Legends say, far into the depths of space, life can survive and thrive. One alien species after the other will try and fail to gain all knowledge in the known universe, but will be overcome with power, falling as soon as they have risen. Once these great forces fall, their hearts divide from their bodies, aimlessly wandering around the universe to try and complete themselves. Or, they separate when given to another, and are either accepted, finding completion, or rejected, left to wander around until another soul learns to love them. These hearts are commonly known as shooting stars, to humans.
Of course, this could be completely wrong. Some people decide to believe that extra terrestrial life doesn't exist, and others don't know. What's more, there's never been any solid evidence to support the idea. But that's just how humans think, isn't it? And how would a legend, thousands of years old, changed over the years after being told from person to person, be trustworthy?
After all, such a far fetched story couldn't be true...
Craig stood back, wiping the glistening beads of sweat from his brow. Smiling, he admired his handiwork.
"It's a pretty cool rocket, alright, but will this thing really get that far?" His brunette best friend asked with doubt, raising an eyebrow. "It's only a model rocket." He added. Craig rolled his eyes and followed the line back to Clyde. Token spoke up.
"Hey, don't doubt him. He knows what he's doing... You do know what you're doing, right Craig?" The chocolate boy asked with a hint of worry, crouching next to Clyde. Craig sighed at Token and casually held the launch button in his hand, wearing an expression of annoyance with a hint of sadness. "Why does everyone keep questioning me on this?" He rolled onto his back, spreading himself out onto the grassy bank of his back yard, behind his mom's rose bushes for cover in case it backfired. The sky was a beautiful shade of summer blue, with only a few cotton clouds passing by in the distance.
Holding the button above his head, he continued, "I practically spent my entire childhood building these things, so I know what I'm doing." Turning to his quiet friend, he smiled. "Oh, and thanks for the help with the design, Jimmy." Everyone turned to the happy cripple boy who shrugged. "It was n...nothing, C-Craig. Happy to heeeeh...happy to help." Sitting up with a sudden burst of energy, Craig sat forward and looked at the three, eyes sparkling with some sense of child-like wonder.
"Are you guys ready to launch?" His low but excited tone asked them. Clyde raised an eyebrow again. "Fine bro, but if it backfires and ruins your mom's flowers, you're taking the blame. We had nothing to do with your crazy rocket science." Playing along, Craig grabbed his best friend by the jacket after carefully putting the button down. Looking into Clyde's brown orbs with a crazed look, he leaned back and let out an insane mad-scientist laugh, which made Clyde let out a panicked whimper as he pushed the mad noirette backwards.
Craig groaned in pain, sitting up abruptly after landing on something which sent a sharp pain down his back. "Dude, what the fuck!" He complained, scowling at Clyde who put his hands up in defence. "I was losing ya, dude! Had to knock some sense into ya!" Craig's gaze glanced over to Token, who was looking behind him with shock, and Jimmy shared the same expression. "Uh..." Token mumbled, eyes wide.
Confused, Craig and Clyde looked to where they were staring and froze. Craig had landed on the launch button.
The three looked over to Craig quickly, panicked thoughts clouding their minds, and adrenaline racing through their veins. Craig yelled the only thing he could think of.
"SHIT, GET DOWN!" Everyone did as instructed and they all threw themselves at the ground, covering their ears. The rocket shot into the sky, roaring so loudly that it deafened the four though their futile efforts helped a smidge.
Craig jumped up, fist in the air, whooping loudly as he watched it go out of sight. "WHOO! YEAH! THAT WAS AWESOME!" He yelled, whilst Clyde groaned in agony and Token helped Jimmy get up. Ignoring his friends complaints, Craig sprinted towards the back door and raced to his room, throwing himself into the chair in front of his desk and typing furiously on his computer.
Token opened the door, letting Jimmy in first, then entered, with Clyde in tow. Clyde threw his arms around Craig's neck and let out a moan, sinking to his knees, whilst Token and Jimmy sat on his bed, talking amongst themselves quietly. "Craaaaaiiiiiggg!" Clyde groaned when the raven haired teen removed his arms and focused his attention solely on the computer. "I'm busy." Craig grumbled, frowning a little as he stared at the screen, still typing with speed. Clyde looked him up and down, then sighed.
"Dude, you are such a nerd." Craig chucked a little, then replied, "Well the launch is done. Now you can go home or whatever. I'm busy doing nerd stuff now." Clyde buried his face in the crook of his friend's neck and groaned again, re-placing his arms to support him, but didn't leave. "That's what I thought." Craig smirked, returning his attention to the screen.
Token glanced over at the two and chuckled. Jimmy laughed and asked Clyde, "C-C-Clyde, isn't that a l-little gay?" Clyde flipped Jimmy off without moving his face and grumbled "You're a little gay." Craig burst out with laughter and petted Clyde's hair, humming happily. "I have taught you well." Then, he returned to his computer. Sprawling out on Craig's bed, Token asked, "Hey Craig, what are you doing anyways?" Craig ran his tongue over his lips and mumbled, "If I don't finish you'll never find out, and if you keep distracting me I won't be able to finish." Token shrugged and closed his eyes, feeling Jimmy flop down next to him. "Fair point." Token spoke softly, letting relaxation take grip of his body.
