Page 37 of The Last De Loughrey Dynasty (The Legacy of Aquila Hall #1)
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
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“Which constellation is your favourite?” Doe asked, grabbing another strawberry from the little basket she had brought with her tonight.
I gazed from the girl devouring her favourite fruit to the night sky and searched for the constellation. “Lyra,” I answered, finding the six connected stars.
Dorothee looked up at the sky and I pointed at the constellation, making it easier for her to find.
“Why Lyra?”
Because the six sun-kissed dots on your face mimic the stars forming a harp–almost identical.
I shrugged. “I used to watch the stars from my balcony every night when sleep wasn’t claiming me. Lyra was always the clearest. As a boy, I imagined hearing the harp play just for me.” I felt the corners of my mouth move upright at the memory. I had been so sure the stars played me a lullaby during those sleepless nights.
“That’s adorable,” she smiled and lay down on the snowy ground beside me. We were fools to watch the stars in the woods during the winter temperatures, but besides the freezing air burning my lungs, I couldn’t imagine doing anything more beautiful on New Year’s Eve.
“Do you have one?” I asked, but Doe immediately shook her head.
“I haven’t thought a lot about the stars growing up,” she admitted with a smug smile, and turned her head to look at me. In the dim, orange light of the lantern I brought, she looked like a dream.
“What’s your star sign?”
“Libra. I should have been a Scorpio, born on the twenty-third of October, but I decided to come twenty days early to gain the urge for balance and justice,” she joked, but my smile faltered as I realised on what date she had been born.
“Your parents shipped you off to Aquila on your birthday?” I remember reading the date of her birth in her medical records, but at that time it didn’t seem important, so I skimmed over the basic information.
Doe shrugged as she lay on the blanket I had laid out on the icy ground to at least give us some kind of warmth. “Couldn’t have wished for a better birthday present,” she laughed it lightly off. “Well, during my arrival, I was not aware of what awaited me, but the only thing that matters is the present.”
“Why on your birthday?” While I lay down beside her, gazing up at the sky, I couldn't help myself from asking.
“My mother held a celebration for an—uhm—award...? I don’t really know. She never really talks to me and initially didn’t want me to attend at all, but she found it a good opportunity to introduce me to her colleague’s son. She said that she’d appreciate it if I talked to him, so I tried to make her happy. What I didn’t know was that we were going to the same school two years ago, and he still remembered me as ‘looney’ . It’s been my nickname ever since I began to weep during class when I was twelve years old due to the sight of a classmate who had passed away in a car accident standing in front of the blackboard. Everyone thought I was a lunatic, our teacher included.” Doe paused and sighed. “Well, Emmanuel, the colleague’s son, believed playing a little trick on me would be funny, and it would free him from being forced to spend time with me ever again. We danced, and he was so nice to me. I actually believed he might fancy me, and I enjoyed that feeling. It only lasted for an hour before he managed to lure me into another room where his friends waited covered in fake blood. They came out of their hideaway when Emmanuel and I were finally alone. He claimed that he couldn’t see anyone, and his friends started to push me around, throwing me on the ground, telling me they’d kill me to make me one of them. I—the room was dim, and I was unable to see their faces, so… I feared for my life, which was naive and dumb because the spirits I used to see could neither touch nor talk to me, so I should have known something was up, but at that moment, all I could do was fall on my knees and cry, shouting at them to leave me alone. When I opened my eyes again, everyone was gone, and I ran back to the event where Emmanuel shook his head at me, his eyes full of disgust as he told his own and my mother about my ‘manic episode’ loud enough for everyone to hear while I protested and continued to cry until my mother dragged me away. A week later, I sat in the car on my way to Aquila Hall. The only reason why all of this happened so fast was because my mother is a genius at getting what she wants, and the De Loughrey’s are now official funders of Aquila Hall. She didn’t remember my birthday because the embarrassment I caused her was far greater than me. Is that the Hercules constellation?” She changed the subject before I could say anything to what she had just told me.
I normally didn’t feel pity towards other people because everyone had to deal with their own shit, some worse than others. But I wished I had met her way before the third of October and that at least one person remembered her that day.
“No, that’s Cygnus, but they look slightly similar, so I’ll let that slide. Not everyone can be a natural talent,” I teased and managed to make her laugh.
Good, that’s what we needed tonight. Both of us.
“Natural talent at what?”
“Reading the stars. To some, they speak, to others, they don’t.”
She was silent for a long moment before she breathed a laugh, “Yeah, no, I don’t hear little high-pitched voices in my head telling me ‘hi Dorothee, I’m the Cygnus constellation, nice to meet you’ . But you go, Starboy.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep myself from breaking into laughter. “That’s not what I meant, but keep making fun of me if you please.”
Doe rolled onto her side so she could face me, her grin turning serious before she spoke again. “I would never make fun of you.”
“I could name countless times when you were doing exactly that.”
She jokingly covered her heart with her palm and gasped. “If, then, you were making fun of me before we became… this. I’m very serious and supportive about your connection to the stars.” Doe rolled back onto her back, and it took her twenty whole seconds before she leaned over again and whispered, “tell your star buddies I said hi,” into my ear, and this time I couldn’t fight back the smirk. So I turned my head to look at her pretty face.
“I promise.”
She laughed out of pure joy, and something inside my stomach twisted as she buried her face in my jacket. I don’t recall enjoying someone’s company as much as I did with her beneath the stars tonight.
She showed me a side of myself I didn’t even know existed.
A loud hissing noise sounded from far away, followed by a little explosion before the sky lit up with the red brim of fireworks, and more coloured the night.
But my eyes didn’t rest on the artwork in the sky. Instead, they were on the girl who clung to my jacket and stared at the sky in awe.
“Happy New Year, Fallen Star,” I whispered, and she looked at me with the sweetest smile.
“Happy New Year, Starboy.”
She leaned back and lay her head down on my chest without needing to ask me if it was alright with that. Having her in my arms on the last and first night of the year meant a whole lot to me. And as I caught a glimpse of the Lyra constellation between the fireworks, I couldn’t help but imagine that the Vega star shone brighter than it had a minute ago, almost as if it were watching us. It made me question if Naomi’s story about the two star-crossed stars might be more reality than just a legend.