The Day We Left Earth

Strange The Things You'll Find in Two Worlds

One day, while Asphero and Quentiya were having one of there many dates in the common area, Lendich and I skipped lunch to go investigate.

"We never find anything", he slumped his shoulders while walking.

"And we never will if we don't stop looking."

He stopped and kept me against the wall by stretching one arm. "What if we never find anything? What if there is nothing to find?"

I pushed him playfully. "You're being silly. There's restricted areas for a reason."

We walked down a corridor, past some military personnel, and realized that we didn't know where we were.

"Hey, have we come down here before, Lendich?"

I stopped and looked out the window at the barren wasteland. I said Mars, but it could have been a giant rock that was bigger than Pluto but didn't have the same orbiting pattern to become an actual planet.

He stood behind me and put his arm around my waist. He could tell I was nervous.

"Mia, calm down. Everything will be okay."

I turned around and hugged him, tears welling in my eyes. "Have we come down here before?"

"No", he gently spoke.

I didn't like being in new places, especially if I had never seen or heard anything about that specific place. It reminded me too much of Sandrayik, and how if we didn't go into the middle of nowhere, he probably wouldn't be dead.

"But don't worry, Mia. You told me about Hansel and Gretel, and this time, there's no witch trying to catch us."

I smiled as he brought up the past. History was the one thing that kept me calm.

"We left a trail of ribbon, not bread crumbs. We know our way out of the woods."

I took his hand and we retraced our steps back to our rooms. The whole way there, I looked out the window. About halfway to our rooms, when we knew where we were, I pulled his arm back, so he knew to stop.

He slowly looked at me and came to my side, staring out the window I was looking out of. The stars. There were so many of them.

"The stars look so beautiful", I told him.

He barely acknowledged them, but kept looking out the window."The stars are always out."

"Yes, but sometimes the beautiful things are ones that have always been there, and you just haven't noticed."

I realized how I was holding his hand, and remembered how we had interacted since we met. Maybe he thinks we are more than friends. Maybe he wants to be more than friends.

I let go of his hand and stared out the window. My breathing started to pick up and he could tell that something was wrong again.

"Mia, are you okay?"

I closed my eyes and steadied my breathing. I looked at his reflection in the glass once my breathing was normal. "Do you like me?"

I watched his brows lace together. "Of course I like you, we're best friends."

I sighed and turned around to face him. "But do you like me?"

He looked at the floor and smirked. I think I saw his cheeks turn a shade of red.

"What?" I asked him.

He looked at me and started to laugh. Maybe it was all in my head.

I frowned and started walking to my room. Everyone was still eating lunch, so if I got to my room fast enough, I could lock myself away and cry for a bit. I had messed everything up.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and stopped. "Mia", Lendich whispered. "I don't like you."

I shook my head. "I'm sorry", I whispered back.

He turned me around and placed a soft kiss on my lips. "I love you."

I smiled, and then thought about how awkward it would be because my brother and his sister were dating.
I let out a nervous laugh.

"Won't it be weird because our siblings are dating?"

"Dating? Asphero and Quentiya? They're not dating! Quentiya has a boyfriend."

Now it was my time to furrow my brows. "But I thought... they just spend so much time together."

"Because they're best friends!"

"But... when does she spend time with her boyfriend?"

He raised an eyebrow. "They're always in my room talking. It gets annoying sometimes."

I raised an eyebrow, mimicking him. "But I thought she was talking to Asphero."

"Asphero works then. I thought he had told you that he got a job."

I shook my head and lowered my eyebrow as he lowered his.

He put his arm around my waist and brought me closer to him. "I asked your brother if I could ask you out."

I hummed, glad he changed the subject somewhat. I didn't like it when I didn't know something about my family. "What did he say?"

"What do you think?" he kissed me again, and during the kiss, I looked briefly out the window.

It was a barren waste land, just like Earth, but somehow it was more inhabitable? Everything was the same, except the fact that whatever piece of rock we were on didn't have an atmosphere.

Putting science aside, everything was the same, physically and emotionally.

It was the same as me and Sandrayik. It started out as neighbours, which then turned into friends, and then into a couple. I was just hoping that this time, it wouldn't end in sadness.