Kudos to Readwriteedit for her story prompt. There's a little homage to one of her stories in here, see if you can find it.
Jeffrey was shell-shocked. He was sunk, hopelessly and terribly lost. Wasn't Astronomy just supposed to be about knowing the Big Dipper apart from the Little Dipper? You know, just constellations? That's what all those trips to the Boston Science Museum's planetarium had made him think. He thought he was going to nail this class, and now he had terms like parasec and cosmology running through his head. Wasn't cosmology where you studied make-up and stuff? He should have realized that this was going to happen, this was an MIT course after all. He might have been smart and rich enough to get into MIT for music, but he was definitely not on the same level as these science and tech geniuses.
Jeffrey was so focused on trying to decipher a cryptic passage in his textbook, he didn't notice everyone else leaving the classroom, until Professor Penderwick spoke up.
"Mr. Tifton? I appreciate your dedication to Astronomy, but class is out."
Jeffrey started violently, giving himself a paper cut on the edge of his crisp notebook.
"Sorry! Sorry!" Jeffrey grew flustered and attempted to shove his class materials into his bag, it was a hard job because of the clarinet case taking up most of the bag's space. Jeffrey pulled the case out. Along with half-a-dozen pencils and a flutter of sheet music. He winced, and glanced sheepishly up at his professor, expecting her to be impatient and peeved. The slender red-headed woman merely chuckled and bent down to help him pick it up, making sure to shuffle all the loose paper into a neater pile.
"Sorry. Thank you." Jeffrey mumbled, feeling very red.
"Don't worry about it, I have a son who's a hundred times more messy than this." Professor Penderwick assured him, "So you're a musician then?"
"Yeah, I'm majoring in music." Jeffrey confirmed, "I heard the music program here is really good, and well my mother liked the idea of me attending MIT. I didn't score good enough for Harvard."
"I don't recall Astronomy fitting the required course list for Music Majors." Professor Penderwick raised an eyebrow, "Did you decide to attend because you have a passion for it?"
"Kind of. I thought a science course would be worth learning, and I remembered having fun on school field trips to the planetarium so I picked Space as my course."
"Astronomy." His professor corrected in amusement as they walked down the hall together, "How are you enjoying it so far?"
"It's... pretty cool."
"Not what you expected? It's not exactly like those little planetarium talks is it?" Professor Penderwick read his hesitance easily.
"Yeah. I'm afraid I got pretty lost back there." Jeffrey rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "I really wasn't able to follow along as well as I would have liked, sorry."
"It's not your fault if you tried your hardest. Everyone has a different subject that they find hard to puzzle. For example? I once took a modern art class out of curiosity, and it was very hard for me to understand. I still don't get it, I'm afraid."
"You don't offer any special tutoring times do you?"
"I'm afraid not. Not for Astronomy 101, I already have a Astrophysics course that I teach too, and I just didn't have the time option for Astronomy." Professor Penderwick paused as she took in Jeffrey's disappointed face.
"I might have a solution for you." She said slowly, looking thoughtful, "I do know of someone who might tutor you."
"Really?" Jeffrey brightened.
"Give me a few days, I can't promise anything certain."
...
Skye only half-listened to Iantha as she taught her Astronomy class, she was working on her Physics homework, and everything Iantha was discussing, Skye had learned back in eighth grade just from all the reading she had done. She was only attending the Astronomy 101 class as a favor to Iantha and some college kid that her step-mother wanted her tutor. Skye was intrigued, not at the idea of teaching someone (She wasn't exactly the patient type), but because the school board agreed to give her an extra credit if she helped one student per semester.
Skye glanced around the classroom, idly wondering which one of Iantha's students it was that needed help. She knew it was a boy, there were twenty-four students, and sixteen of them were boys, that was two thirds of the class. Skye next focused her attention on examining each one of the boys in the room, row by row. It couldn't be the first one, he had already raised his hand and answered a question correctly; therefore, he was doing well in this class. The next boy was sleeping, couldn't be him, Iantha said that the boy in question did do his best to follow along and Iantha knew what she was talking about. The third boy caught her eye and winked at her. Skye hoped it wasn't him. If it turned out to be that boy, she'd turn down the jo-
"Pearson." Iantha said shortly, and the boy who had winked at Skye jumped, "What's Absolute Magnitude?"
"How bright a star would look if it was 32.6 lightyears away from the sun." Pearson answered promptly.
Skye almost sighed in relief. It couldn't be that guy, he knew his answers even if he did seem like a flirtatious dirtbag. So on to the next one. That guy was definitely fiddling around on his phone, and the guy next to him was doodling thoughtlessly. Skye skipped over the next two boys who were visibly ignoring Iantha and just passing notes back and forth, and instead focused on the boy behind them. He was scrutinizing his book with a squinting look of concentration. He seemed like a likely candidate judging by how intense his focus was.
