Catch a Falling Star (15 page)

don’t really see the difference.”

Alien Drake thought about it for a minute; I could see him

choosing his words carefully. “Belief is a rigid thing. Yes or no.

Possibility allows for all options to exist at the same time. I’m just

not a black-and-white sort of person.” He zipped up the bag. “I’ve

got to go get some things squared away with the scope. You guys

want to meet me there? About nine to eat?” He looked at Adam.

“You can come if you want, but I’m sure you have better things to

do than stare at the sky with us.” Without waiting for an answer,

he pushed through the door, Chloe’s concerned gaze following his

retreat. She glanced at me, eyes wide.

Adam’s phone rang and he stepped away to answer it.

“Are you guys in a fight?” I asked Chloe quietly, moving

closer to the counter, away from Adam. “Why’s he so grumpy and

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annoyed?” Two things Alien Drake almost never was, and cer-

tainly not at the same time.

Chloe shook her head, watching Alien Drake cross the street

outside and head toward his house. “I honestly have no idea what

that was about.” She gave me a puzzled look. “I’m going to go talk

to him. See you later, okay?” Before I could say anything, she left

the café. I watched her dart across the street, hurrying to catch up

with Alien Drake.

Adam came up alongside me, giving me a playful nudge with

his shoulder. “So, am I invited or not? Come on, I usually don’t

have to wait this long for an invite to a party,” he teased.

I tried to ignore the instant stomach flutters that seemed

to emerge every time Adam did that with his voice. “Drake

invited you.”

“I want
you
to invite me.” This time he gave me only half a

nudge, letting the side of his body lean into mine. Okay, utterly

impossible to ignore the flutters now. People called them butter-

flies for a reason.

I chewed my lip. “Honestly, I didn’t really think you’d want to

come. And it’s not a party at all. We just sit on a roof and eat chips.

You’ll be bored.”

“I like stars. The
real
kind. And I like chips.” He tucked his

phone away, his marine eyes pulling me in like a whispered secret.

“It’s not in the script.”

“I told you there’d be rewrites.” He grabbed my hand and

squeezed, sending the flutters away from the safe roost of my belly

and migrating south, north —
everywhere
.

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Talk about not being in the script.

“Then you should come,” I managed.

“Then I think I will.”

The creek behind Alien Drake’s house rushed, still full from all

our late May rains. We stretched out on the sloping roof, warm

from the day of roasting in the sun. I loved night in the summer,

the sky gone black and star-spotted, the air tinged with pine and a

sudden coolness. Around the neighborhood, barbecues smoldered

and people had lit their fire pits, but a hush had muted the world,

giving into crickets and whispers.

“Tell me again why people wish on stars.” Chloe tossed the ball

of white paper she’d made of her sandwich wrapping from one

hand to the next, her legs crossed at the ankles. Its whiteness stood

out in the dark as if lit.

Alien Drake fiddled with his telescope, his body a shadow even

several steps away. “We can thank the Romans for that, though I’m

sure, like with everything else, there are different answers to that

question.”

“Let’s not forget Jiminy Cricket.” I collected the chip wrappers

and folded them into the bag I’d brought. Chloe tossed me her

white paper ball.

Alien Drake nodded. “Yes, thank you, Mr. Cricket, for decades

of star-wishing.”

Adam leaned back on his forearms. “What did the Romans

have to do with it?” It was so weird to have him sitting up here with

us, so normal in a pair of shorts and a UCLA hoodie.

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Peering into his scope, Alien Drake didn’t answer, so I jumped

in, my heart strangely racing. “You can’t see it very well now, but

Venus often appears as the first bright star of the night. I mean, it’s

a planet, not a star, but they didn’t know that. The Romans would

look to Venus and wish for love.”

“Love?” Adam sat up, his head angled to the sky. “Not for-

tune? Fame?”

Alien Drake sat down next to Chloe, putting an arm around

her waist. “I like to think that love came before all those things.”

