Over the Moon (33 page)

"That sounds like an old video game my brother and I used to
play when we were kids," I said. "When the Hellites were torturing
me, could you see all the imaginary fears and the despair I was suffering in my head?"

"Yes, I saw most of it. It nearly killed me to see you in such pain
while I was helpless and unable to stop it. I wish you hadn't had to
go through that terrible torment." He sounded miserable and filled
with remorse again.

"We won't talk about it in the future," I declared. I had my future
back, and it looked all bright and rosy, and I liked it that way. "I don't
want you to feel guilty. I'm no longer afraid of outside dangers. My
only real fear is losing you."

"You don't have to be afraid. I'm not going anywhere. I've seen
the future."

"What did you see in the future?"

"Just this." He kissed me, causing my blood to race joyfully
through my veins again and my heart to dance.

On Friday, Mark, came home from college. Our family had
rented a cabin in Pine Valley. It was in the mountains, about sixty
miles northwest of Hurricane. We were going to barbecue, hike, play
in the river, and just hang out in the cool, mountain air. It would be
wonderful to leave the desert heat behind for a few days.

My parents had agreed to allow Andrew to join us there for the
weekend. I think they thought it was safer for us to be there than
for me to stay home alone with him. They still hadn't grasped the
no-sex-before-marriage concept, which was one of Andrew's strictest beliefs. I think they had accepted the fact that they couldn't keep
us apart.

I rode up with Andrew. Mark and my parents had gone up earlier.
Music boomed out of the car speakers, and we were singing along,
getting most of the lyrics wrong. I was carefree, and it was heavenly.
I was deliriously happy, and I definitely deserved to feel this way. I
had earned it. Having experienced the bitterness of despair, I was
now able to enjoy the sweet taste of perfect bliss. The contrast of the
two emotions made the bliss feel so much stronger than ever before
and added a new dimension to my happiness.

He stopped in front of the cabin, killed the engine, and came
around to my door. He pulled me from the car and hugged me for
a moment.

"I'm a little nervous about this, love," he confided.

"Don't worry. They'll get to know you, and they'll have to love
you," I reassured him. I had never seen him this nervous. He was
almost always so completely confident. He wasn't afraid of space
monsters, but he was scared of my parents. His vulnerability only
further endeared him to me.

The door to the cabin opened as we approached. Mark stood
there waiting for us with a ginormous grin stretched across his catwho-caught-the-canary face.

"Hi, Andrew. Hi, carrot top," he said as he mussed my hair. He
looked at Andrew. "You promised me a game of basketball last time
we met. It's time to make good on that. I dare you!" he said, laughing
loudly at Andrew's nervous look.

"I do remember." Andrew smiled back, no longer showing any
fear. "I always keep my promises."

"Glad to hear it!" Mark grabbed a ball from inside the cabin.

There was a basketball court in the park across the street.
Andrew followed Mark. I grabbed a lawn chair from the front porch
and took off after them. This was going to be good. Mom and Dad
joined me to watch them play.

Mark set out to prove how extremely talented he was at this
sport, but Andrew matched him point for point. I could tell that
Mark was astounded by Andrew's athletic abilities. Like so many
other things, he made it look easy. Finally, it was game point. I knew Andrew could make the shot, but he let Mark steal it and dunk an
easy layup. Mark was obviously pleased by his hard-fought victory.
They were bonding, slapping each other on the back, and laughing.
It was a guy thing.

"Your boyfriend is an excellent ball player," Dad said. "He almost
beat Mark! In fact, I think he let Mark win."

"I know. Don't tell Mark."

"My lips are sealed." He nodded. "He might be a keeper, Elonna,"
he addressed my mother, who also seemed surprised by the results of
the game we had just witnessed.

"You might be right. I've never met a seventeen-year-old boy
who was that mature," she acknowledged.

I smiled at them. "I knew you would grow to love him. Yes, he is
mature and genuinely unselfish, and I'm keeping him, so you should
probably get used to the idea."

"You're going to try out for the Hurricane team, aren't you?"
Mark asked Andrew.

"I don't know. What do you think, Tiana?"

"I think you absolutely should," I said as I stood on my tippy
toes and threw my arms around his neck. "Thanks for letting him
win," I whispered in his ear. He lifted me up in the air and kissed me
right there in front of Mark and my parents. I kissed him back. My
family would just have to deal with it.

The next weekend was homecoming. We were still breathing and
very much alive, which meant that I was finally going to a dance
with Andrew. I would wear the alluring, blue dress we had purchased the day before I was tortured by the Hellite monsters. Better
yet, I would get to see him in a tuxedo. So far, I had only witnessed
that in his video date with psycho Sonya. No disasters were pending
on the horizon. No extraterrestrials were expected to attack. There
had been no UFO sightings in the recent past anywhere in all of the
southwestern United States. Thank you, universe!

At seven sharp, he was at my front door, looking indescribably
handsome and totally debonair in his black tuxedo, crisp, white shirt,
and black bow tie. He raised one eyebrow and gave me a mischievous smile. His eyes widened as he studied me.

