Rewrite The Stars

Chapter 9

At 7:40, I checked my watch after what felt like ten minutes, just to see a minute had barely passed. My nerves were killing me and eating my brain ever since I got ready about an hour ago. Time can truly be a torturous creature if you're waiting for something.

      Lauren was out with her ballet class's friends, seeing as it was Saturday night. And so, I was left alone in the dorm with my racked nerves. At last, as my watch stroke 8:04, my phone finally rang and for a second I forgot how to breathe when I picked it up and answered it.

     “Hi, Zoe.” said Zach.

     “Hey,” was all I managed to say, feeling completely dumb.

     “I'm waiting for you at the campus's entrance.” He said.

     “Okay. I'm on way.” I hung up the phone and so I literally ran all the way until I reached the campus's sign, where Zach had his car parked.

     “I didn't know you had a car.” I said after getting in and closing the door behind me.

     “It's my Uncle Frank's.” Zach answered, starting the car. “He lives in the city. I'm actually staying at his house right now.”

     I nodded before asking, “So where are we going tonight?”

     He only grinned to my response.

     “Still not gonna say?”

     “Nope.” And by that, he drove away. Fifteen minutes in, Zach stopped the car somewhere to get us ice-cream and then we carried on through the night.

     “You know, I've never seen my grandads,” I started. “But I'm pretty sure they would've driven faster than you.”

     He laughed, “Don't blame me. I don't have my license with me. So I'm just trying to stay away from trouble.”

     “Bullshit! Pull away, old man! Let me drive!” I suggested with excitement.  

     “No way! My uncle doesn't even let me drive it.”

     “Then how–”

     “–He doesn't know I took the car.” He answered before I could even ask. “He never uses this. Besides, he's on a date with his girlfriend. I'm sure he wouldn't even notice his car's gone.”

     “Girlfriend?” I raised an eyebrow. “How old is your uncle?”

     “Same as my dad. They're identical twins.” He explained. “But they're nothing alike. My dad's this serious phycologist and Frank is... well he's the stereotypical immature crazy uncle.” I laughed.

     “But seriously. Let me drive. You can give me directions.” I insisted.

     He hesitated and considered this for a minute and finally gave in. “Fine.” He groaned and pulled the car away as soon as he found a place to park.

     “Trust me. I'm gonna take care of this baby real good.” I joked as I sat behind the wheel and started driving like the psychopath I was whenever I drove.

     “How long does it take to get there, anyways?” I asked, noticing that we were almost headed out of the city.

     “Not so long now.”

     “Well, seeing as few cars are here and no police cars are around,” I started with a devilish smirk, “I don't see why we can't add a little bit of speed to this thing.”

     “Oh, God.” Zach muttered and held on tight as I started to drive faster. “You know; they should add an extra seatbelt for times when a psycho killer's driving.”

     “Oh, don't be such a wuss.” I laughed, but not five minutes had passed that a police car started to follow us and asked us to pull over. “Crap.”

     “I'm so glad I trusted you.” Said Zach sarcastically.

     “Shut up. I can handle this.” I said and pulled away slowly, parking at the side-road. “It's time to use the only thing I learned at high school.”

     “How are you going to–?”

     “–Shush.” I silenced him when the police neared our car. But as soon as I pulled down the window, I started crying.

     “I'm sorry, officer.” I sobbed as fake tears started running down my cheeks.

     “Name?” He asked, tension being felt all around him.

     “Z-zo– I –” I sobbed harder.

     “Can I see your license?” He continued.

     “It's– It's somewhere in my bag.” By that, I grabbed my backpack from the back seat and started to search for my non-existence license. But after at least three minutes, instead I grabbed a tissue and sniffed into it.

     “Ma'am, please stop crying.” Said the cop, obviously disturbed by my loud sobs.

     “I'm sorry– I– I can't.”

     “Okay. I'm going to let this slip away this time. But you have to promise you would go slower from now on.”

     I nodded, not saying anything else. The cop went away and I pulled up the window, my sobs going away immediately, and I laughed.

     “And that's how we do it, New Jersey-style.” I smirked.

     “People don't do that in New Jersey.” Zach argued, his jaw still hanging open from shock.

     “I know, I just made that up.”

     “Please remind me again, are you planning on taking ballet classes or drama?”

