Dots

         

        

            We kissed on the rooftop and dangled our feet off the edge, gazing into the night sky. As Mia lay her head on my shoulder, and I held her tighter, she asked me what we were. I told her we were stardust, made from some brilliant explosion from a forgotten billions of years past. To get really romantic, I told her that I felt from the bottom of my heart that her and I were made from the same star. 

            “No, Adi, I mean, what are we?”

            It was then that I realized that her question was directed at our relationship – whether we were just friends or something more - and not the metaphysical route I had taken it. This was particularly disappointing, since I would have much rather talked more about our connection to stars than answer her “what are we” question. From what I’d heard, it was the ‘make-or-break’ of relationships. 

            “What do you mean?” I asked. 

            “You know what I’m asking.” 

            I did know what she was asking, and I also knew I really did not want to answer. We had been hanging out for a little while now, and it had been fun. We would spend all our time together at school, at her place, and then sometime at mine, and that was all. Sure there were intimate moments, but if I had known it would lead to “what are we” questions only a few months in, I would have stayed her homework buddy and moved no further. 

            “Why does it matter?” I replied, “Look how beautiful the sky looks. And look, right there is the big dipper. I know how much you love the big dipper.”

            “Are you…trying to dodge the question?” she asked. 

            “No! I am just…look. This has been really fun for me, okay? I think things are going well, and I’m excited to see where we go. Let’s get back to the stars.”

            “So it is a ‘we’ then? We are a ‘we’? More than a 'you and I'?” asked Mia.

            “Well….”

            Mia pulled herself from me and stood up on the roof, visibly upset. I told her it was not a good idea to stand right now, since the condensation of the night can make the roof really slippery. She told me to shut up and tell her directly, once and for all, if I thought we were a couple. I replied that she really, really should not be standing right now because she had her old sandals on and they did not look like they had the grip to reckon with the condensation on the roof. 

            “Ugh! I cannot believe you! Do you have any idea how selfish you are, Adi? How much of my time you’ve been wasting? I can’t believe I fell for you,” she said, right before her left sandal’s grip gave out and she fell off the roof. It was only a drop of two floors, that too onto the soft grass of her backyard, but it was enough to knock her out immediately. 

            It took a little effort, but I managed to drag her into her house and into her bed, where I tried my best to make it look like she had fallen asleep there. After making myself a smoothie in her kitchen, I decided to text Lily, a girl I had been hanging out with for a little while now, sometimes at her place, sometimes at mine. I asked her if she was up, to which she said she was, and if she wanted to go watch the night sky somewhere, to which she said the park was fun and to pick her up in thirty minutes. With nothing to do, I went back up to the roof to look at the sky. It occurred to me often, looking at the belt of Orion and the cup of the Big Dipper, that I was looking at the very same stars that the ancient Greeks had when they first noticed that drawing a line through those dots in the sky gave birth to interesting shapes, from which could be told even more interesting stories. It made the centuries before me feel more close, and I wondered if a guy like Plato ever had girl problems too. 

            

            Soon, Lily texted me saying she was ready, and so I headed down to my car. I decided when I picked her up and we found a nice spot in the park with a clear view of the sky, I would ask her what her favorite constellation was, and help her find it.