The boy was tall and gangly looking, freckled and curly-haired, he seemed anxious and he was pressing down so hard with his pencil, Skye saw the tip snap. The boy hurriedly clicked the eraser of his click pencil and glanced up at Iantha's white board, his eyes caught Skye's watching him. He turned bright red and averted his gaze back to his notebook where he was jotting down Iantha's main points. Skye went back to looking over the rest of the male class, but none of them really stood out besides the twitchy boy and Skye's eyes kept returning to him. She felt certain it was him, he seemed to fit the bill perfectly.
...
Jeffrey was about to duck past Professor Penderwick and out the classroom, when she addressed him.
"Hey, Jeffrey? A moment please?"
Jeffrey did a double take and walked back to his teacher's desk, noting with curiosity the blonde girl sitting on the edge of it.
"Yes?" Jeffrey tried to not feel intimidated by the blonde, and how she blatantly scrutinized him. As if she was trying to figure out what was in his head.
"Allow me to introduce you to my stepdaughter, Skye. She goes to school here too. Skye this is Jeffrey Tifton."
Skye leaned forward and extended a hand, but she didn't get off her perch on the desk. Jeffrey shook it with a friendly smile, and nearly winced. Her grip was very strong. Skye nodded at him, but said nothing; so, Jeffrey followed her lead and just inclined his head too.
"Skye is getting her Masters in Astrophysics." Iantha explained, "So she's more than well-versed in Astronomy, and she's agreed to offer to tutor you on Tuesday nights."
Jeffrey should have figured she was the genius type, from what he had seen, she had barely paid attention to Professor Penderwick's lecture. That explained why she had been staring at him so fixedly.
"Are you free for that time?" Skye asked when Jeffrey didn't reply immediately to his Professor's introduction.
"UM...Yeah. Yes, I am free Tuesday nights." Jeffrey hastily confirmed, jumping, "It's very nice of you to agree to teach me."
Skye shrugged as if she could hardly care less whether she was doing him a favor or not.
"Fantastic!" Professor Penderwick smiled brightly, "Why don't you two go along then, and work out the details? I've got to hurry along and grade some papers while I have time."
Skye and Jeffrey obediently made their way out into the hall. Skye held the door open for him, but when Jeffrey thanked her she didn't acknowledge it. For a long space of time they only walked next to each other down the hall in awkward silence. At least it was for Jeffrey, he couldn't read Skye's mood.
"So, what time should we meet?" Skye made Jeffrey twitch.
"Uh..um..Six? Six works for me. How about you?" Jeffrey asked.
Skye thought for a moment or two, her head cocked to the side.
"Yeah. That works. I'll need your number though, just in case something pops up."
"Yeah, sure." Jeffrey pulled out a pen, and reached for her hand to scribble it down, but Skye jerked away.
"Not on my hand." She said flatly, and stopping to pull a small notebook out of her back pocket, she flipped through a few pages of equations and neatly written theories. Then, she handed it to Jeffrey. Jeffrey gave her a bit of a weird look, but scrawled his number out on the blank page with a sparkly pink gel pen. Skye made a face at the messy scribble that took up the whole page, but stuck the notebook back in her pocket without a word.
"All right. See you later." Skye nodded at Jeffrey.
"Yeah, see you." Jeffrey waved.
All Jeffrey could hope was that Skye was better at Astronomy than she was at talking to people. He felt self-conscious when she spoke to him, as if he was a waste of her time and she'd much rather be somewhere else.
...
Skye trudged towards her first tutoring session with Jeffrey. She was deep in thought, planning how they should go about with his lesson plan, or at least she was trying to. Instead, she was thinking back to their short interaction and cringing at herself. Her words kept going through her head, and they sounded robotic and choppy. Skye wasn't used to associating with anyone outside of her family, besides one or two friends. She could tell all her isolation with her books, charts, and telescopes were starting to seclude her from the rest of society more and more. Perhaps that was why Iantha offered her the tutoring job, to try to make her socialize more. Skye was inwardly groaning at the thought of talking to Jeffrey again. He seemed nice enough and he wasn't that bad-looking either, something Skye hated admitting that she had noticed, but if their study sessions were filled with awkward pauses and polite conversations Skye didn't know if she'd be able to stand them.
Perhaps Jane was right about her turning into a mad scientist.
Jeffrey was sitting at one of the tables in the library when Skye walked in, and he waved at her to make sure she had seen him. Skye drew her shoulders together resignedly and walked over. Might as well hurry up and get it over with, then she had all the free time she wanted to visit the enormous observatory and stargaze. Somehow that made Skye feel worse, knowing she could have been there right then if she didn't have this tutoring job.
