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In the weehours of the night, I sift through piles of printed manuscripts on my bed, the plastic tub emptied. “Which one should I read next?” I ask Orion beside me. He’s been chewing on a peanut butter filled toy, slobbering on an old fic titledWhen the Earths Collide.I wrote that one when I was fourteen, so it’s already catalogued in my noggin.
I’m mainly reading the ones I can’t remember ever writing.
Fairy lights cocoon my headboard, and the fan whirls with a rhythmic hum. I should bask in the solace of my space, but I find myself glancing at the bathroom.
Darkness lies beneath the crease of the door.
Donnelly.I keep picturing him flicking on the lights…and then coming in my room. But he never does.
He hasn’t in a while.
It’s been one week since my birthday, and we’ve given each other a whole lotta space. I’ve barely seen him, really. Both O’Malley and Donnelly were suspended for two days for fighting while on-duty. A lenient punishment, I heard. Since then, Donnelly hasn’t spent much time at the penthouse. Once back on-duty, he’s been busying himself protecting my younger brother, who’s returned to Dalton Academy.
I’ve been in New York hanging out with Tom and Eliot and reading my fics. With how much I wrote in the past three years, I’d need a solid month to catch up.
The longer I stare at the bathroom, Orion lifts his shaggy head and follows my gaze. He whines, then looks to me.
“He’s not gone,” I whisper to my Newfie. “He’s still in his room.”He’s just not with me.
Orion lets out a longer whine, not understanding why Donnelly isn’t around.
“You weren’t at the party,” I tell Orion. “It was…confusing. I’m still so…”Confused.Heat bathes my face, my throat swelling closed. But I manage to murmur, “I don’t know what’s real.”
I’ve just been following my instincts, and my therapist is saying they’re not to be fully trusted either. Trauma. Attachment. Obsession. I shut my eyes, then open them.
Orion paws my lap, and I scratch his furry head. “What if Dr. Ravenisright?” I whisper. “What if I’m just latching on to Donnelly because he was one of the first people I saw when I woke up? He’s just a coping mechanism—I don’t really know him.” It punctures me, just believing he could be bad for me.
Since I woke up, he’s felt like a refuge in my mind.Why is that such an awful thing?
Then O’Malley scrambled my reality even more. I thought about asking Eliot if I know my old bodyguard really well.
Am I friends with O’Malley?
Do I like him?
But Eliot couldn’t verify much about my relationship with Donnelly, so it’s very likely that Original Luna could’ve had a secret friendship with O’Malley. Right?
It could be in the realm of possibility. Alotcould lie in that realm, and that’s why I’m going out of my mind!
I sink back against my pillows and then reach for the nearest manuscript.
Human Him, Cosmic Her: The Light.
The continuation of my Thebulan series. In the last few chapters, a human crash-landed on Thebula and Zarek, the King of Planet Demos, has cautioned Queen Solana of Thebula from intermingling with the human species. He believes Vaughn, the human, should be killed or flown out of their solar system.
“Zarek is just protecting Solana,” I tell Orion, flipping a page. “He bound himself to her, so his best interests are her best interests.” I read a little more.
Solana has met with the human on Thebula. A lush waterfall splashes outside the cave dwellings where the human has been residing as a visitor.
I appraised the man on his cot. Vaughn hadn’t asked for much since the crash. Only accepted what little was offered. Zarek thought humans weak but deceitful, and yet, this one hadn’t tried to fool me. He sat there…cleaning his boots.
“I can send you back,” I told him. “We’re working on finding you transportation.”
His eyes, the hues of the Typas waters, rose to mine. He did not fear me. Not once did he cower. Yet, he did not try to lay claim to my throne or to my people. Whatever he wanted, I could not tell, but the strength of his presence quickened my heart. “And what if I stay?” he said.
“Stay?” I nearly laughed. It was so strange to hear a human speak the Thebulan tongue. When we first met, I asked him how he came to be proficient, and he said he studied many languages upon many galaxies.
“I’m an explorer,” he’d told me. “This isn’t a bad place to land, though, is it?”
