Page 1 of Starrily (Perks of Being #2)

Chapter 1

Take-off

T he Universe started with the Big Bang. Callie’s universe was perhaps about to end in one.

She stared at the long, windowless body of the passenger plane parked on the tarmac and questioned her decision. Or rather, Ava’s decision.

Her friend caught up with her in a light jogging rhythm and fixed the collar of the slate gray flight jumpsuit. She put her hands on her hips and followed Callie’s gaze to the plane. “Wow. It looks amazing.”

It looked like a death trap. Perfect to take her up to thirty thousand feet, then drop into a free fall. Provided it didn’t go out in a fiery crash beforehand.

“Are you sure we can’t cancel?” Callie asked.

“Are you not feeling well?”

“Uh—well—”

“Oh, I get it. It’s the pre-flight jitters. Don’t worry.” Ava looped her arm around Callie’s. “It’s gonna be fun. Just shake it off.” She bounced on her feet.

Callie swallowed another objection. Ava’s decision to go on a zero-gravity flight may have been questionable, but it wouldn’t be fair of Callie to pull out now. Ava hadn’t pulled out that time Callie asked her to accompany her to the Science Festival and dragged her along for three days straight. And unlike the festival, these flights were incredibly hard to come by for civilians, and surely cost an arm and a leg. Ava had been lucky to win a trip for two and instead of inviting her boyfriend, she’d thought of Callie, saying she’d love it “because of all the science-y things.”

So, just for today, Callie would suck it up and let her friend enjoy the experience. “I’m fine. Let’s go.”

Ava didn’t need to be told twice and ran towards the staircase extending from the back of the plane. Callie took a deep breath and followed. She showed her ticket to a man standing at the bottom of the steps and ascended into the gloom.

Inside the plane, only a few rows of seats at the tail remained; the rest of the interior had been stripped clean, and safety nets clung to the walls. It wasn’t as claustrophobic as Callie had expected, but it still felt like a coffin. Was this how spacecraft felt? Good thing she’d never find out.

Some passengers from their small group had boarded already, one of them talking with the instructor up in front. Callie sat down next to Ava, who was positively buzzing; like a kid in a candy store, already in the middle of a sugar rush. Callie closed her eyes and counted along with her slow, controlled breaths.

At least their instructor was an actual astronaut, and the pilots were more than qualified for this. Plus, most zero-gravity flights were done for scientific experiments; if it was safe for people to run on treadmills while doing this, surely it was safe for her to just … exist.

“Excuse me?” A hand following the female voice gently touched her shoulder. Callie opened her eyes. “I think you’re in my seat,” the woman said.

Callie checked her ticket, then glanced up. The numbers didn’t match. She’d been so preoccupied with her thoughts she’d simply assumed she and Ava had been seated together.

Baseless assumption. As if you’re a freaking astrologist, not an astrophysicist.

“S-so sorry,” she mumbled and got up. Ava attempted to intervene, but Callie said, “It’s fine. My seat is right over there,” and maneuvered around the lady to the opposite row. Why didn’t you check the ticket? That was so awkward. She sat down and kept her head low, hoping no one noticed her stupidity.

“Hello there.” The seat next to her shook as the owner of the cheerful voice sat down. A man, about her age—thirty or so. “Nice weather we’re having, isn’t it?” He took off his aviators—really, he had to wear sunglasses to this?—tucked them into the collar of his jumpsuit, and smiled and winked at her.

They didn’t know each other. Why was he talking to her so casually?

“Isn’t this gonna be fun?” he continued. “Suits. Special plane. Zero gravity. It’s very spy movie, don’t you think? We should get code names for each other.”

Oh, no. He was one of those people. Those who liked to approach random strangers in public and infringe on their personal space and … chat. She never understood how people could do that.

He looked like he’d walked straight off a set of Top Gun . The aviator sunglasses; the burnished red hair, perfectly ruffled and curled at the top, shorter at the sides; the otherwise unattractive jumpsuit that somehow looked great on him, as if they’d chosen the design especially for him—prepared for a photo shoot, not a deadly flight.

“So, what’s yours?” he asked.

Callie blinked, forcing her focus away from his perfectly chiseled jawline. Seriously, no one had the right to be this good-looking. “H-huh?”

“Code name. If we’re pretending this is a secret spy mission.”

Most of her senses finally came back. “Are you serious?” she raised her voice, then continued quieter when a few people turned their heads. “We could die at any moment, and you’re concerned with code names?”

“We could always die at any moment.” He shrugged. “This one is no different from the rest.”

“I’d beg to differ.”

“Oh, would you now?” His dark blue eyes twinkled. “And what’s so bad about this moment?”

“Not this one in particular, but the moment about half an hour from now. Ascending at a steep angle and then letting the plane go into a free fall—commercial planes weren’t meant to fly in a single parabola, much less fifteen of them, one after the other. People weren’t meant to fly at all.”