"Hey." Jeffrey dumped some papers in his backpack casually, making room for Skye at his table. Skye's eye twitched, and she looked at his backpack with distaste. It was probably a disorderly pit of chaos in there. Skye liked things to be neat. "So, I'm doing homework on chapter one, lessons 1.3 and 1.4, and I'm kind of confused about where they talk about parallaxes."
"What's there to be confused about with a parallax." Skye said automatically in disbelief. She didn't mean to be rude, she was just genuinely astounded by the fact that someone would have problems understanding what in her eyes was basic Astronomy, "It's a displacement in the viewed position of a object.."
Jeffrey was watching her with a look of panicked misunderstanding. He wasn't getting a single word that Skye was saying. Skye stopped herself and made herself find a better way to explain herself without all the technical jargon.
"It's-it's like...Here, I'll show you." Skye took one of his sheets of paper and flipped it over, then she drew a circle in the middle of the paper, "This is a star, okay?"
Jeffrey nodded focusing his absolute attention on the crudely drawn circle.
"Now stars are always moving, only our eyes are too close together to see it. So we use two different points in distance to examine a star. Say two telescopes or cameras. One here and one here." Skye drew two stick figures, both at equal opposite directions of the circle; so that if you drew lines connecting the three it would have made a triangle, "Both of these people are looking at the same star, but they're looking at different parts of space behind the star." Skye drew a line from each person that intersected the circle. Then at the end of each line, behind the circle, she drew a square. "These squares are the amounts of space each person can see. Person A can't see the amount of space behind the star that B can, and vice versa. But if these two guys can get together and tell each other the amount of space each one can see they can use math to compute the total amount. With that method of measurement they can keep watching the star, and see how much the star moved between those two squares or points. A parallax is that method of measurement. We use it to see how much a star moves."
"Oh." Jeffrey blinked, "That actually makes a ton of sense."
"Yeah?" Skye was relieved and began to feel a lot more confident. She had this. "Good. What else do you have for me?"
...
Astronomy was really cool! Jeffrey found himself looking forward to each class and each tutoring session with Skye that was sure to follow. Their sessions were really interesting and kind of fun. Of course his good grades were a plus side too, but Jeffrey didn't care about them. He was learning, actually learning and it felt amazing. He knew how far away the sun was from earth. 92.96 miles. He knew that in all actuality there were stars that were even bigger than the sun. Jeffrey could hardly wrap his mind around how...big space was. He had always know it was infinite, he just had never bothered to think what that meant. Astronomy did more than explain the wonders of the universe, it showed him just how mind-boggling everything was. What were the odds for anything?! So many stars, planets, blackholes...Just the idea that humanity existed? It filled Jeffrey with awe. Everything in his life was like a piece of the universe wrapped inside him. It was so for everyone. All the factors that just went into his existence were enormous, almost impossible. What if his father had never been born, or what if his mother had died from something before he had come along? What if one of his ancestors had decided, 'Nah, I don't feeling like doing this today.' and had never met their significant other? He wouldn't exist. His whole life and personality wouldn't exist. What if he had never gone on all those school trips to the Planetarium? What if he had made it into Harvard? Or what if he had decided to take Biology instead of Astronomy? He would have never realized all these new ideas, and he'd be groaning through dissections. He'd have definitely never met Skye.
The idea of not knowing Skye, seemed bizarre, foreign. Impossible. But what was even more impossible were the odds of him ever meeting her in the first place, and it had happened. Jeffrey was obsessed with Astronomy now, and how it was involved in the events of his life. Namely his meetings with Skye. He had misjudged her when he had first met her. He felt as if she was really warming up to him, getting more comfortable. Last Tuesday she had rolled her eyes when he had made a wrong computation, and huffed in exasperation when he made up ridiculous methods other than the correct one to solve the problem.
The more relaxed Jeffrey got, the more Skye opened up too. The more Jeffrey acted as himself and not afraid to ask a stupid question, the more Skye was willing to accept and better help him. She wasn't shy, not exactly. In fact she seemed a little too abrupt and outspoken sometimes. If anything she grew upset with herself for getting overly-worked up, or accidentally making a bitterly sarcastic remark. She was very sarcastic.
"No, Jeffrey, of course that makes total sense. Just go ahead and calculate that rocket's path incorrectly and let it get burned up by the sun. That's the most practical approach, no doubt." Skye rubbed a hand over her face in frustration, "Just go on and keep dividing when you're SUPPOSED TO BE MULTIPLYING!"
"Oh, okay." Jeffrey blinked innocently, and made a show of writing his incorrect answer down, "Thanks, I thought it was the answer."
