"Hey, Keely, I'm gonna hang out with Felicia and a few other friends... you want to come along?"

Keely raised her head off her pillow to look at her younger sister and pulled one of her headphones out of her ear. "Huh?"

"I'm going out with a few friends. I wanted to know if you wanted to come with me."

"Oh. Uh, thanks, but I think I'll pass." Keely smiled and let her head fall back on her pillow.

"Um... you sure about that? You haven't really been out of the house lately. Mom's worried about you. I'm worried about you."

"What worry? There's no need to worry about me, I'm totally okay."

"Well, she just thought it would be a good idea to try and get you into going out. She said you haven't been yourself lately."

"Of course I've been myself! Who else would I be? You?"

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Can we stop with the deflections? Are you sure you don't want to go out tonight?"

"Absolutely. Not really in the mood tonight."

"You haven't really been in the mood for a couple of weeks now. I mean, you know I'm here for you, yeah?"

"I know. Now go be here for me somewhere else."

The younger sister heaved a sigh. "You know, you can't just lie back and expect things to change on their own; you've got to be the change you want to see in the world."

Keely raised an eyebrow as she heard her sister's advice. "Who said that?"

"Who said what?"

"'Be the change you want to see in the world'."

"I did."

"No you didn't."

"Yeah I did."

"When?"

"Just now."

"No, earlier!"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Keely rolled her eyes. "Never mind."

"Come on. Come with us! It'll be fun!"

"I'm too tired," Keely lied. "I didn't get enough sleep last night."

"Just come out with us!"

"I just don't want to, okay?! Now will you leave me alone? Get out!"

"I—" She fell silent, looking at her older sister pityingly. "...Okay. If you're sure..." Bonnie slowly walked out of the room, then softly shook her head and shut the door.

Once the door closed, Keely moaned. That was a little much, wasn't it? She was just trying to cheer me up... Even if I didn't want to go out with them, the least I could have done was been nice about it. Maybe I should've just sucked it up and gone anyway...?

No, I did the right thing. Someone would have ruined it. Maybe not one of her friends. Maybe not her, maybe not me. But someone would have.

Isn't that the kicker? Someone always comes along to ruin something. Just when I think I've finally found a quiet place or something, or if I'm just in the company of friends, some moron will come along and say something stupid or hurtful to me. It'll probably happen when I die. At my funeral, someone will say something rude about me. I just know it.

Her phone sat invitingly on her dresser. She reached over and picked it up, browsed through the contacts, and hit the dial button.

"Hey there—" The voice on the other end was quickly cut off by Keely.

"Vee, hey, listen, sorry if I'm interrupting something, but–..." Keely trailed off as she heard the voice continue.

"...sorry I missed you, but just leave a message and I'll get back to you. Ta-ta..."

Keely sighed as she heard a beep. "Uh, hey, Via. Sorry I missed you. Okay, um... um... okay, I don't really know where to, um... can you just... sorry... yeah, can you just call- call me back when you get this?"

She quickly disconnected and set her phone down on her desk. Her eyes slowly tracked around the room, eventually falling on the lights coming from the house across the street.

She threw back her curtains and opened her window. The cool fall air blew past her as she stepped out onto the roof and sat down. She turned her face skyward and gazed at the stars, so dimly glowing in the night sky.

The air was cool, but dry. The streetlights were bright, but the light was impersonal, cold, almost dead. The leaves still on the trees blew softly in the wind, but the façade of the house sheltered her from the breeze.

A falling star tracked down through the sky, leaving a dim trail immediately behind it. Her eyes tracked the fading light until it disappeared, burning up completely in the atmosphere. She sighed deeply and brought a hand to her face, rubbing her eyebrows.

If Bonnie was really worried about me, I mean really worried, she wouldn't have taken no for an answer. Or, even better, she would've stayed here with me instead of going out.

Although... why should she have to be miserable with me?

No, that's not even the point. She left. She knew I wasn't feeling alright and she still left.

Even if I did kind of blow up at her, she should have realized. She should have taken that as a cry for help, if anything.

Right, an angry outburst as a cry for help. Can you blame her for walking away? I would've done the same thing.

Stars blinked in and out, seemingly dancing in her vision.

She heard someone step out onto the roof behind her. She glanced down at her feet, then took a breath and sighed. "What happened to Felicia and all of them?" she asked, without even looking back. Maybe I'm dumb, she mused.

"They'll be fine without me. I'm not entirely convinced you will be. Mind if I have a seat?"

