Under The Stars

Aria

I’m riding on my skateboard down the sidewalk to meet with my best friends, Kat and Fischer, before class starts. I see Kat making her way there, so I brush past her, grazing past her toes. Her long, pin-straight, blond hair sways as she whips her head toward me, “Aria, watch where you ride that thing!” She shouts at me but holds back her laughter as she tries to stay serious.

“Sorry, had to give you a little scare.” I laugh, stepping off my board and picking it up.

“Where did you even come from exactly?” Kat gives me a scornful look after realizing my intent. Her piercing blue eyes stare into my soul.

“I just got off my shift at the art studio above the cafe downtown.” I pull my board behind my back and stretch.

Kat sighs and shakes her head at me. “Why do you still ride that thing around? Don’t you want a car?”

I turn to her and shrug my shoulders. “I don’t have the money, Kat. I got into this school on a full-ride scholarship. My parents would never pay for something like this, let alone, I don’t have the funds.”

Kat has a slight frown and nods at me. “Yeah, I know, but there are things called loans.”

My family isn’t struggling, but they sure don’t have money to spend. My dad is a businessman who can’t make many sales, and my mom works at a grocery store. On top of that, they both drink a lot… I’ve tried to cut them off at one point, but that didn’t work. They always seem to find a way. I, on the other hand, work at a small art studio called Lilly’s Work that sits on top of a cute coffee shop called Blue Moon Cafe. The owner, Mr. Jeen, needed an extra hand managing the classes he was holding, and I was there asking if he was hiring. Mr. Jeen was skeptical at first, so I gave him my portfolio. We decided that mornings worked best with my school schedule since my classes are in the afternoon.

We finally see the huge willow tree in the center of campus. Kat, Fischer, and I meet up and chat about the latest news we overhear from our peers during the day. We are all juniors in college and attend Willow Creek University in Cincinnati, Ohio. It’s a major city and is beautiful at night. Fischer with his anime shirt on, his wavy shoulder length, frosty blue hair, and his iceberg blue eyes shimmering in the sunlight, waving us down, and picked a shady spot under the willow. The sun shines through the sweeping leaves as the breeze gusts past. We start heading his way until I get body slammed to the ground. Maybe I exaggerated that a bit, but it still hurt getting run into.

I looked up to see who ran into me, and it was him. The star, the legend, the hottest guy in school, Saige Lucas, the captain of the hockey team, and last but not least, my secret crush.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t see you there! Let me help you up.” Saige kindly offers his hand.

“It’s cool, I should have watched where I was going. Thank you.” I say with a shy, polite voice, taking his hand.

Saige pulls me up and looks at me closely then smiles, “I know you from somewhere, but I can’t wrap my finger around it.”

A blush creeps up my cheeks. “We used to be . . .” I start to tell him, but of course, the other players come over and interrupt.

“Hey, come on, Tyler and I are waiting for you. You said that we could skip today, Saige?” A tall, curly blonde hair guy with sun kissed beach skin, walks up putting his hand on Saige’s shoulder.

The other player with a black mullet who I assume is Tyler, coming up from behind the blonde. “Yeah, you never slip out of skipping school with Oliver and I.”

“Fine, I’ll come, but I have to be back before lunch. I have a math test and I can’t fail it.” As Saige pushes them off of him, forgetting that I was standing there, walking off past me.

I take a deep breath as they all walk off. I feel my face getting hot because I usually steer clear of that sort of encounter, but I can’t help myself. Saige just has these beautiful green eyes that shine like emeralds. His hair is a dark chestnut brown, with a flat cut, and he is six feet. He has all the girls chasing after him, which I believe the hockey team calls puck bunnies. The types of girls who follow their every move and show up to all of the games. Could never be me. I am way too busy with my studies to be doing all that.

I shake my head to clear my thoughts as I walk over to Kat and Fischer, who have made themselves very comfortable on the grass. They are just staring at me with wide grins. “What?” I ask with my eyebrows frowning.

Kat’s grin grows a bit wider as I sit beside her. “Oh, nothing much, Aria.” Kat pulls me into a hug. “Just that you and Saige were talking.”

I shake my head at her comment. “He was just apologizing for bumping into me. Don’t read too much into it, Kat.” I laugh it off.

Fischer butts in. “Kat has a good point there, Aria. You were totally blushing.”

I shove Fischer lightly with a smile on my face. I look down at my phone. “Not true, anyway, I have art history and I cannot miss this class.” I stand up and wave, “See you at lunch!” Kat and Fischer wave back. Then I throw my board down on the ground and skate my way to my class.