Skye groaned and slumped over the table, muttering a few choice words on how she was kill Jeffrey and dispose of his body in a gruesome manner.
"I don't think sending me through a food processor is going to hurt me at all if you've already shot me." Jeffrey chuckled and erased his faulty equation. Skye glared at him, and reburied her face in her arms. Jeffrey finished multiplying his numbers and jotted down the right number, and began to stare at Skye's head, absently twirling his pencil. He wasn't really thinking, just content to sit there and enjoy her company in the short moment of silence.
THWUMP!
Jeffrey jumped, startled out of his daze as Pearson dropped his books down loudly. Skye, remarkably, didn't even twitch. Perhaps that had something to do with the fact that her own home was never quiet. Something she had complained to Jeffrey about more than once.
"Stop slamming your books. I know you're doing that to get a rise out of me, just so you can make some lame joke." Skye didn't look up or move.
"Hey, Pearson." Jeffrey emphasized to Skye that they were no longer alone. Skye's shoulders stiffened, but otherwise she did nothing.
"Hey! Mind if I join your study group?" Pearson addressed Skye, "I can use the help in Astronomy."
Liar. Jeffrey bristled. Pearson got top grades in Astronomy.
"Group? What group?" Jeffrey made a dramatic point of turning his head and looking in every direction, and did his best at looking confused, "I'm the only one here. Is it my help you want? Because I mean, I'm not that good but I'll do my best!"
"I was talking to your tutor." Pearson gave Jeffrey an irritated look, "She's sitting right there."
The she in question was looking up now, and grinning. Jeffrey knew she wanted to see how far he would take this. He'd show her alright.
"Tutor?! What tutor?" Jeffrey laughed with all the casual ease of a captured soldier being interrogated by the enemy, "Sorry, Man, I don't have a tutor. I wish I did. It'd really help me out with this chapter, you know. I don't understand a word of this stuff."
Jeffrey held his textbook upside down as if to prove to Pearson just how lost he was. Skye snorted.
"No, seriously though." Pearson attempted, "You don't mind if I sit down do you?"
Skye didn't reply, and Jeffrey continued with his charade.
"Who are you talking to? No-one's sitting there, so go right ahead. Can you sit in that chair though?" Jeffrey pointed where Skye was situated, "My bag's on this chair and I really don't feel like moving it."
"Dude, will you stop that? It's not funny." Pearson was growing more and more frustrated, and Skye had begun to flick paperclips at Jeffrey's face to see if he could continue under that kind of pressure.
"I'm totally serious." Jeffrey frowned, as if insulted that Pearson thought otherwise. A paperclip hit his nose, but he ignored it and tried not to budge as he saw Skye aim another one at him, "If you want to act like there's someone else here when there's not, just leave me alone. Your little joke act is kind of annoying, and I know you're just trying to prank me or something."
Pearson grew red.
"He's going to do that the entire time." Skye spoke up for the first time, "If it annoys you I suggest you just leave."
"No, it's fine." Pearson tried to regain his cool, "I'll just sit here then?"
He bent over to move Jeffrey's backpack off the chair.
"Hey! Not cool, Man!" Jeffrey rose from his own chair in protest. "I said not to move my bag. Just sit in that seat, right there, where there's nothing on it."
That was once again Skye's chair, and because the table was positioned against the wall, the only seat left was the one that held Jeffrey's out of bounds backpack.
"WILL YOU STOP THAT?" Pearson was obviously past humoring Jeffrey, "STOP BEING SUCH A SMART ALEC!"
Before Jeffrey could work in a reply to that, Skye got up from her chair.
"Hey, you don't want to deal with him than you don't get me as a tutor, got it?" Skye challenged him.
Pearson looked at her from where he was towering over Jeffrey threateningly. At six foot two and with considerable bulk, he looked like a minotaur next to the shorter scrawnier brunette. Pearson glanced back at Jeffrey, and then grabbed his own books back off the table and turned away in disgust.
"Yeah, go on and find someone who actually believes you can talk to ghosts." It was petty and stupid, and Jeffrey really shouldn't have said it, but it was too late to take it back.
Pearson dragged Jeffrey up by his shirt collar and pinning the smaller boy against the wall he punched him in the face.
...
Jeffrey was lucky, he only got a punch in the face. Pearson got a painful slam to his solar plexus, and when he doubled over from Skye's blow, she landed a solid one on his nose too. Pearson went down like a sack of flour, but Skye ignored his pained groans and the librarian running over, in favor of helping Jeffrey up.
"You okay?" Skye rolled him over, from where he was curled up cradling his eye.
Jeffrey groaned, and Skye tried to pull his hand off his face, but Jeffrey wouldn't budge.
