Halfway There | COMPLETE ✔ + Sequel

Chapter 10 - Distractions

By the time Friday came around I could physically feel the relief run through me as soon as I walked out of my last lecture of the day. I was more than ready for my weekend. Especially since I could not wait to enjoy a calm Saturday with Will at a bookstore. He and I caught up earlier in the week and made a good game plan to leave around 9 AM tomorrow.

I was walking back to the dorm when I realized that it was still early afternoon. Since I didn't have my last lecture all week I had been getting out a lot earlier than usual. The day was so beautiful that I had no right spending it inside. I could see my dorm entrance just up ahead but instead of going up in that direction I made a quick right and sat down under the first shadiest tree I could see.

After grabbing my copy of Wuthering Heights from my bag I laid it on the ground and used it as a pillow. Wuthering Heights, along with so many other classics, was one of the books my father used to read to me when I was a little girl. It just so happens to be on the reading roster that my English Professor gave to everyone at the beginning of the year but I probably would have read it for enjoyment anyways.

I was so distracted by my book I almost didn't notice when a small person was standing next to me. I looked up and saw a familiar little girl with bright blonde hair and blue eyes looking down at me. I closed my book and sat up to get a better look at her.

She silently sat down beside me and smiled, "Hi!" She said kindly as she took her backpack off and set it beside her.

"Hey," I smiled back, "Stella, right?"

She nodded and smiled some more. My heart immediately began to race. I had done a very good job at avoiding Nova for the last several days but for some reason, and shamefully, I could not stop thinking about him. The entire week I distracted myself as much as I could because I kept finding myself wanting to go look for him just so I could go talk to him again. It was pathetic. Now here was his little sister right in front of me and it was very well known that he didn't really leave her alone for very long.

"What are you up to?" I asked.

She rolled her eyes and gestured with her chin over to the dorm room. "My brother is talking to some people right now. He told me to find a tree nearby and sit under it."

"Your brother is here?" My fingers began to tremble.

She nodded, "Yeah, he usually takes awhile. You don't mind if I sit with you right?"

I shook my head and smiled at her, "Of course not but I'm not really a fun person to be around." I admitted.

"Well, I don't know how fun you are or really care but I do know you're really nice. Not a lot of people are nice these days."

I nodded in agreement but didn't say a word as I tried to understand the little girl in front of me. Visually she didn't look to be any older than twelve years old but the way she spoke and carried herself it was almost as if she was twice that.

"What are you reading now?" She asked, "That doesn't look like the book you're always carrying around."

I turned the cover over so that she could see it, "It's called Wuthering Heights. Have you heard of it?" I asked.

She nodded quickly, "Yeah! Whenever Nova has a reading assignment he usually reads all of them to me aloud. We just finished that one a couple days ago."

I ignored the warm feeling I got when she said that Nova reads to her. "My dad used to read to me all the time when I was a kid." I mentioned.

"My mom used to too!" She exclaimed, excited for the thing we had in common. "After she died my grandpa would read to me all the time but now that he's gone Nova does it for me. I don't really like to read myself. It's so much more fun to have someone read it out to you."

I could feel my heart twist in my chest. She seemed to be completely unfazed by the fact that she casually mentioned that not only her mother had passed away but so had her grandfather. Where was their father? Was he gone too? Now that I thought about it I only ever saw Nova and Stella together. Did they even have any other family? The same curiosity I had worked so hard on pushing back all week had suddenly returned and exploded inside of me.

"I think it's only fun when they give each character a voice." I continued with a smile.

"Oh, totally! My grandpa did it all the time! But Nova just likes to read, which is okay too I guess."

It took me a moment to understand the odd feeling I was getting until I realized something. For as long as I've been here everyone that talked about Nova always referred to him as Ryder. They always used his last name, for whatever reason, and I always thought that I was the only one who used his first name. And as I'm talking to Stella I realized that she called him Nova just like I did. I mean of course she would, she was his sister after all, but I had never met anyone else that called him Nova.