Eastern Lights

by Brittainy Cherry

  The more he spoke, the more I dreaded the fact I wouldn’t get any more of his words after tonight.

  He brushed his thumb across the bridge of his nose. “What was the nice lie? To my question about how being in the foster system affected you?”

  “Oh.” I sat up a bit straighter and gave him a big, fake smile. “My upbringing had no effect on my life. I believe we create our own life stories. The past doesn’t define us.”

  “I see that it’s a lie in your eyes.”

  I turned to look out into the night. “That probably means you’re looking too closely.”

  “Can’t help it. Looking at you feels like the best choice I’ve made in a while.”

  I laughed, trying to play off the butterflies he was sending through me. “Is that a line you use on all the girls?”

  “Nah, but seeing how it made you blush, I might start,” he teased.

  “Well, you’re going to have to try harder. I’m not blushing—my cheeks are just cold.”

  He raised an alarmed brow. “We can go inside. It is a bit—”

  “I’m not complaining. I’m just trying to find a lie to cover up the fact that I’m blushing.”

  “You’re beautiful.”

  I rolled my eyes and laughed at his abrupt statement. “Shut up. You already got me to blush. No need to dig deeper.”

  “No, I mean it. You’re beautiful. I don’t even mean your looks, but those are spot-on, too. I mean your spirit. That’s beautiful.”

  A wave of shyness found me as I shifted myself and crossed my legs like a pretzel. “You don’t even know me.”

  “As I said, I’m good at reading people.”

  “You aren’t the only one gifted at that. I grew up a solid introvert who prided herself on being a people watcher. I learned to read people at a young age.”

  “Is that so?”

  “It is. That paired with the knowledge I’ve picked up from watching Criminal Minds, and well, I’m pretty much a professional people reader.”

  “Okay, Red.” He turned to face me directly and crossed his legs in front of him. Our knees brushed against one another as he raised a brow in intrigue. “Read me.”

  I rubbed my hands together. “Game on. Okay.” My eyes moved across his body, taking in his entire being. His shoulders were relaxed. He was fit, as made clear by the bicep muscles showing through his costume. He had a nice-sized—

  Don’t look at his package, Aaliyah. Stop staring at Captain’s America.

  I quickly redirected my eyes from his lower region back up to his face, the face that had a smug smirk and eyes filled with mirth. He’d definitely caught me looking at what he was packing, and the embarrassment building inside me was enough to make me want to crawl into a cave and die.

  But still, I couldn’t turn down the challenge of reading him.

  “You work out a lot. Not to stay built, but as a form of escapism. Your day-to-day life is hectic, which you don’t mind. You like being busy because it keeps you from overthinking. But then, when you get alone time, you get lonely, so you hit the gym to focus on something else. You’re a workaholic, and your mother probably tells you to take breaks. You’re driven and passionate, though sometimes you fear you might not achieve everything you dream of. You will, though. That’s not me reading you. It’s just me knowing.”

  He smiled.

  I liked it.

  I continued. “You’re a people person. People like you instantly due to your charm and charisma. When you engage with someone, you really focus on them. You listen not to respond, but to really hear what is being said to you. You’re a student of life, and you do your homework on the regular. And you miss your mother. I can tell that because when you speak about her, there’s a momentary break where your smile falls when she comes to your mind. Sometimes, you consider moving back home to care for her and be close again. Then you realize you can’t change the world by sitting in the same pond of life.” I clapped my hands together. “Oh! And you’re a Leo.”

  He narrowed his eyes at me for a second before pointing a stern finger at me. “Turns out, I don’t like being read.”

  “Don’t worry—most people probably won’t read you. I’m just gifted.”

  “How did you know I was a Leo?”

  “Oh, that was the easiest—from your driven personality and easy-to-approach persona. Plus, your good hair was a dead giveaway.”

  He raked his fingers through his sandy brown locks and smirked. “You think I’m Captain with the good hair?”

  “Don’t let it go to your head, sir.”

  “Too late—ego already inflated. Do I get to read you now?”

  “Like a book.”

  He rubbed his hands together and nodded in enjoyment. “All right. You didn’t fully want to come out tonight, but the idea of being alone was a sadder thought. You recently went through something heavy—a breakup maybe. The way your mouth just twitched in the corner makes me think I’m right. You struggle with abandonment issues, which is why you try to hold on so tight to those in your life. Though, the people in your life are few and far between. It takes a lot of trust for you to allow someone into your world, let alone into your heart. But when you let them in, you pray they’ll never leave.”

  The discomfort began to buzz throughout my system at how spot-on he was, but I didn’t want to make it obvious because I wanted him to continue. I didn’t know why it was important to know what he saw when he looked at me, but I needed to know.

