The Brightest Stars

No matter what the cost, I had to risk it.

KAEL WAS PARKED IN the back of the spa when I got off work the next day, his huge Bronco dripping water from its massive body. He was wearing a long-sleeved shirt with his company’s name printed on the front and blue jeans with frayed bottoms, as if he had worn them for years. I wanted to touch the soft, worn denim and feel the thread of the fabric against my fingerprints.

“What are you doing here? How did you know when I would be finished?” I was surprised to see him at my work, waiting with a freshly washed car and new shoes on his feet. Thrilled, but surprised.

“A little birdie told me,” he said, pulling his sunglasses off his eyes, opening the passenger door for me.

“Does that little birdie happen to have an adorable French accent?” I asked.

He shrugged. “That’s confidential,” he said with a straight face. I could see a little gleam in his eye. How was it possible that I missed him overnight when he had stayed on my porch with me until almost midnight, and here he was again.

“What are you doing here?” I asked again. I wasn’t going to just climb in the car without making him work for it.

“I came to hopefully get you to go on a date with me.”

“A date? I thought we said we weren’t going on dates, that we were just hanging out, seeing where this goes?”

He shoved his hands into his pockets and stood there, next to the open door.

“We don’t have to call it a date then. But would you like to hang out with me tonight since you’re off work until tomorrow at noon.”

I said yes without even pretending to have to think about it. There was no point. We both knew I would go anywhere he asked me to. He held me by my elbow as I climbed inside and he shut the door behind me. The fact that he opened doors for me was so polite. He was a gentleman without even trying. I couldn’t wait to meet the woman responsible for raising him and his science prodigy of a sister.

“I have something planned for you. I put together some music,” he paused, sheepishly, “and I want to take you to my favorite food spot in this whole city.”

I was getting more excited by the minute.

“I found like five bands I think you’ve never heard of. One is called Chevelle. I once knew this guy in basic training who would scream their lyrics over and over. They were from his hometown and by the time we graduated, I knew almost all of their songs by heart. I don’t know if you’ll like them now, but if you had listened to them before you fell for Shawn Mendes, it might have been a different story.”

I loved the way Kael’s tongue wrapped words up to sound so much more impressive, more pleasurable to listen to, when he spoke them.

He was lighthearted and heavy, both home and away. Biting whiskey and smooth wine. I loved the way he contradicted everything about himself. He was a fascinating man and I couldn’t wait to learn more about him.

“Leave Shawn out of this,” I told him with a smile.

“I saw that poster in your room at your dads. I didn’t think about it then, but I remember it now.”

Kael turned onto the highway as daylight was disappearing from the sky.

“He’s the John Mayor of our generation,” I argued.

Kael snorted. “John Mayer is the John Mayer of our generation.”

A few minutes later, he was quiet and I was happy as we listened to music and drove down a long, curvy road I had never been on before. I would always remember the way the sun and moon danced in the sky that night and what a sense of calm his silence had started to bring over my body.

I listened to his voice when he asked me random questions like he had on our first “date” on my porch. It would forever remain the best first non-date of my life.

“How many siblings do you wish you had?”

“Which is your favorite character on Friends?”

“How many times have you watched The Lion King?”

I was starting to get too comfortable with him, there in the front seat of his Bronco. And yet I could almost feel the chaos brewing somewhere nearby. Everything was going too well. I was starting to feel too much for this guy.

My brother’s name popped up on my cell phone screen and I thought about ignoring it, but decided against it. Music boomed through his side of the line and his slurred words were tumbling through, becoming inaudible.

“Kareeee, come get me. Please, Katie. Fuck Katie. Fuck Katie and her ex-boyfriend and her fucking phone …” Austin slurred his words. “Kare, please come get me.”

Chaos. No longer brewing.

I couldn’t say no. I asked Kael to drive me to the address that Austin gave me and we went straight there. By the time we arrived, two guys were rolling around in the middle of the street, a red T-shirt and a black T-shirt were all I could make out of the bodies.

“Get off him!” I recognized Katie’s voice before I saw her.

“Come on, Nielson, fuck him up!” Someone said in the background. A couple more lines of toxic encouragement were thrown out before I realized it was Austin in the red shirt. He looked like he had the guy in a head lock and he didn’t seem to plan on letting up anytime soon.

“Stop it!” Katie yelled again. I ran over to where she was standing, her face streaked with mascara tears.

“What happened?” I asked, grabbing her by the shoulders. Kael was yelling Austin’s name, trying to break up the fight.

“My ex, and Austin—” She started crying hysterically and couldn’t tell me anymore than I could see in front of me.

Sirens whirled through the air as Austin let up on the choke hold so he could punch the guy in the black shirt in his ribs. They looked like little boys wrestling in their WWE themed bedrooms, but they were adults, and the police were pulling up.

I yelled Austin’s name and Kael tried to pull at Austin’s shirt to get him off the guy. If he got arrested again, he would be fucked. The siren cut off and the voices got louder. There were only maybe five people outside, but when all of the voices were yelling at once, it was complete chaos.

Everything happened so fast.

The MPs rushed out of their car, heading straight for Kael. I screamed, running to him when Austin’s body hit the ground, knocking me into the man he was fighting, whose elbow or fist was flying toward my face. I lifted my hands up to block my face and heard Kael scream. Not just a scream, but a guttural groan of pain. It was animal like in its intensity and it shot straight through me. I turned to him, no longer thinking about shielding myself. The only thing on my mind when I saw the MP draw his black baton into the air was that Kael was on the ground, his right leg in the line of direction for the officer’s assault.

Another scream rang through the air. Maybe it was Katie. Maybe it was me. I’d never know. What I did know was that while Austin crept through chaos and found the Bronco, he managed somehow to lift his drunk ass up inside and lie down.

Kael and I were questioned by the MPs.

“Where were you two headed?

“Are you sure you weren’t drinking at the party?”

“Let me see some ID, soldier.”