Stars stood alone on the rooftop, unconcerned with the commotion far down below her. All the people on the streets were in a rush to get home before the stroke of midnight, a million Cinderellas fleeing from the overcoming night. It wasn't so frightened, so anxious, as Cinderella herself might have been fleeing from the hands of time on the night of the ball; it was a joyful sort of frantic, jubilant chaos accompanied by extravagant celebration and rekindled hopes for the changing times. It was the eve of the New Year, after all.
It was the eve of the new century.
It had snowed from early in the morning, but as the sun had set the clouds had cleared and Stars could look up now and see diamonds sparkling, dazzling, decorating an otherwise dark and empty velvet canvas.
She'd spent her fist night on this roof with him, her first and only night with him. She hadn't done anything with him, or nothing consequential to the rest of the world. But he'd kissed her, quick and soft, and the world had lit up and her heart had exploded into a million pieces and everything in the universe fell gently into place. Time stood still and she felt everything with a perfect clarity.
She told herself that he'd probably forgotten it by now, but she still remembered it. She'd always remember it.
"You'll catch cold if you stay up here all night," a quiet voice said from behind her
"I'm just trying to get some peace," Stars sighed. She could see her breath form little clouds in the air around her. She didn't turn around.
He took her hand, but she still didn't look at him. She didn't know whether or not to believe what was happening, or if she really was so cold that her mind was starting to play tricks on her.
"Do you remember the last time we were up here?" he asked.
She nodded. "Back in early summer. We stayed up all night…"
"We stayed in no man's land while everybody else was taking sides."
"Except that's over now. Those were some days, all right." Everything had been chaos, but most of the city didn't see it. After all, if it wasn't in the papers… well. They'd gotten a pretty good deal out of it in the end. Nobody even talked about it anymore. It felt like that strike was over almost as fast as it began.
"Stars, we don't have to take sides anymore."
"I'm not sure it's that simple, Morris." She wanted to look into his eyes more than anything right then, confess that she didn't care, that they could be more than this stupid rivalry, more than two arbitrary sides of a war that didn't matter in the end. But she wouldn't. She didn't feel she had the courage.
"We don't have to take sides, Stars. You know, I remember that night, when we were up here last. I remember how it felt. I remember…"
She dared to cast her eyes up to him. "I remember the magic."
He looked down at her with those green eyes of his, flecked with brown and grey, windows to a forest filled with trees, a mind filled with thoughts. He pulled her close to him and she lay her head on his chest. And when she pulled back again to look at him, she remembered the magic.
She stood up on her toes and kissed him, and he nearly had to pick her up to keep them together. The magic of the spark she'd felt the first time he'd kissed her had metamorphosed into a wild flame, electricity surging through them both, seizing, shocking, exploding. There were fireworks in her heart, and she wondered now what had taken her so long to do the right thing.
There was an explosion in the air, and they pulled apart in time to see real live fireworks light up the New York City sky, brighter than any diamond in the night ever could.