"I got a fifty ton wrecking ball to my eye." Jeffrey wheezed, his voice strangled with pain, "Do you think I'm alright?"
"Let me look at it." Skye insisted.
"NO." But Skye persisted and managed to pull his hands down. There were a few tears pouring out of Jeffrey's eyes, though he was doing his best to grit his teeth through it.
"Were you just trying to make sure I didn't see you cry?" Skye was relieved there was nothing worse than some swelling starting up around Jeffrey's eye and nose, "Relax, I know how much it hurts, besides Pearson's blubbering like a baby, and he's only got a bloody nose and the breath knocked out of him."
Jeffrey looked up at Skye with a mixture of pain and awe.
"Only?!"
...
"Skye Penderwick?" The grizzled Police Officer called over to her bench with a grin, and Skye looked up resignedly, "We're done with you, and your step-mother's here to pick you up. Just promise that you won't go around beating everyone up and we'll be satisfied."
Skye only managed a weak smile in reply before Iantha swept her up in a hug. Just as quickly, her step-mother released her and stepped back with a stern expression. Jeffrey was behind her, and waved weakly from where he was holding a cold-compress to his swollen eye.
"How could you just punch him like that?" Iantha demanded sternly, "You know violence is not a solution."
"He punched Jeffrey first." Skye pointed out weakly.
"And that was inexcusable, but you don't retaliate in the same way. Look where that got you! What if Pearson had pressed charges?"
"I would have pressed charges against him back." Jeffrey intervened, "He knows that he's just as much on shallow ground as Skye, the only reason he's not here is because they took him to the E.R for his nose."
"Did I break it?"
"No, it's just sprained."
Skye barely avoided looking disappointed. Jeffrey seemed to read her mind though, because he grinned at her and mouthed "thank you". He didn't dare do more with Iantha standing right there and continuing her scolding. Skye tried to put her whole attention on Iantha's lecture instead of grinning back at Jeffrey. Honestly, she had been more swept up in the need to make sure Pearson didn't beat up Jeffrey worse, than she had been in avenging her friend. Though that was a bonus. She should have broken the jerk's nose for hitting Jeffrey like that.
Skye was shocked by that. Jeffrey was her friend now, it had been instinct to stand up and defend him like that. She had been worried about him, scared to death that his gangly frame hadn't been able to take the punch. Not to mention how relieved she had been when it had turned out he was alright. Skye hadn't seen it until then, but she really enjoyed their study sessions. She enjoyed being around Jeffrey, and looked forward to their Tuesday nights.
He was kind of her best friend. Nothing more of course. Absolutely not. Skye would never admit to more than that, especially to herself.
...
"Seriously? You've had it for three days." Skye rolled her eyes at Jeffrey's complaining. They had run into each other outside the cafeteria and Jeffrey had taken the opportunity to whine about his eye, "Honestly, you came off lucky. You have no idea how much flak I went under from my Dad, Iantha, and Rosy. Not to mention all Jane's questions to figure out what it feels like seeing your "enemy fall by your hand"."
"It really hurts though." Jeffrey pouted pathetically, "You should feel more sorry for me. I took the blow for you, didn't I?"
"You got punched because you couldn't keep your mouth shut. If you recall, I punched him for you. You were a little too busy collapsing in a heap and writhing in pain." Skye rolled her eyes.
"Same difference." Jeffrey waved at a friend as they walked along.
"Hey, Jeffrey! That's a real beaut!" His friend whistled at his eye as he walked back.
"You should see the other guy!" Jeffrey called back. Skye snorted.
"Because you had anything to do with it."
"Hey! I was the one who had goaded him, wasn't I?"
"Exactly. It was all your fault."
"Then I had everything to do with it!" Jeffrey beamed.
"I thought your eye hurt. You seem awful proud of yourself for being in pain."
"Owww." Jeffrey automatically put a hand over his eye, "Thanks for reminding me."
"Here. Let me look at it." Skye tilted his head up, and attempted to take his hand off.
"Haven't you put me through enough agony!?' Jeffrey said dramatically and fought her off. They struggled for a moment or two, just messing around before Jeffrey took his hand down with a sigh and inclined his head so that Skye could peer at his eye in the light.
They both froze when they realized just how close together they were standing, and how Skye was cupping his face to examine the injury. Skye pulled her hands back abruptly and they both leaped apart. Jeffrey could feel his heart pounding, and his face felt warm where Skye's hands had been. Skye turned beet red, and they both struggled to break the tension in the air.
"See you Tuesday." Skye blurted and hurried off in the opposite direction. Jeffrey stood rooted to the spot, watching the girl's back until she disappeared from sight. He staggered back until he was leaning against the wall, trying to make sense of why his breathing felt so constricted and what that feeling in his chest was.