“And yet we’re all here. Including you.”

“Only because—” she stopped herself when she caught sight of Ava, leaning past the lady in Callie’s former seat. Her friend scrunched her nose in a clear “what are you doing” gesture—one Callie had seen many times.

Mostly when she was talking to other people in public.

Callie grunted and folded her arms.

“I think I’ll go with Falcon,” the man continued. “Cheesy, but a classic code name. And you can be … Phoenix.”

“Like the galaxy cluster?”

“I thought more about the comic book superhero, but sure,” he said after a moment of hesitation. “That way, if something bad happens, you’ll be reborn.”

“That is not even remotely close to how things—”

“Ladies and gentlemen, ready to get going?” the instructor said, loud enough to shush the chatting passengers. “Fasten your seat belts, please. We’ll go over the standard flight procedures, and then we’ll be ready to take off …”

“I don’t suppose you want to try a dance once we’re in zero gravity,” Falcon whispered to her.

She wanted to reply with something witty. “I’ll be busy dying” came to mind, but it probably wasn’t particularly witty, and besides—why did she suddenly want to be witty?

He was confusing her.

And she didn’t like it one bit.

So she only stared at the seat in front, unsuccessfully trying to block him from her periphery.

“Yeah, thought so.” He clicked his seat belt and looked to the front, a slight smile playing on his lips, as if he enjoyed provoking her.

Callie sunk lower, blowing a lock of hair off her face.

It was going to be a long two hours.

First Parabola

Simon would be having the time of his life if it weren’t for her. Phoenix. He wondered why she even signed up for this experience if she’d only complain about it. Maybe she was a masochist. Simon preferred doing only what he loved, but hey, to each their own. Unfortunately, while she might enjoy her own torment, he was stuck next to her.

Maybe he’d already used up all of his luck in the accident. All of his universe-given goodwill. And now, wherever he went, he’d forever be stuck with a co-passenger like her. He smiled; not at the prospect itself, but at the ridiculous image of those bouncy, deep mahogany curls peeking from behind the headrest in front as Phoenix chased him into every ride, drive, and flight he’d make in the future, cursed to forever spoil his fun.

The plane took off and climbed steadily as the instructor ran over the trip’s details and advised them on how to prepare and act once they went into free fall. Free fall —Simon liked the sound of that. Freedom and falling. Beautiful combination. How had he never thought of trying a zero-gravity flight before? This should top even skydiving.

Finally, after flying at a steady height for a while, the plane began its first parabola. The passengers were invited to join the instructor in the area up front, cleared of seats; as Simon unbuckled his seatbelt, he briefly considered some encouragement for Phoenix, but she was avoiding his gaze, her hair almost covering the slight blush spreading across her russet brown cheeks.

She hesitated with her seatbelt, and Simon instead moved on, letting a pretty brunette from the other row pass in front of him.

“Hey,” he said as he walked after the brunette. “Would you like to try dancing in zero gravity?”

She looked back, eyed him for a second, and smiled. “Sure.”

Now that was better already.

To prevent motion sickness, the passengers were advised to lie on their backs while the plane climbed steeply and the force of gravity grew stronger. Simon stared at the white inner shell of the plane as his limbs became heavier and heavier—and then, suddenly, they released. With a slight push, Simon came off the ground and nearly shot straight into the ceiling.

Around him, others had similar problems with control. They floated around the cabin, laughing and apologizing for bumping into each other. Simon oriented himself and, using a safety net as a guide, propelled himself toward his dancing partner.

She extended a hand and smiled. “I’m not sure I’ll be a very graceful dancer.”

“I don’t think any of us are graceful at the moment.” And off they went. They circled the cabin, pushing off walls and floating to the other side, laughing way too much to care that their dance looked nothing like a dance.

“It’s a good thing nobody is taking pictures—” He bumped into something. Some one , based on a little yelp behind his back, and then—

“Seriously?”

Oh, no. Not her. True, there were only twenty people in here, and they were all crowded in a reasonably small place, but of those twenty people, did it have to be Phoenix?

She couldn’t be more than a few inches over five feet, but floating, their eyes were level—and hers looked less than impressed despite her not appearing injured.

One more try. He wasn’t in the habit of letting people dislike him. “Sorry.” He smiled and scratched the back of his head, where they’d made contact. “People do say I’m thick-headed.”

No smile from her. Only a short wrinkling of her eyebrows as she grabbed her phone and a set of keys with a plush moon pendant attached to them, which had wandered off on a trajectory of their own.

“Is it a good idea to wave those around? You could take someone’s eye out,” he said.

She pressed the items to her chest. “I don’t think you should advise me on good ideas.”

“Me? I was just dancing.”

“And I was trying to perform a scientific experiment.”

“I think you boarded the wrong flight, then.”

She grunted and pushed a floating lock of coiled hair off her face. “Why are you so determined to ruin everything?”