"Go ahead. It's not my roof."

Bonnie slowly sat down next to Keely and stretched her legs out in front of her. "So what's up? Why are you being so schizoid?"

Keely leaned her head back. "Rough day, I suppose."

"I don't– ....why, what happened today?"

"Got held up at the coffee shop."

"Held up?" Bonnie's voice was suddenly filled with cautious concern.

"You know, it took a while to close. Josie wanted to talk to me for a while, is all."

"Oh... I thought you meant like, a stick-up."

"Oh, no," Keely said with a chuckle. "Not a chance."

"Okay... so.... how are you holding up about..."

"About.... what?" Keely asked, despite the fact that she knew what was coming.

"You know, regarding... Phil..." Bonnie eventually said, frowning after she saw her sister's eyes mist over with the mention of the boy's name.

"Fine. Fine as I could ever be."

"You don't mean that. You know it's not true."

Keely shook her head. "So I'm not completely over it. I'm getting there. Isn't that all that matters? Do you really need to check in on me every other day?"

"I wouldn't need to if you would just open up to me for once instead of shutting me out like this."

"I'm not shutting you out."

"Then prove it. Tell me exactly how you feel."

Keely heaved a deep sigh and turned to her sister. "You want to know how I feel? Fine. I miss him, okay? I miss him a lot. Every time I see a happy couple or a boy looking at me that way, part of me can't stop thinking about him. And I hate it. It's like... part of me just wants to erase him from my life."

"Why would you want to do that?"

"Because I loved him, alright? And now I'll never see him again."

"Well, sure, but you've got to learn to love your hate, Keely..."

"'Love your hate'?"

"You know... appreciate the bad things in your life as well as the good. You have to experience failure before you can appreciate success. You have to endure the lowest of the low before you can really embrace true happiness. And you can't really embrace true love before you go through heartbreak."

"Heartbreak," Keely emphasized. "My heart doesn't feel broken, it feels... destroyed. I don't want to have to feel like this. It's reached the point where I try to avoid anything and everything that reminds me of him."

"Guess that explains a lot... like why you gave up broadcasting when he left..." Bonnie muttered, more to herself than to Keely.

Keely turned her head back up to the skies.

"You know, you didn't change, Keely. Your situation changed, sure, but you didn't. You didn't need to reinvent yourself like this."

"Yeah, I did. You might not get it now, but—"

"No! I don't get it now, and I never will get it, because it doesn't make sense! Would you stop telling me that?"

Keely bit her lip. "Okay, fine. It's just... I mean... you know how they say you'll know if it's true love?"

Bonnie nodded. "Sure, but—"

"Well, I knew, Bonnie... I just... I feel so... incomplete, I guess. I don't know."

"Hmm..." Bonnie stood up again, looking down at Keely. "Well, you're making it painfully obvious that this is either something I can't help you with, or more likely something you won't let me help you with, so I'm just gonna leave you with this... time heals everything. It won't hurt so much after a while. I promise that."

"But it's been so long already..."

"Well... it could take about as long as you were with him... maybe longer, maybe shorter. There's no set time, Keely, it just... it takes as long as it takes. Don't rush yourself."

Keely nodded. Her sister knelt beside her and hugged her, and Keely gave a one-armed hug in return.

Bleary-eyed, Keely looked back up at the sky.

Even the stars are weeping, she thought to herself, though still aware that the tears were her own.

Weeping stars... an empathetic night sky... Nature mourning the loss of happiness.

A noise from inside caught her attention. She climbed back in through the window and noticed her phone buzzing on her desk.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Keely, are you okay?"

"...Yeah, why?"

"Oh, good," Via sighed in relief. "It's just, the message you left, you sounded a little troubled."

"Mm. Just a long day, I guess."

"Yeah, I reckon so. So what did you want to talk about?"

"I... don't remember, actually," Keely said with a small frown.

"... you sure you're okay?"

Keely pressed her lips together and rubbed her forehead with the heel of her free hand. "Positive. Sorry to bother you."

"Keely I—"

Keely disconnected the call and stepped back out onto the roof.

"At least it's night," she muttered to herself. Nobody around.

She angrily kicked a few leaves off the roof and watched as they floated gently to the ground.

Fighting off a sudden urge to scream, she dug her fingernails into her palms and swallowed back an angry lump rising in her throat. She slammed her fists against her thighs and let out a desperate sigh, running her fingers through her hair.

She kicked another leaf off the roof and retreated back inside.