He didn't...No. He couldn't. Could he? He wasn't...falling for Skye. Was he?
...
Jeffrey tried not to let his thoughts run with him. It definitely wasn't a date, but star-gazing on a beach? It sounded...kind of...well romantic. And Skye had said it would be after hours so the beach would be empty. It couldn't be like a...date, right? Skye was the least romantic person he'd ever met. Jeffrey reread her text message.
"Hey, you know Carson Beach? Would you like to go stargazing there Tuesday night? I know a guy, and we can get in after hours so nobody will be there."
Jeffrey hesitated, his fingers hovered over the letter pad of his phone, then he decided and made a plunge.
"Sure. What time?"
Skye texted back two minutes later.
"The usual time for our study sessions. I thought it would help you with your final."
Jeffrey had hyperventilated for no reason, and he felt kinda foolish. Why hadn't he realized it was obviously just another study date? She had stated they'd be going Tuesday, it was obvious that it could have been nothing else. Still, Jeffrey had been sensing some hesitation and awkwardness since that day in the hall. It was almost making it painful to study together, the way they avoided eye contact. Skye hadn't noticed anything had she?
...
Skye was working on setting up her telescope on the rocks of Carson Beach, and trying to avoid acknowledging Jeffrey sitting behind her watching the waves out on the shore line. It was cold. The wind swept in from the waves, and reminded them that it was barely spring and had been unusual cold of late. Skye breathed on her freezing hands, before she began to adjust the knobs on her telescope. She tilted her camouflage baseball cap way back on her head, and leaned forward to look through her telescope. She swiveled her most prized object up towards the night sky carefully.
"It's a pretty nice beach." Jeffrey cleared his throat.
Skye pulled back from her telescope to look at all the garbage, broken and seaweed crowding the sand below. Carson Beach wasn't very clean, definitely not the kind of place she'd go on vacation to. It was more the kind of beach you went to to step on a piece of broken glass and get infection. She glanced back at Jeffrey incredulously, but didn't say anything. Instead, she opted to merely shake her head and go back to her telescope.
Jeffrey tugged on his hoodie sleeves behind her, trying to cover his ungloved hands, Skye could see him out of the corner of her eye.
"Here." Skye passed him back her thermos, "That'll warm them."
Jeffrey accepted it, gladly wrapping his fingers around the thermos' heat.
"Peppermint tea?"
Skye looked back, bewildered, only to see that Jeffrey had taken a sip of her drink.
"Batty, made it for me. She makes it every time I go out to star-gaze here. It...it reminds me of my Mom." Skye revealed the last part almost without thinking. She didn't talk to people about her mom much, but Skye didn't mind Jeffrey. He didn't try to force her open.
"It's nice." Jeffrey assured her, taking another drink.
"Don't drink it all." Skye tossed back at him carelessly, making one final adjustment, "Alright, it's all set. Get over here."
Jeffrey screwed the cover back on Skye's thermos and crawled over to her obediently. Skye moved aside from the eye piece and motioned for Jeffrey to take a look.
"Try not to move it." She warned, "Do you see those three bright stars? They're Orion's belt. Got it?"
Jeffrey nodded and then pulled back.
"Alright, now I'm going to turn it a little to the South here." Skye narrated as she moved the telescope, " Just below them, that's the Orion Nebula. Can you remember what that is?"
As Skye pulled back, Jeffrey gave a little jolt, and tried to focus on her question, almost as if he hadn't been listening totally and just watching her. Skye pushed that thought out of her head, and listened to his answer.
"It's a gas cloud." Jeffrey explained as he looked up at the nebula, "There's hundreds of stars forming in there right now."
"And how are stars formed?"
"Stars are forged in extremely cold temperatures."
"Forged?" Skye interrupted
"It sounds cool." Jeffrey looked back from the telescope to grin at her, "Anyways stars form where there are large collections of dust and gas, probably why there's so many being made in the nebula right now. Anyways, in those super cold temps, the gases are turning molecular and their atoms are binding together to make a star."
"Good." Skye smiled at him. Jeffrey smiled back at her, reddened by her praise and the cold. His smile made something in Skye's stomach twist, and she quickly took control of the telescope to find something else for him to look at it.
...
Skye had run out of everything she had to show Jeffrey that had to do with his studywork, and so she just let him take control of the telescope and look for things to ask her about, passing the thermos back and forth as the time inched along.
"What's that?" Jeffrey pointed the telescope at the water, "Oh, just a log. Thought it was a dead body."
"That wouldn't be surprising to me." Skye scoffed, "Not on a beach like this. Turn the telescope back to the sky."
