Starcrossed (Starcrossed 1)

can?t be found and dug out. She didn?t expect him to fall at her feet

or anything, but to go from holding her hand everywhere they went

to saying her would never touch her? How could that be?

Unable to sit still with these thoughts in her head, Helen jumped

up into the air with a little cry and let an easterly wind take her out

over the water. For a few heartbeats she hung in a calm envelope of

air as the stars switched on, desperately sucking up the beauty of

that experience like it was emotional Novocain.

When she was calmer, she circled higher and hitched a ride on a

steady westerly gust that brought her back over the island. She was

not a graceful flyer yet?in fact she was barely competent?but if

she didn?t think about it too much she knew what to do to move

herself along. She had no clear idea where to go, but suddenly she

was freezing cold and in need of comfort. Without making a conscious

choice, she found herself circling over Claire?s house.

Helen alit in Claire?s front yard, and then realized that in her condition

she couldn?t just go up and ring the bell. She was soaking

wet and shaking with cold. Mr. and Mrs. Aoki would call her father

immediately if they laid eyes on her like this.

Circling the house on foot, Helen peeked inside the windows, trying

to figure out where Claire was. She fished her cell phone out of

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her jeans to call Claire and get her to come outside, and then

smacked herself on the forehead when she saw that her two-dayold

phone had been ruined by the salt water. She heard Claire

yelling at her mother in Japanese as she stomped upstairs to her

room. Claire?s bedroom light switched on, and she slammed her

door shut behind her.

It was a terrible way to come out to Claire, and Helen was vaguely

aware of that fact as she floated toward the window and saw her