  He continued. “When you decide to love, you consider it a forever thing. Even people from your past that left your side still hold a place in your heart, no matter how hard you’ve tried to get rid of them. You’re afraid of letting people down, but you also undersell your own talents. You think you don’t deserve the success you dream of because someone else might be more worthy. You love animals. I don’t know if that’s actually true, but I definitely get that vibe from you. You hate seeing people struggle or hurt and want to make the world better, but you’re not exactly sure how to go about doing that. You like scary movies, but you hide under a blanket.” That one made me smile. “You’re too hard on yourself. You keep your deepest hurting to yourself. You worry about your friends worrying about you, so you don’t let them deep into your pain because you don’t want to be a burden. Oh”—he placed his hands against my kneecaps and leaned in toward me—“and you’re a Gemini. I just say that because it’s the only other zodiac sign I know. I don’t know anything about astrology.”

  I laughed. “Pisces over here.”

  “Ah, they must be known for beautiful eyes.”

  “Stop dropping compliments in.”

  “Stop deserving them.” His hands were still on my knees, and he had no clue the sparks he was igniting with the seemingly gentle touch. “How did I do?”

  “You did good, but you were wrong about one thing.”

  “Oh?”

  “I hide under a pillow and a blanket when watching a scary movie, not just a blanket.”

  “Close enough.” His playful look shifted a bit as he looked my way and nibbled on his bottom lip. “So there was a recent breakup.”

  “He broke up with me about five weeks ago.”

  “What an ass.”

  “Yeah, but I love him. I wish I could say past tense, but here we are. My roommate Sofia said the best way to get over a man is to get under another one, but I can’t even consider that right now. The last thing I want to do is sleep with someone else.”

  “Plus, sex wouldn’t fix a broken heart and—holy shit!” He clapped his hands together and hopped up from the ground to a standing position. The grin on his face was so big, but I didn’t understand what caused his sudden shift. “I got it, Red! I know what we can do to help you.”

  I arched an eyebrow and stood. “I’m confused.”

  “I know, I know, and you’re going to think I’m crazy—which, maybe I am—but here’s the deal: You can’t bang your way out of a heartbreak. That’s not how love works. Love
isn’t a physical connection; it’s an emotional one. Plus, after breakups, people replay the good memories over the bad in their minds and start thinking they somehow failed, when, in reality, the bad probably always outweighed the good. You simply held the good tight in your grip because it was few and far between in the end. Otherwise, the good would’ve been enough to keep you together.”

  I hated that he was speaking facts. Over the past weeks, all I’d done was replay all the good times Mario and I had together. My mind was stuck on a loop of moments that meant the world to me in my past relationship.

  There were only a handful of good memories, yet I simply played them on repeat, making them feel bigger than they already were. Mario was a master at doing the bare minimum, and I celebrated that fact as if he was a god. It wasn’t his fault he gave me mediocre love. It was my fault for accepting it.

  “So what’s your point?” I asked.

  “Do you believe in destiny?”

  I chuckled. “Don’t tell me you do.”

  “I think everything happens for a reason, even if the reasoning isn’t clear as day right away. Maybe that’s why we met tonight, Red, because we were meant to. Maybe I had to get socked in the eye and whipped with a lasso because we were supposed to cross paths so I could help you get over your ex.”

  “How?”

  “The best way to get over a love is to find a stronger connection with another person. So, I present to you, your Halloween love story.” He took a bow as if he was making any sense at all.

  I stood still, confused as ever. “Am I missing something?”

  “Clearly, because you’re looking at me as if I’m having a mental breakdown—which, I mean, is probably accurate.” He cleared his throat and stood taller as he smoothed his hands over his chest. “I’m asking you to fall in love with me.”

  I snickered. “I’m sorry, what?”

  “Give me the chance to make you fall in love with me before the sun comes up in the next”—he glanced down at his phone—“five hours or so. It’s just past midnight. Give me those hours to make you fall in love with me. Then we’ll end the love story on a good note. No tragic heartbreak, no hard moments or relationship struggles. No cheating or scandals. Just two people who fell in love, then life or, in our case, morning made them say their goodbyes.”

  “You really think two people can fall in love within five hours?”

  “I don’t know.” He shrugged and held his hand out toward me. “Want to try?”

  I should’ve said no. I should’ve laughed off his crazy idea and ended the night right there on the rooftop, but I didn’t want to go home. I didn’t want to be alone. But most of all, I wanted more time with Captain, even if only a few more hours. Even if there wasn’t a real chance of me falling in love with him but just a chance of more time to feel happy.

  Happy.

  I felt happy.

  I hadn’t even known how much I’d missed happiness until it found me that night.

  So, I did what any insane girl would’ve done. I took his hand and agreed to the idea of falling in love within the next five hours.

  He clasped my fingers with his and pulled me in close to him. It was the closest we’d stood since meeting, and the way he looked down into my eyes caused the butterflies to intensify. He had to be well over six-foot-two as he hovered over my five-foot-eight frame—and that was with heels. The way he looked at me made me feel important, as if he was going to give this crazy plan of his all that he had.

  “Knock, knock,” he said, with the goofiest grin known to mankind.

  “Who’s there?”

  “Will you fall in love with?”

  “Will you fall in love with who?”

  “Me.”

  3

  Aaliyah

  I wasn’t completely sure I wasn’t suffering from a mental breakdown seeing how I agreed to fall in love with a superhero for the remainder of the night. The whole situation seemed bizarre in the best kind of way. Potentially falling in love with someone in such a short timeframe sent a certain excitement coursing through me.