Jeffrey obeyed, turning it so he was looking at her.
"Hilarious." Skye said dryly.
"Ewww. I can see up your nose." Jeffrey cackled. Skye rolled her eyes and moved the telescope back towards the stars. Jeffrey looked up at all the little distant lights, made of luminous gases and dust. He really could understand Skye's passion for them. They were beautiful, intriguing, and just out of reach. Just like the girl next to him, Jeffrey realized with a smile.
"What's so funny?" Skye glared at the thermos Jeffrey had emptied.
"Nothing." Jeffrey coughed and swallowed his smile. Skye cocked a suspicious eyebrow, but didn't question him, "What's your favorite star?"
Skye was quiet for a moment, just staring up at the twinkling lights above her. Jeffrey wondered if she was ignoring him, or was too lost to have heard him.
"Polaris." She said at last, matter-of-factly, taking her telescope from him. Jeffrey could see the star without the help of the telescope easily.
"The North star?" Jeffrey had expected something more impressive from her. Something hard to find, something that could only be found at a certain time and condition.
"That's the one." Skye murmured, gesturing for him to put his eye to the lens. Jeffrey did, looking at Polaris. It was bright, beautiful, but the same as it had ever been. There had to be some reasoning behind her choice. When Jeffrey pulled back, Skye leaned forward to look at her favorite star again.
"Why Polaris?"
"It's always there. It's always been a source of direction and navigation. My Mom showed it to me." Skye stated each reason with no emphasis or inflation of tone. And she didn't move away from her star-gazing, "It's what got me hooked. That and all the math."
Jeffrey felt stunned. He wondered if he was the only one Skye had told that to. It seemed personal, and something the reclusive girl would keep close to herself. He wondered if she thought the stars were just out of reach too, but for a different reason. His hand acted without his mind telling him to, and Jeffrey rested it on top of Skye's own cold fingers clutching a knob on her scope. Skye didn't move. And they both felt frozen in time. Then, Skye let out a long shuddery breath, a puff of fog dispersing as the hot air met the cold air. Jeffrey pulled his hand back abashedly.
"...Thanks. For taking me."
"No problem." Skye began to take apart her telescope and put the pieces in their case, "I thought it'd be something nice to do for our last tutor session."
"Last?"
"Well, tomorrow is your final. You won't need me after that." Skye spoke casually, but didn't look at Jeffrey.
"Right." Jeffrey's tongue felt like lead, "Well, thank you for all your help then."
"You're welcome." Skye shrugged diffidently, "Have a good final."
There was nothing left for Jeffrey to do or say, so he slowly made his way back to his car while Skye finished packing. His head was a jumble of confused thoughts and his stomach was curling, but what was he supposed to do?
...
Skye heaved up her telescope case and picked up the thermos from where it was lying, and made her way back to where her car was parked. Lost in her thoughts, trying to piece together why she felt so empty that everything was over, Skye didn't notice at first that Jeffrey was still in the parking lot by her car.
Jeffrey cleared his throat, and Skye looked up with a start. Neither said anything at first, then Jeffrey shoved his hands in his hoodie's pockets and plunged.
"I was wondering if you'd be able to tutor me again next semester? See, I figured on taking Astronomy 102. Physics sounds like a good idea too, I think I'll take Physics. I heard Calculus and Algebra were safe bets; so, I should probably sign up for those..."
"What-what are trying to get at?" Skye's heart beat fast.
"I guess..."Jeffrey tried to form words, and then collapsed with a defeated sigh, "I want to keep seeing you."
Skye only stared at him for a moment.
"...And your first idea is to take multiple Mathematical and Astronomy classes you hate and don't technically need for your major?" Skye asked slowly.
"I thought it sounded like a good plan." Jeffrey claimed defensively.
"As opposed to maybe just asking, 'Do you want to hang out more'?" Skye pointed out. stowing her telescope in the back of her car.
"Do you want to hang out more?"
"In what way?"
"...I-I was hoping as two people dating." Jeffrey crossed his arms, trying to be as cool and collected as possible, "Unless you'd just prefer to be friends."
"I meant what did you want to do while we're hanging out?" Skye was red, "Not what you wanted to be."
Jeffrey's eyes grew large and he flushed thirty different hues of crimson. Skye didn't mean to laugh, she wasn't one to laugh at someone who was obviously embarrassed, but it was impossible to avoid. Jeffrey was so flustered and she could tell he was trying his hardest. She really appreciated the effort and it helped ease her into a fairly confident state, knowing Jeffrey was even worse at this than she was.
"When?"Skye fiddled with her keys.
"...Pardon?"
"When do you want to out on the date?"
Jeffrey went into shock for a few minutes, and scanned Skye's face for signs that she was joking.