Chloe made gagging noises. “Ugh, you’re such a girl some-

times,” but she wriggled close to him, smiling.

Adam watched them. “Love as the first wish.” He tugged at the

hem of my shorts I’d changed into until I looked at him. “It’s like

what I was saying about my movie. It’s a love story.”

“Everything is,” Chloe said, curling tighter into Alien Drake.

Clearly, they’d made up after whatever that was at the café earlier.

I studied them in silhouette, the way their profiles feathered with

night. Yin and yang. I opened a bottle of water and took a long

swallow, avoiding eye contact with everyone. Too much talk about

love. It made me feel squirmy.

“What’s it like to be so famous?” Chloe peered through the

night at Adam.

“Chloe!” I couldn’t believe she’d just come out and asked him.

“Yeah,” Alien Drake added, ignoring me. “Is it like being a

really fancy pet?”

“Sort of,” Adam said, his head tilted toward the sky, the

crickets pulsing around us. Finally, he said, “It feels very lucky and

very lonely.”

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I passed Alien Drake a water bottle. “Why lonely? Aren’t you

at parties and clubs all the time?”

“Oh, sure.” He pulled his knees into his chest and wrapped his

arms around them. “You’re never alone. It’s just, when people

always have something to gain from you, you never really know if

they like you or . . . whatever it is they think it means to hang out

with you.”

Chloe sighed. “So, basically, it’s like high school.”

Adam opened his own bottle of water. “I guess. I wouldn’t

really know.”

“It’s about atmosphere,” Alien Drake said, pulling his sweat-

shirt out of his backpack and slinging it over Chloe’s shoulders.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

Alien Drake settled back in next to Chloe. “I think people

attach themselves to certain people, certain events, because those

things have energy; they create an atmosphere. And there is a cer-

tain amount of energy that gets absorbed by an atmosphere. Look

at the sun.”

“Um, we’re not supposed to look directly at the sun,” Chloe

teased.

He shook his head, melting into blogger-philosopher mode.

“No, I mean, a certain amount of the sun’s energy is absorbed by

our atmosphere. Just being on Earth, we get those benefits.”

“Not for long.” Chloe pulled the sweatshirt closer.

“It’s a metaphor, Chlo — not an environmental impact

report.” Alien Drake stood and, kissing her on the top of her head,

went to check the scope again. He seemed his usual self now, not

twitchy and grumpy like he’d been earlier at Little Eats. Maybe it

116

had been too weird to meet Adam. Chloe
did
have pictures of him

hanging up all over her room. That had to unnerve even the most

solid of boyfriends.

I thought about what he’d said about atmosphere. Most of us

floated around seeking energy so we could just swim around in it,

bask in it. And we didn’t always want to produce it ourselves.

Maybe that’s why people wanted all those autographs from Adam

earlier. Proof of atmosphere.

Adam stretched onto his back, his hands tucked behind his

head. “You guys always talk this much?”

“Oh, we’re very deep.” Chloe stood, crossing to where Alien

Drake stared into his scope. “Our own little brain trust.” Chloe

was warming up, losing some of the nerves that had kept her act-

ing so silly around Adam.

I was glad Adam got to see her like this and not mute with her

arms plastered to her sides. “Yeah, we’re real deep. When we’re

not throwing water balloons at the Smiths’ trampoline.” I motioned

toward Alien Drake’s neighbor, the ghost of the netted trampoline

dark. “It’s pretty funny when they bounce and freak out his cat.”

Adam sat up. “Next time — can we do that?”

I smiled at him, forgetting for a minute that we weren’t just an

ordinary group of friends, that he wasn’t a movie star. It was in

that small bubble of ease that I heard myself say, “Sure. You’re

clearly not afraid of getting arrested.”

“Carter!” Chloe’s eyes, even shadowed, widened.

I flushed. “What? It was a joke.”