    “You’re welcome.” I smiled innocently, ignoring what he just said.

     “I didn't say thank you.”

     “It's okay. Apology accepted.” I said arrogantly and he laughed.

     “And people call me crazy and dramatic. You're pure evil, Coleman. Pure evil.” He shook his head in disbelief and so we switched seats again, agreeing that Zach was better off driving.

     “Zach?” I started after a few minutes of silence in the car.

     “Yeah?”

     “I've told you all about myself.” I said. “But you've never said anything about your past life. Before you travelled to New York.”

     “Eh... Like what? What do you wanna know?”

     “Anything to help me know you better. Your childhood. Your school. Your family.” But to my surprise, he shifted uncomfortably on his seat and ignored me completely, as if I hadn't said anything. “Are you okay?” I asked, looking at him, worried.

     “I don't want to talk about it.” He said coldly and I nodded, letting the matter go quickly.

     We put some music on and remained silent for the rest of the ride, which only took ten more minutes until Zach parked the car in the middle of a nowhere.

     “I still have no idea why we're here.” I said, getting out of the car along with Zach.

     “You'll see.” He smiled and I followed him until we reached the edge of the hill.

     For a moment, I froze on my spot. I stopped blinking. I stopped breathing. For a moment, a feeling overwhelmed me that made me want to fly. Standing at the edge of the hill, I completely forgot about my fear of heights as I stared forward at New York City in awe. There was water before us and the city beyond it was lightened up like stars.

     “Breathtaking, isn't it?” asked Zach, placing down a blanket on the ground so we could sit.

     I nodded in agreement and sat down after him, not taking my gaze off the image I was trying to carve in my memories.

     “It's like they've splashed glitter all over the city.” He continued, “But I didn't bring you here to watch the city.”

     That finally got me to look back at him. “Then what was the reason?”

     He didn't answer me, instead he gently put his hand under my chin and pulled it up.

     “Look at the sky.” He mentioned the stars.

     I was going to make a joke about how cheesy this was or to say 'we drove all this way just to watch the stars?', but something stopped me. I don't know which it was; the eternal beauty of the infinite stars, giving life to the darkness... or was it Zach Walter.

     I threw a small glance at Zach. He was now laying down on his back, his eyes scanning the night sky. And I finally understood what he meant the first time we had met... as he was lost in the world above him, I swear that I could see the stars in his eyes.

     “When I was a kid,” he started, “I used to think that when we die, we become a star.”

     “That's really sad.” I said and by that, I laid down next to him, following his gaze through the dark, burning down the night.

     It was as if he had read my mind before, because he said, “That day on the train station, you asked me what I meant when I said–”

     “–That I had stars in my eyes.” I completed his sentence.

     “Yeah.”

     “And?”

     He waited long moments before saying, “I always say that our dreams are like stars; beautiful to see, but far to touch. But the thing is, everyone sees these stars. What matters is who actually has the strength to reach out for them. And, Zoe... you are one of those few people. I could see it in your eyes the first time I saw you. I saw the stars, the universe, the night... and the life. You had everything in your eyes. If only you could see with them.”

     “See what?”

     “The world.” He answered. “Everyone has eyes, but only a few can see the world beautiful; as it was meant to be.”

     “You know, Zach,” I looked back up at the sky again. “Sometimes you make me think that your world is separate from all of us. Like you live in a different world.”

     “Maybe I do.” He said thoughtfully, his gaze following mine toward the stars. “But it must be a pretty messed up world. With a little bit of crazy.”

     “You'd said that before.” I chuckled. “Well, I must say, a little bit of crazy never hurt no one.” I sat up and hugged my knees to my chest. “I'd really like to live in your world.”

     “Why?” He sat up as well, crossing his legs.

     “Because I know for a fact that it's beautiful.”

     Silence filled the space between us. His eyes had imprisoned my glance in its green iris. The stars were dancing on the surface of the water down the hills, and the whole universe was encouraging me to lean forward.

     And so I did.

     My eyes fell upon his lips and my breath hatched in my lungs as I moved my face closer to his.

     “Are you going to kiss me?” He whispered. Instead of answering, I placed my hand against his cold cheek, which was now blushing. “I don't think it's a good idea.” He muttered again.

     But the moment I stopped moving and froze, it was him that grabbed my face gently in his freezing hands, leaned forward, and kissed my lips.