“Why are you so determined to not have fun?” he shot back.

“I was having fun until you bumped into me.”

“Ah, so you were waiting on an unsuspecting victim with those keys.”

Simon’s dancing partner made some half-hearted sound; he wasn’t sure what it was, because Phoenix went, “You—agh—” and the gravity started pressing on his limbs, and the instructor announced everyone should find a spot to lie down.

“Next parabola.” He pointed a challenging finger at her and half-floated, half-jumped towards the other side of the cabin.

Seventh Parabola

Callie had found the solution for her situation: treat it as a scientific experiment. She’d had some motion sickness, and she didn’t like the lack of control in zero gravity, but once she got used to it, she dared to push herself all the way to the ceiling and even do a simple somersault. She only had to think about the application of various gravity theories instead of the pilots trying to keep the plane in the air, and everything was fine.

“Hey.” Ava floated to her. “Who was that?”

“Who?”

“The sexy pale ginger guy you spoke with earlier.”

Before she could stop herself, Callie looked at Falcon—surrounded by a group of five, hanging on his every word as he made sweeping motions with his arms—then snapped back to her friend. “Ava! You have a boyfriend.”

“ You don’t.”

No. No chance. When—if—she had a relationship again, she’d find someone sensible, serious. Someone who liked the same things she did. Someone who wasn’t that intimidatingly handsome. “Don’t even think about it.”

Falcon’s laugh echoed across the cabin.

Ava shrugged. “He seems fun. He winked at you! And you said at least five words to him, which is an improvement.”

“He probably had an eyelash in his eye.” She had to get the topic off him. “Do you want to try a joint somersault?”

“Ooh, let’s do it!”

After a semi-successful attempt, Ava left to float around some more, and Callie brought her phone and key set back out. True, this wasn’t a scientific flight, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t do a bit of equivalence principle testing.

“We’re coming off the parabola,” the instructor said. “Get ready to lie back down.”

“A second,” Callie murmured, and tried to toss the phone and the keys simultaneously. No, not in sync—she quickly caught them and tried again, as in her peripheral vision, people laid back on the floor.

“Ma’am,” the instructor said.

“Yes, I—” Fine, next parabola. There were still a few left. Callie caught her phone just as the gravity rose—and then she plopped down on the floor.

The floor groaned.

“If you wanted to cuddle, you could’ve said so,” the voice said from under her.

Of course. Of the twenty people in here, she had to accidentally land on him. Falcon. Maybe she should call him Sexy Pale Ginger Guy, instead of that stupid nickname.

Or maybe just Pale Ginger Guy. No need to delve into the attractiveness part.

“On your back, please,” the instructor said.

“Don’t flatter yourself.” She rolled off Falcon, wishing she could also roll off this plane. She didn’t dare look at him, but she heard him snicker.

And then she heard—and felt—something else. A little rumble in her stomach. A burning sensation rising up her throat.

Too many somersaults.

“Uh, are you okay?” Falcon asked—and a second later, got his answer as she rolled to the side and gave him a nice display of her breakfast.

Landing

“How was it?” Stan held the door of the limo open and waited for Simon to slip into the back seat.

“Up to the middle of the flight, it was fantastic.” Simon automatically brushed the sleeve of his left arm, even though by now, he’d changed out of the jumpsuit and was wearing his racer leather jacket.

Stan got behind the wheel, negating half of the late afternoon sun with his massive figure. “And then?”

“Then an infuriatingly humorless woman puked on me.”

“Rough.”

“Ah, well, no need to dwell on it.” Simon motioned Stan to drive off. “It’s not like I’m ever going to see her again.”

***

“See, told you it’d be fun,” Ava said as she and Callie headed towards her car. “Minus the … event .”

“You’re not making it better.” Every painful second of that parabola replayed in Callie’s head, over and over. In some versions, she later apologized to Falcon in a whole, un-stuttered, coherent sentence. In other versions, she caught herself in time and magically didn’t puke on him.

Unfortunately, those versions weren’t her reality.

“Come on.” Ava hugged her around the shoulders. “Happens to everyone. Besides, only twenty people saw you.”

“Nobody was recording it, right?”

“Nah. We were all lying on the floor.”

Including him. He was lying right there . Being swallowed by the earth wouldn’t be enough; she’d have to get at least as far as Jupiter to escape the embarrassment. And even without counting the event , Callie had felt awkward. Rattled, flustered—not because of the flight, but because of him . He behaved and spoke so casually, and when he talked to her, all of her responses somehow came out wrong.

Thank the Universe it was over now.

“Don’t worry,” Ava said. “Those people—they don’t know you. By tomorrow, they’ll forget all about it. Well, except for Sexy Pale Ginger Guy. I’d give him … two weeks to forget since he was the prime target.”

Callie managed a slight smile. “That’s fine. It’s not like I’m ever going to see him again.”