****

This class will forever be the death of me. Mr. Barns is an older teacher who appears to have been alive when Leonardo da Vinci was born. We take notes on different artists and the materials they used for their artwork during the time periods in which they were born. I look at the clock hanging above the projector screen, and it just hit 12:30 PM. Only thirty more minutes, then I can go.

The sound of coughing pulls my attention back to the lesson. “Miss. Clements, do you have any questions about the slides?” Mr. Barns gives me a stern look, making sure I’m paying attention.

“No, sir. I don’t.” I swallow hard as he nods, pulling his gaze back to the projector.

****

Finally, class is out and I can meet up with Kat and Fischer. I was starting to get hungry while staring at my notebook. I find Kat and Fischer at a table, which is such a time-saver. I grab some ready-to-go sandwiches from a little kiosk and then make my way to sit down next to Fischer. “So how did your little accident with Saige go?”

I roll my eyes and ignore him with a little tiny grin. “I know you heard me, don’t think I won’t break that grin into a laugh.” He says, getting closer to me. I knew what he was going to do, so I gave him a death stare.

“You leave me no choice, Aria. I’m going to have to tickle you.” He starts getting closer, and the next thing you know, I’m laughing so hard I fall out of my seat. “Okay, okay, I surrender, just stop tickling me, please!” He pulls his hands away and helps me up off the ground. After I find my footing, Fischer pushes me right into Saige.

As I fall into Saige’s arms, I give Fischer a dirty look, but I can’t be mad at him so I mouth, thank you at the same time. Saige looks at me, “Didn’t I run into you this morning?”

I start to blush a little, but stay strong. “I don’t know, did you run into me this morning?”

He smiles, but then hides it when he hears his team coming. He lets me out of his arms and whispers, “Call me later.” He grabs a piece of napkin from the table, writes his number on it, and hands it to me without anyone seeing it. What he didn’t know is that Fischer and Kat were sitting right there the whole time. Tyler, Oliver and some other players sit with Saige like always, so Saige gives me a wink and walks away with the two guys.

“I never would have thought I’d get Saige’s number.” I start to flip out with Fischer and Kat.

“Look who’s facing your direction,” Kat says with an evil grin. I made a casual turn to see if he was looking, and he was. I turn around as fast as possible. We all just burst out laughing together.

****

Kat and I start heading to our apartment on the second floor. We decided that being roommates would be fun, and it definitely has. We are both in the art department, going for our art degrees. I grab my keys and jam them into the door lock, swinging the door open.

“You know… there is a hockey game this Friday that we can go to.” Kat gives me a big smile. Kat is a photographer for the school paper. She goes to all the hockey games and takes their pictures. Watching the hockey games isn’t really my thing, but if Kat asks me to go, then I have to support her.

“You would know that.” I chuckle.

“Come on! It’ll be so fun. Saige plays, and I don’t have to be alone.” Kat gives me puppy eyes.

I slump my shoulders and sigh, “Okay, fine, I’ll go.”

She wraps me in her arms and starts jumping. “Yay! This is going to be so fun!”

****

After finally eating some leftover take-out from the fridge, we call it a night and head to our separate rooms. I open my door and walk into my dark room. The walls are black with one red accent wall. I have a full-size bed in the middle of the red wall, a window sits above my bed frame, and my art supplies are scattered across the room. Everything else is neat, my clothes are put away in drawers or in the closet. I lay in my nicely made bed and pull out the napkin. I almost forgot that Saige gave me his number.

I looked at the napkin for a while, but I was doubting that this was a fake number, so I would leave him alone or one of the other hockey players’ numbers. Who knows? I contemplated for a while, and I decided to call the number. It wasn’t too late to call it right? It was only 12:34 AM. I picked up my phone and typed in the number. It started to ring, then I heard a voice, but I was scared to say anything.

“Hello?” I said very quietly.

“Hey! Who’s this?” The voice is strong and sounds familiar.

“This is Aria. Who is this?” Skeptical that this wasn’t him

“Oh yeah, the girl who kept falling into me yesterday,” Saige said with a little laugh.

“Thank God this is you,” I say in relief.

“What did you think I would give you a fake number or something?”

“Well, kinda yeah.” I can’t believe this is him! I’ll let him do the talking so I don’t embarrass myself like I already have.

We talk until three in the morning and realize we still have classes. “Well, since it’s late, we should probably call it a night.” I chuckle softly. My voice sounds tired, and I can barely keep my eyes open.

“You’re right. I’ll talk to you tomorrow?” His voice was raspy but also soft. It’s like he wants to keep talking.

“Of course. We’ll talk tomorrow. Goodnight, Saige.”

I hear a sigh of relief on the other side. “Awesome. Goodnight, Aria.” I hear a click, and the call is over. My face hurts from smiling so much. I lay on my back in disbelief that we talked for so long. I roll onto my side and clutch the phone to my chest.