Stellar Tomorrow

Life was different with Ezzy gone. The leap from the Animal Form to the Flower Form was larger than the other gaps between forms. They weren’t exactly close to it yet, and without Ezzy, their missions took more time.

Their civilian lives were impacted, too. Alicia and Ezzy never spoke at home, which made Alicia sad. Ezzy no longer showed up to the band room for their free period. The only one she ever talked to was Thyme, and Thyme was the one initiating the conversations  Instead, Ezzy had started to hang out with some of the senior girls from the soccer team.

One day, over the weekend, Vale and Ciaran were outside on Vale’s porch together. Ciaran had learned that, when Vale was upset, he tended to stop speaking and keep things to himself. Even though they had seen each other every day since then, Vale hadn’t spoken to him once. Ciaran had figured he could work it on his own, but now he was getting worried. Vale would lie in his bed and play Pokemon. Ciaran would talk to him, and Vale would respond with a facial expression, but the lack of communication was worrying.

“Vale, you can’t just not speak.” he said, holding the blue-haired male close to him. “I brought you out here because I thought maybe you needed some fresh air, but you can’t go on like this. We can talk about it inside.”

Vale shook his head, lying his head on Ciaran’s chest.

“How about for a kiss?” He asked, looking at Vale. “I’m not going home until you talk, okay?”

With that, they locked lips and began a makeout session.

Ezzy, who was going running, even in the fall weather, was heading out of her house and saw how Ciaran was pretty much devouring her best friend.

Oh.

Well, she had started to think she was overreacting, even though she had told Elwin she wouldn’t rejoin Stellar Tomorrow ever when he asked if it would be temporary. She took a deep breath and walked back into her house to ponder this.

The next day, she broke the silent treatment by talking to Alicia.

“Hey, can you tell Vale that I’m sorry? Tell him I’ll meet him at the fountain in the park, okay? I’ll wait as long as I need to.”

“Okay,” Alicia said, frowning as Ezzy laced up her shoes, opened the door, and left.

- - - - -

Ezzy had left in the morning, but the sun was going down now. She shivered from the soft chills and watched some of the leaves fall off their branches and to the ground. She had truly messed up this time, hadn’t she?

This wasn’t their first fight. Vale got over it quickly usually, and so did she. Whenever the wrongdoer wanted to apologize, they’d always meet at the fountain in the park, with Alicia as the messenger. But it had never been this long. She even had to buy some food for herself, and her phone’s battery was dwindling.

She let out a sigh, and closed her eyes.

“I guess I deserve this,” she muttered, leaning back, knowing her dangling ponytail was touching the fountain’s water.  “At least I learned not to overreact anymore over stupid stuff.” she leaned back even more, and SPLASH! She fell into the fountain and groaned, but made no move to get up.

She felt the cold water soak into her clothes, knowing fully well that she was going to get sick later. It was peaceful, but also freezing, so she closed her eyes. Suddenly, there was another splash, and she sat up, opening her eyes. 

“I decided to show up,” Vale said, as he sat in the fountain.

“I’m sorry,” Ezzy apologized, “I overreacted, and not just a little. You shouldn’t have to tell me stuff that you don’t want to, and honestly I should have caught on sooner.” She looked at Vale who let out a sigh and looked at her.

“Maybe I should have told you.” Vale spoke quietly. “There are a handful of things that I haven’t told you. About this summer, about Travis, about me and Ciaran. It’s not his fault, you know. It was mine. I just didn’t want everyone in the world to know, so I figured that, whenever you guys asked was when I’d tell you. Thyme and Alicia knew, they figured it out quickly.”

“Oh,” Ezzy muttered, glancing down at her soaked legs. “I mean, I was overthinking things. Maybe if I wasn’t, I would have noticed too.”

“Maybe,” Vale shrugged, ‘But I guess I owe you something. While you were on vacation, I went to a party, Travis and I did some things, I broke up with him because he sucks, and then when I got suspended he basically assaulted me and tried to carve his name into my skin. That was the day we kissed, when it all started.” He slowly stood up and extended a hand to Ezzy, who took it.

“Let’s go get Ciaran, in case Elwin needs him to make you deputy leader again,” he smiled softly as he pulled her up. “C’mon.”