Alien Drake let out a low whistle through his teeth, his hand

cradling the scope. “Wow, Carter, don’t pull the punch or any-

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thing.” He started to take the scope down, slipping pieces of it into

its bulky black bag.

Adam watched me, his eyes unreadable, dark like the sky. “It’s

fine,” he said. “I’m sure I had that coming.”

I hurried to fix it. “I’m sorry. . . . I really meant it as a joke.”

A car slid by on the street below, lighting our faces for a slug-

gish second. In the passing wave of yellowish light, Adam’s face

held a sadness that wasn’t just shadow, the look frozen in so many

tabloid photos. Then our eyes met and he brightened slightly, the

sadness rinsed, and he said, “Forget it. You were just being honest.

Believe me, that’s rare.”

118

yesterday’s sightings

Things Are Looking Up in Little, CA

Morning, sky watchers. I know we’ve talked about this before,

but last night there seemed to be so many dark, blank

patches in the sky that it made us think of the Hubble Ultra

Deep Field. Years ago, some scientists decided to point the

Hubble telescope at a blank spot in space and leave it there

for ten days. This might not seem like a big deal, but it was

real y brave because the time you get on the Hubble is real y

competitive and they were taking a chance they might not

see anything at al . But what they saw was intense beyond

their wildest expectations. They found, once they processed

the data, that that blank space up there, that “nothing,” was

actual y over three thousand galaxies — hundreds of bil ions

of stars. So, here these scientists pointed the telescope at

nothing and found huge unknown worlds. They took a risk,

and it majorly paid off. And, that’s our star-thought for today.

Even when you think you’re looking at nothing, what you

might not be seeing is whole galaxies.

Think on that.

See you tonight, under the sky.

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ten

adam had to shoot the whole next day so I didn’t see him. I felt

terrible about my comment, and he wasn’t answering my texts, so

it clearly wasn’t as okay as he’d tried to make me believe sitting

there on that roof. Last night, I’d sent another text,
Just saying hi.

Hope you had a good day
. It seemed the sort of thing a girlfriend

would do (even a fake one), but he hadn’t answered.

By the time he picked me up this morning, I’d grown anxious

that I’d messed something up, mucking up the thaw that had been

deepening between us over the last couple of days, but Adam

seemed fine as I opened the door. He handed me an iced latte as I

slipped into the backseat. “Sorry, it’s Starbucks. Is that allowed,

Ms. Indie-Café?”

I pretended to frown at it. “Oh, I don’t drink corporate cof-

fee.” When his smile dimmed, I grabbed it. “Don’t be such an easy

mark. Despite the other night, my manners really aren’t that bad.

This is nice — thanks.” I pulled the door shut. “And speaking of

that night, I’m sorry I was so rude.”

He blinked at me, his eyes confused.

I lowered my voice. “About the ‘arrested’ comment.”

He waved me off. “You worry too much. It’s fine.”

120

I swallowed my reply. I was clearly making a big deal out of

nothing. Mik revved the SUV’s engine, and Adam motioned for

him to go. “So, what’s in the script for us today?” His phone buzzed

in his hand, and instead of diving into it, he clicked it off and tossed

it onto the seat between us.

I took a quick sip of my coffee before answering. “When I

checked in with Parker yesterday, he said you wanted a tour of

Little.” I leaned forward and gave Mik a few quick directions.

Adam rested his hand on my knee and leaned close. “Well, you

keep talking about how beautiful it is here. I thought you could

maybe show me.”

My heart caught like a fish in the breathy net of his voice, at

how warm his hand felt on my knee. Was he flirting with me?

There weren’t any photographers around. Clearing my throat, I

tried to remember what Parker had said about making sure we

positioned ourselves for good photo opportunities. “Parker thought

we might get some good publicity shots together.” I tried to sound

as professional as possible.

Letting his hand slip from my leg, Adam tugged at his seat