Jimmy did the same, and soon enough, the three of them had slipped out of consciousness, which was surprising because Clyde was still clinging onto Craig and had not strangled him yet.
Craig's voice yelling loudly with celebration snapped them all out of their sleep, and made Clyde fall to the floor as he leapt out of his seat and did a little victory dance, spinning around in a circle before pouncing onto Token, who didn't appreciate it. "DUDE!" He shouted, making jimmy flinch and Token cringe at the sudden volume. "Ugh...what?" The poor teen asked, trying to awkwardly sit up with Craig plastered to his chest. His eyes twinkled with accomplishment. "I did it! I finally did it!" He grabbed onto Token's arm and forcefully pulled him over to view his work, whilst Jimmy grumpily grabbed his crutches and limped over.
Clyde, still on the floor, asked: "Well, nerd? What did you do?" Annoyed, Craig kicked him gently in the stomach, then used his foot to roll Clyde onto his back and out of the way. "Come look!" He instructed, and hesitantly, he did. Token and Jimmy gazed in awe at the screen, whilst Clyde scoffed in annoyance. "You made me fall onto the floor for more of your dumb space pictures?" Craig glared at him, then grabbed his face by the cheeks and pointed forcefully at the screen, which slowly turned, showing the edges of something familiar. "That!" Craig stated as he grinned like a madman. "Is my rocket!" Clyde's mouth dropped to an 'o' And then he gasped with realisation. "The SS. Stripe actually made it to space!?"
Craig leant back in his chair and smiled smugly. "Yep, I made it to space." His smile faltered a little as he added, "...and so did stripe." He looked over to his empty guinea pig hutch and frowned. "It's what we always wanted to do..." Jimmy put his hand on Craig's shoulder. "S-she's gonna l-love it up there, C-Craig." The ebony haired boy half smiled. "Thanks Jimmy." The spun around gently, showing a full view of the earth and the stars around it. "It's so beautiful..." Craig mumbled in awe, tracing his finger along the screen. "I'm gonna go there some day. For stripe." He said with confidence. Token gave him a mothering smile. "I don't doubt that." He said.
Craig opened the door wide, smiling and waving to his friends as they left him to go back to their lives. Although Token asked if he would be okay and Clyde insisted that he would sleep over to make him forget about Stripe, Craig refused and they all went their separate ways, Clyde grumpily waddling next door as he only lived a few feet away.
The rest of Craig's day only consisted of an uneventful dinner. Craig's father shooting him some concerned looks whilst Ruby blabbered on and on about some girl she had met at school and how bratty she was. Although Craig was uninterested, before he left the table without eating much he ruffled her hair and chuckled, "She sounds like a douche." Then, thanking his mom for the food (that he barely touched) under his breath, he walked to his room, avoiding his parents' worried gaze.
A melancholy feeling swallowed him as soon as he walked into his room. Craig's room was a fair size, with walls painted a midnight blue and the carpet being a light grey. He had a double bed on the right of the door, duvet messy from Token and Jimmy sprawling themselves on it. The fabric was a matching deep blue to the walls, but slightly darker, speckled with soft yellow the left of the door was Craig's desk, which held his computer among a few of his other prized possessions. In the corner next to it was his closet, which was open. It contained various blue hooded jackets, jeans and other various assortments of winter trousers. Shirts that hadn't been worn were hung up neatly whilst t-shirts he frequently wore under his jacket lay strewn in the bottom and the pile had begun to creep onto the floor.
The wall opposite the door had one big window that overlooked the neighbourhood. From this he could usually lean out and see his best friend doing something stupid. Once he saw him trying to eat a taco and burrito whole at the same time in the same mouthful. It's safe to say that it ended in tears. The window was covered most of the time by a set of curtains which blocked the light out of his room. Not that he cared, though. He quite liked the darkness, and since Stripe had passed, there was no need to let sunlight into his room, which was probably why he had gotten so much paler over the past week. Next to the window was a standing mirror which had been turned to face the wall and a large cabinet, which held a few books and Stripe's cage.
He walked in, kicking his shoes at the wall with the window and crashed onto his bed. For some reason, Craig had recently found family interaction extremely tiring, especially with his dad breathing down his neck. After sighing with a sort of relief, he wandered to his closet, pulling out an old t-shirt to sleep in. After getting changed, he walked over to his mirror. After hesitating for a second, reconsidering, he turned it around and looked in it.
His eyes were a piercing ice blue, but the bottoms of them were drooping from exhaustion, which was exaggerated by the dark grey rings that had situated themselves under them. Craig's skin was paler, being more of a gray than before. His eyebrows set themselves into a permanent frown and the corner of his full lips seemed to be pulled down by some unseen force. Upon his head sat the blue ear-flap hat he had always worn since childhood, which was always a little big for him. The yellow puffball that sat on the top was limp, and grayed from age. He didn't care; he loved that hat.
His body was quite muscular but lean and thin, and his muscles were easily missed under the jackets he always wore. The t-shirt he had chosen was a gray-ish white, with the words 'I don't care' boldly written in the middle of it. He wasn't wearing any trousers, so his long legs were in full view, showing a few red streaks that Craig frowned at in shame and tried to cover with the bottom of his t-shirt. He sighed. "Great. I look as lively as ever." His reflection told him sarcastically. His gaze was fixated on the cuts and he had to tear his eyes away, quickly turning the mirror back again