  It seemed almost unrealistic, which made the concept that much more intriguing. It had taken me over ten months before I told Mario I loved him. I didn’t give love so freely. Captain knew that about me, because he’d mentioned it when he read me. I found it interesting that he believed he could make me fall in love with him in so little time.

  Thank goodness we lived in the city that never slept because even though it was past midnight, we had so many adventures we could take part in.

  “Okay, so how about we do it this way: we each pick two places to take one another. One is a place we love, and the other is a place we think the other would love. We share all these moments with each other as we dive deeper to get to know one another,” Captain suggested.

  “Sounds good. Who goes first?”

  “Ladies first.”

  “Ah yes, that Southern hospitality thing.”

  “I stand by it when it comes to respecting females.” He rubbed his hands together. “So, what’s up first?”

  I wanted to take time to figure out a place I thought he’d love, so I figured it was best to start with a personal favorite of mine. Plus, my rumbling stomach was a clear indication that the first trip should include food of some sort.

  “Are you hungry?” I asked.

  “Could always eat.”

  I grinned, excited to take him to my favorite spot in town for my favorite food. “Have you ever heard of Grant’s Wings?”

  “Never.”

  “Well, my friend, you’re in for a treat. Let’s get on the subway and go.” Even though I had my own Metro pass, Captain made sure to swipe his for me. Being on the subway on a regular day was one thing, but riding it on Halloween night was a completely different experience.

  We were lucky enough to score a pair of seats beside one another, and the people watching was beyond compare. There were so many different costumes, so many expressions of creativity that it was almost impossible to look away. Most of the time, I was a professional at minding my own business, but that night, I wanted to take everyone in.

  “I think the one-night stand is the winner for me,” Captain whispered, leaning into me. I looked to my left to see a man wearing a box shaped like a nightstand, with a lamp shade on his head. The words ‘one-night stand’ were written across the fabric covering the box, and condoms were tossed over it.

  I snickered. “I don’t know, the cereal killer is kind of calling out to me.” I gestured to my right, where a man was wearing a T-shirt covered in red stains, mini boxes of cereal attached with plastic knives going through said boxes.

  “Oh, okay, a good contender. But I think we can both agree that cat ears is a bit lazy, no?”

  “Absolutely, but she’s wearing them with pride. Can’t fault her for that.” As we came to a stop, an older woman dressed as a slice of pizza climbed onto the subway. Without hesitation, Captain stood to give her his seat, taking hold of the standing pole in front of us.

  She sat down beside me and heard the rumbling of my stomach. I placed my hands against my angry belly and smiled at her, silently apologizing for the noise.

  Her stern look pierced into me as she pointed a finger. “Don’t you dare try to eat me, you psychopath,” she warned. At first I thought she was joking but she dramatically turned her back toward me and huffed in irritation. Then she went on mumbling to herself nonstop.

  I looked up just in time to find Captain holding in his laughter that was about to burst out of him.

  “Shut up,” I mouthed, and he turned away and released his loud chuckles, unable to control himself. I couldn’t even be annoyed by the random rude lady who was offered a seat. Captain’s laughter made me forget about anything else in the world.

  I loved the way he laughed, as if he was tickled to his core. His laughter was the kind that made you want to snicker, too.

  When we got to our stop, he gave me his hand to help me up from my seat. Then he t
urned to pizza lady. “Sorry she was going to eat you,” he stated, making me swat his arm.

  Pizza lady replied, “It’s because she’s a psychopath.” Then she went back to her mindless muttering.

  Only in New York.

  Once we were off the subway, he dropped my hand and looked at me with so much concern. “Why were you going to eat that woman, Red? Is it because you hung out with the bad wolf a little too much? Eating people seems more of his avenue of choice. Also, if you are thinking of taking me to your favorite spot to eat right now just as a way to fatten me up, I need you to know I’m pretty lean on fat. All muscle.”

  He flexed like a nerd, and I blushed like a schoolgirl.

  Sure, he was being silly and dramatic, but my gosh, his biceps on biceps pretty much proved his point about him being all muscle.

  I rolled my eyes. “If I were going to eat a Marvel character, it definitely wouldn’t be you.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Wait, what? You wouldn’t pick me?” he asked, seemingly offended.

  “You’re upset that I wouldn’t eat you?”

  He grimaced a bit and nodded as we walked down the street. “Well, kind of. I mean, what the hell? Who would you eat first?”

  “Are we really having a conversation about me being a cannibal?”

  “We absolutely are. Now, come on, fess up—who would you be eating?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. Thanos, probably.”

  “Thanos?!” he shouted, causing a few bystanders to look our way. Of course, they quickly looked away because New York.

  “Don’t shout. People are looking!” I whispered, nudging him in the side.

  “They should be looking!” he kept hollering. “You just said you would eat Thanos!”

  “I did, and I stand by that. Sure, he’s a super villain who tried to kill half of the planet, but he’s a bigger guy, which means more meat to consume. Plus, I like darker meat.”

  “He’s not dark meat, Red. He’s freaking purple.”