up here! How is that possible..." I don't know where that came from, I'm usually very put together.
His eyes were wide, and he looked at me dumb founded. "I'm...so sorry. I don't-I don't know what to say... I was never confronted with death before. So I don't know how to-how to comfort you? Wow, I feel really terrible now. Here I am trying to guilt you into helping me while you're dealing with," he got up from the bed and started to pace up and down the room. "Dying! That's just..." I really dumped this on him. But to be fair, I didn't have much of a choice. I got up and put my hands on his shoulders to stop him from pacing.
"It's okay. None of this is your fault, not...you being here or me being sick. You shouldn't think about it too much. Your only concern should be on how to get home."
"Sorry, I just," he put his hands on my wrists. "Don't know what to do..." I wasn't able to read his face, which was rare. Then suddenly he hugged me.
"Who is this?"