"We are going to wow everyone tonight, love," he said as he
twirled me around, admiring my dress. "You are positively stunning
in that gown. All the girls are going to be envious, and the boys will
all be extremely jealous that you are with me. No one will be able to
keep his or her eyes off you!"

"And you look better than James Bond in that tux. I think it's
more likely that the girls will be staring at you." I was sure of it. He
was too gorgeous for words.

Mom and Dad took lots of pictures and made an appropriate
fuss over us. Andrew slipped a bracelet corsage of miniature red
roses on my wrist, and we were off to a candlelight dinner at the
Martins' house. Evelyn voluntarily cooked one of her culinary masterpieces for Hannah and Matthew, Jillian and Luke, Tiffany and
Tim, Emily and Nate, Jenna and Ryan, Raven and Coty, and us. We
talked and laughed with our friends, as if we were normal, everyday
teenagers with nothing more stressful than passing midterms in our
immediate future. Tonight, we were going to live in the moment and
celebrate our youth. It was going to be glorious!

We arrived at the dance fashionably late. The Hurricane High
gymnasium had been replaced by the Milky Way galaxy. Hundreds
of glittering stars hung from the ceiling, which was lit up by dozens
of strings of twinkling, white Christmas tree lights. The tables were
decorated with globes of the planet, Earth draped in ivory chiffon.
The walls were adorned with suns and moons and other planets.
The effect was almost as breathtaking as the real night sky.

As we danced, I closed my eyes and imagined that I was floating
up into the heavens in his arms, the way I had in my dreams. My
impossible dreams had come true right here in Hurricane, Utah. I
was home. He was the center of my world, the gravity that held me
in place. I was eternally aligned with him, and I was over the moon
about all of it. I wished this perfect night could last forever.

Then I was rudely disturbed from my revelry when Jordan tried
to cut in. I was once again astonished by his tenacity. Alexis was not
going to like this if she were watching.

"Sorry, not tonight," Andrew told him. "She's not leaving my
arms. You need to step away before your crazy girlfriend sees you,
or she will have a tantrum in front of the entire school, and she will
make you extremely miserable for the next few months. Is that what
you want?"

Jordan stepped away in a hurry. I think he escaped before Alexis
came back from the ladies' room.

"You handled that very well. Would she really have had a tantrum?" I asked.

"She positively would, love. If he even looks at you again while
she's around, I'm afraid she is going to lose it. She feels very threatened by you, and she is the `Desert Drama Queen' after all. She
enjoys throwing fits." He grinned at me.

"When did you read her mind?"

"They were dancing near us for a while. Jordan was watching
you, and her thoughts were screaming all of that at me. Don't ask
me what Jordan was thinking. He's lucky I didn't break both his legs
when he tried to cut in. If he tries again, I'm afraid I will."

After the dance, we drove up to our favorite spot at the scenic
outlook on LaVerkin Hill. He blanketed the hood of the car again.
We lay back to view those familiar, faraway stars once more.

"How many stars do you think are up there?" he asked.

"About one hundred billion," I replied smugly.

"Yes, there are over one hundred billion stars in our galaxy. There
are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the universe, and if each
star had only one inhabitable planet orbiting around it, there would
be worlds beyond our ability to count."

"Worlds without end," I said as I contemplated the vastness of
this sea of lights. So many tiny pinpoints, lots of them were sending
their radiance from hundreds or thousands of light-years away. Many
had already burned out, and others had formed that we couldn't even
see yet.

"Did you know that early on the universe only contained the
chemical elements of helium and hydrogen? But we and the Earth are also made of carbon, nitrogen, iron, and oxygen. These elements
are made inside stars, and they remain when stars burn out."

"So what you are saying is we are made from burned-out stars?"
I was impressed by the idea.

"Exactly," he continued. "Carl Sagan said, `We are star stuff.'
Our creator took that star stuff and made planets that could sustain
life. Then he made us from the same material."

"I like the concept that we are made from stars. The universe
looks so peaceful tonight. It's hard to believe that there are dangers
located by that brilliant star." I pointed to Vega.

"In this wide expanse, I fear there are more menacing threats
waiting to challenge our future peace." His alarming words made me
shiver. He pulled me closer and wrapped his arms around me, causing me to shiver again, for other, more enjoyable reasons. "It isn't an
easy path you've chosen to travel with me. `The course of true love
never did run smooth."' He quoted Lysander from A Midsummer
Night's Dream.

"I'm fully aware of the risks. I'll accept the consequences." I was
sure it was the path I had to take, the road to my everlasting happiness. I was realistic enough to know that there would be many bumps
in that road. I had experienced some major turbulence already, but
there was no way I was ever going to bail.

"Are you certain you want to be aligned with me? The probability of astronomical difficulties is staggering." He was gazing through
my eyes into the depths of my soul again.

"Bring it on! We can deal with it. After all, we are star stuff]" I
exclaimed with absolute confidence. I was a little surprised by this
sudden feeling of invincibility. Maybe his superpowers were rubbing
off on me.

"You may wish you hadn't said that. You don't want to tempt the
universe." He flashed me an impish grin, and then he proceeded to
make my world spin.