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Stars © Abigail Green

28/3/2021

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Maria doesn't fully understand why she followed Ari Johnson up and onto the roof of the school. It was pure idiocy and it's not even as if Maria could claim that she was worried Ari might hurt herself – the roof was just high enough that somebody could walk beneath it, but nowhere near as high up as the other rooftops of their high school.
 
“What are you doing up here?” Maria asks Ari, who just looks to the side briefly before patting the space besides the spot where she lays as if they were in a meadow of green grass and not a dusty, dirty rooftop in the middle of Lincoln. Perhaps it was her emerald eyes that sparkled with mischief or perhaps her smile, that seemed to promise an answer to all Maria's questions, but for whatever reason Maria quickly found herself reclined on her back starring up into the sky just like Ari.
 
“Okay. What are we doing?” Maria asks finally, still trying desperately to work out what they were watching and still only seeing blue sky. Ari reaches out and takes Maria's hand and despite the fact that normally anybody who lured Maria onto a roof and then decided to try cuddling up (although she supposed it was only really their hands that were cuddling) would immediately earn themselves a swift scathing response, Maria supposed she didn't really mind, it just made her hand feel tingly.
 
“Stargazing,” Ari replies with such conviction that Maria finds herself double checking the sun just to make sure that she hasn't accidentally lost six or so hours of her life. No, it was still daylight. Maria thinks that perhaps she ought to check the other girl for concussion, and yet something made her believe that it was Maria who was looking at it wrong not Ari.
 
 
They don't know what possesses them to stay on top of that roof until the sunsets – Ari still seeing her imagined stars and Maria just enjoying the serene peace that came from this place, this roof, Ari – but they do. They stay there until the actual stars appear in the sky. They stay there until it starts to rain and then they finally head home.
 
Maria's mother tells her off for being out past curfew and grounds her for a week and yet Maria doesn't regret it. Maria doesn't regret it even when it becomes common knowledge around school and then becomes the running joke in every classroom (
 
“Sorry I'm late sir,”
 
“Ah, Rebecca, finally you grace us with your presence, I was just about to search the roof”).
 
Nobody understands exactly why the girls did it – not even the girls themselves – but every so often when Ari made her way onto the roof and Maria managed to join her, the pair feel for just the briefest moment that they might be close to understanding.
 
 
“Why do you keep coming back here?” Ari finally asks one day.
 
“I'm still trying to see your stars,” Maria admits feeling stupid.
 
“Then you're looking at it wrong,” Ari says confidently and Maria glances over just as Ari kisses her.
 
In that moment, Maria doesn't see the stars, she sees whole Galaxies.
 
“Do you see?” Ari asks, looking back up into the sky.
 
“I see,” Maria says breathlessly, gripping Ari's hand tightly.
 
When they finally head back to their classes, hands still firmly clasped, they finally have answers to all the questions. When people ask them why, Maria will tell them that whenever she looks at Ari; she sees galaxies. Whenever she takes her hand; she sees suns explode. Whenever she kisses her; she feels like she's floating off in space. They did it, because they are two planets orbiting each other, and Maria's never felt more at peace than when she's by Ari's side.
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    Issue #1

    MAY 2020



    The Stories

    All
    ​A Campfire Story By Mike Noyes
    ​A Nice Bit Of Tongue By Karon Alderman
    ​Another Day At The Office By Seamus Easton
    ​Antarctica Origins By Joanna MacInnes
    ​A Trace Of Red By Clare Adams
    ​Betrayal In A Shade Of White By Emma Cooper
    Consequences By David Darling
    ​Cousins By Wan Phing Lim
    ​Famous By Jacqui Jay Grafton
    For Better
    For Worse By Catherine Ogston
    ​George Polishes Up By Ian C Douglas
    ​Gone Viral By Jacqueline Harrett
    ​Graffiti By Cathy Bryant
    Grasses By Alex Barr
    ​Hello
    Her Brother’s Friend By J.L. Harland
    ​Hilarity Paling By Alex Bestwick
    ​Howl By Shaun Calvert
    ​It Starts With A Train By Magdalene Bird
    ​Kelsey By Robert Boucheron
    ​Koi By Nadia Mikail
    ​Lockdown - One Good Deed By Mary Macread
    ​Monkey Beach By Robert Raymer
    Parts By Alexander Mo
    Podsnezhniki By Anita Davie
    ​Potted Bavaria By Sheila Kinsella
    ​So Close By Tracy Stevenson
    Stars By Abigail Green
    ​The Accidental Jesus By James Stark
    ​The Broken Doll By Alice Prior
    The Change By Liz Berg
    ​The Man In Black By Morgan Brennan
    ​The Songs Of My Sisters By Kathy Hoyle
    ​The Suitcase By Maddy Allen
    ​The Things We Left Behind By Michael Lacare
    The Wait By Jeff Jones
    ​Thunder-Flies By Jeremy Hubbard
    ​Tight Corners By Kathleen Kenny
    Trapped By Patricia Cole
    Weaving The Magic By Robert Scott
    You By Phillip Charter
    ​Your Favourite Dolly By Tesni Penney


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Secret Attic - Founded March 2020