"Uh..."
"I'm free Friday night." Skye continued, "We could always do something then."
"..."
"Or Saturday morning if you prefer."
"..."
"Well? Say something, Dork."
"I DO! I mean, yes. Cool! What time? Are you joking?" Jeffrey spouted a whole bunch of babble in the hopes that there was at least one thing of use in there.
"No, I'm not joking." Skye said seriously, "Were you?"
"No! Absolutely not. It's just.." Jeffrey struggled, "I wasn't even planning on asking you, let alone you agreeing! It just kinda...came out. I absolutely one hundred percent want to go on a date with you. Saturday works fine for me. What time?"
Jeffrey was wearing his resolute frown, the one Skye noticed he made whenever he wanted to make sure he was paying complete attention and understood what was going on.
"Eight? We could go out for breakfast."
"Breakfast sounds perfect." Jeffrey nodded. Once he started nodding, it was almost as if he couldn't stop. Skye put out a hand and stilled his bobbing head. Jeffrey smiled at her sheepishly.
"Your face is really pink." She told him, "You should probably hurry up and get out of the cold."
"It's not from the cold." Jeffrey assured her, eyeing the hand Skye still held against his face.
Skye took her hand down at his comment and tried to look as if she was unaffected by his words. Then Jeffrey grinned at her, and she couldn't stop the fluttering in her stomach, which annoyed her immensely. Skye was always fully in command of her feelings and emotions; so, why on earth did Jeffrey change all that?
"See you Saturday." Skye said sternly, more so at herself than Jeffrey.
"Yeah." Jeffrey's face dawned with unexpected happiness, as if he had only just fully grasped the fact that he and Skye were going on a date. Skye felt the same, which was probably why she had no control of her next actions and did a very unSkye-like thing.
Skye kissed Jeffrey on the cheek.
...
A parallax is a tool of measurement. Sometimes two people see two different sides of the same story. They see themselves falling for the other, but not the other falling for them until they meet in the middle and compare pictures. Then they can see how much their relationship has moved.
...
{Bonus}
Iantha walked to the front door, with a bewildered expression. Who could be knocking at Eight in the morning on a Saturday?
"Jeffrey?" To say Iantha was surprised would be an understatement, "What are you doing here? Is this about your scoring on the final? Because I already sent you your grade, and I can't change it."
"No." Jeffrey fidgeted, looking kind of embarrassed, "I'm here for-"
"He's here for me."
Iantha turned to see an equally red Skye. It took a moment, and then it clicked.
"You're going on a date." It wasn't a question it was a fact, and it made Iantha smile.
"Please don't tell Jane." Skye pleaded.
"Tell me what?" Jane stumbled into the hall, coming from upstairs. Her eyes widened at the sight of a stranger standing at the front door, "Is that a boy!?"
Skye rushed through the door, yanking Jeffrey along by his arm and shutting the door behind her.
Iantha smiled. She felt satisfied. Not that she had planned this, but it was a very welcoming development. Jeffrey was a nice boy and Skye was always talking about him, really it should have come as no shock. She was so delighted she hardly noticed Jane's barrage of excited questions.
In her original prompt, Readwriteedit suggested that I use the observatory that MIT and Harvard college students share. Unfortunately, it didn't work completely, because they use a radio telescope there. I know Skye would have loved teaching Jeffrey about radio telescopes (They involve huge satellites and computers), but I wanted a scene where they could stargaze with a conventional, classic telescope; so, I had to use the beach.
Also, if you didn't catch it, the scene where Jeffrey is about to write his phone number on Skye's hand is a reference to Readwriteedit's "Worth It.". Please check it out if you haven't already.
KoalaLover-ABC-123: Sorry I made you cry with that last update (not really), but I'm happy you liked that. Haha, that worked out great than, how the story turned to be about Rosie, just when you were comparing Elizabeth to her. I'm glad. Sorry, I went so long without an update, thanks for welcoming me back.
GM01: Well you're the one to thank for that story's update so, give yourself a solid pat on the back, Yeah, I couldn't let Martin get stuck bringing anyone but Elizabeth to the prom, but I needed to give them a little push too. I'm glad you approved.
Nijibrush: You always know just how to flatter me, to be honest it isn't too hard for me to write Elizabeth, just because I get to create her story almost as if she is an oc, I just have a few guidelines to help from the very little we hear of her in the books. Young Martin is, I must confess, very fun to write, because I imagine him as just being a shy, studious boy who goes along with Elizabeth on everything because he just adores her. I'm glad you approve of how I went with them.
P.S to everyone: Look out for Claire, she's about to make an appearance because young Martin and Elizabeth have been hogging the spotlight.