Under the Stars

We laid on the grass staring up at the sky. We watched as the stars flickered way up above our small world. Just little specks of light glimmering in shades of white and silver, each acting as the center of their universe. 

I looked over at him. His dark hair falling slightly in his eyes as he put his hands behind his head and smiled. His blue eyes sparkled under the moonlight and I watched as his chest moved up and down slowly as he breathed. 

He’d been gone for quite some time, off at college far away. We were together in high school, but when the end of senior year came, we decided it would just be too hard to stay like that. It was now summer after sophomore year. I hadn’t seen him since our high school graduation when we shared our last kiss and went our separate ways.

In the couple of years after that, I had been on a few dates, but never really felt strongly enough about any of the guys to pursue a relationship with them. I think I spent too much time comparing each guy to Simon and no one could even come close. 

In high school, Simon and I met in our freshman year math class. The teacher sat us at the same table and good thing he did, because I didn’t understand much that he was teaching. Simon was by far the smartest student in class, but I had a hard time focusing on the subject when he was sitting across from me and I could spend the whole period staring at him. 

One day after class, Simon caught up with me in the hallway. He said he knew that I always looked at him in class and wanted to know why. So I told him. He explained that he thought I was cute too and he asked me out on a date. 

That weekend we went to dinner and a movie, the most cliche date, but it was perfect nonetheless. At the movie he made the classic move of yawning then putting his arm around me, pulling me closer to him as he did. And at dinner he pulled my chair out and pushed me in then paid for our meal. Everything was amazing. 

At the end of the night, he walked me home and shared our first kiss. He promised to text me when he got home and he did. When I walked in my front door, I was grinning from ear to ear and my parents were happy to see me like that. 

I wasn’t known for being the happiest person. I usually wore a flat expression and didn’t laugh a whole lot, but that night changed everything. Simon brought out this part of me that had been hidden away for so long. 

I spent the whole night texting with him and we saw each other the next day too, starting off at a coffee shop since we missed our chance to sleep. He bought my coffee and a muffin to go with it. We sat down and talked about everything for a long time. We went for a walk in the park after that, him giving me his sweater when the wind began to blow. For a fourteen year old boy, he was a perfect gentleman. 

We couldn’t get together the next day because I had art classes and he had baseball practice. It felt like the longest day ever. I didn’t hear from him until that night when he texted to say he was excited to see me that Monday at school and goodnight. 

Everyone could tell at school that something had changed between us when we sat down in class, smiling at each other. No one was used to seeing me smile. I could tell that the other girls in the room couldn’t keep their eyes off of Simon from that point on. Everyone likes to go for the ones that are unavailable. 

As time went on, we fell deeper and deeper in love. We shared our first time together in winter of senior year. He never pushed the subject, which I knew was a big problem in relationships. I had friends who felt forced to give their boyfriends all of themselves long before they felt ready. They usually started fighting a lot after that and broke up. Simon and I had open and honest conversations about the topic and we made a joint decision to lose our virginities together when we were ready. 

Rather than things being awkward and uncomfortable after that, things seemed better. The increasing sexual tension had subsided some so that we could allow it to build up over and over again in order for us to share the experience many more times after that. Even after our first time, Simon never tried to pressure me into doing anything I didn’t want to do.

 I knew that he was the one, which was scary because we were still young. But even now, with us lying here in the grass together, I still feel the same. 

I scooched a bit closer to him and he turned to look at me. He seemed to be completely at peace with me and the big open skies. He moved his arms from behind his head and pulled me close just as he did so many times in years past. I rested my head on his chest and listened to the beating of his heart.

“Leah?” He said after a long time lying like that.

“Yeah?” I responded, awaiting a response.

“I love you.” He replied with exactly the words I had been hoping for.

I sat up and smiled at him, him smiling back at me.

“I love you too, Simon.”

Then I leaned down to kiss him, like we hadn’t missed any time together at all. After a few moments like that, I rested my head back on his chest and we both looked back at the stars, little dots in the sky. It was amazing that they looked tiny to us, but were huge in their own world, just as we were small compared to them, but our love was big enough to fill the whole galaxy.