She turned to peer out the back windows and Gabe finally got a good look at her shirt. It showed Queen Seravida, one of the lead characters from Beyond the Stars, a sci-fi TV series from the mid-aughts. It had been canceled after one season but had since attained a cult following.
Had Michelle worn that shirt on purpose? As a reminder of their shared history and the fanfic that had consumed their teenage years?
“I thought of you when she died,” he said.
Michelle frowned. “When who—oh.” She glanced down at her shirt. “Tamara Romero. Yeah, I was devastated.”
Me too, he thought. When he’d heard the news of the actress’s death, he’d thought of reaching out to Michelle. But he hadn’t done it.
“Are you still in contact with any of the others?” he asked, referring to their Beyond the Stars online fandom group from back in the day.
Michelle shook her head. “I’m Facebook friends with a few of them, but we don’t interact much. I don’t know what happened to the others—I never knew their real names.”
Gabe was quiet for a moment, remembering all the hours he and Michelle had devoted to their favorite fandom. “We never finished our story.”
“No, you didn’t.” She gave him a little smirk.
By the end, Gabe had basically been writing all the chapters of their fanfic with Michelle leaning over his shoulder, making comments and suggestions. Those had been some of the happiest moments of his teenage years, which was pretty fucking nerdy to admit, but it was true. Just the two of them, with all their inside jokes, making up a world of their own.
They’d been close to the end when he left. The plan had been to continue writing the story together while they were in college, but things hadn’t worked out that way. Just one more thing Gabe had abandoned when he’d left New York.
He peered out the window, idly scanning the signs along the side of the highway. And frowned. It had been a long time since he’d been here, but he was sure he remembered this route.
“This is the Whitestone Bridge.”
Michelle didn’t even blink. “Excellent deduction.”
“But you live in Manhattan.”
“Yup.”
“Shouldn’t we be taking a tunnel or something?”
“We would be . . . if we were going to Manhattan.”
Gabe stared at her impassive expression. “Michelle. Why aren’t we going to Manhattan if that’s where you live?”
She sighed. “Because I’m not staying there right now.”
His gut plummeted like he was on an out-of-control roller coaster. “Why not?”
“There’s no toilet,” she replied bluntly. “My bathroom renovation is taking twice as long as expected. They were supposed to be finished already, but you know how it goes.”
Gabe sucked in a breath as panic set in. No, they couldn’t be going where he thought they were going. “I’ll pay for a hotel. A suite. For both of us. You’ll have your own room. Room service. Open bar. Whatever you want.”
She snorted. “Don’t be ridiculous. Why would we stay in a hotel when I have a perfectly good house for us to use?”
House. Shit. That confirmed his suspicions.
Michelle was taking them to her parents’ house in the Bronx.
Suddenly the car felt even smaller as desperation kicked up his pulse. “Fine, then I’ll stay in a hotel. Drop me off somewhere. Anywhere. Side of the highway is fine. I’ll hitchhike.”
She shot him a dark glare, her mouth tightening into a hard line. “You agreed to stay with me. Since I’m staying at my parents’ house, that’s where you’re staying too.”
He narrowed his eyes back at her. “You did this on purpose.”
She let out an exasperated sigh. “Yeah, Gabe. I demanded that my contractors take extra time to renovate my bathroom just so I could trick you into staying at my parents’ house. I love not having a working toilet in my apartment. It’s the best.”
Sweat prickled Gabe’s forehead under the band of his cap. He adjusted it, trying to wipe it away, but more sprang up. “My parents live right next door to yours.”
She kept her eyes on the road. “So what?”
Gabe slumped as much as the seat belt and mediocre leg room would allow, as if someone else driving on the highway might recognize him and rat him out. “They can’t know I’m here.”
“Then don’t tell them.”
Trust Michelle to oversimplify the problem.
“I mean, I don’t want them to see me.”
“I hardly ever see them. It’ll be fine. We’ll keep you out of sight. Stop worrying so much.”
“What about your family? They’ll tell my parents the second they lay eyes on me.”
“My parents are in Florida at the beach house. No one else knows you’re here. Don’t murder me, ’kay?”
“You haven’t told anyone?” That surprised him. He was sure she would have at least told her cousins.
“No way.” She gave a mock shudder. “The last thing I need is all of them breathing down our necks. They’ll read too much into it and the next thing you know, my mother will be planning our wedding.”
She made it sound like a fate worse than death. But she was right. They’d already dodged enough invasive questions when they were younger. People assumed they would eventually get together, and while Gabe had dreamed about it often, it would never have worked. Michelle was firmly based in New York City, and Gabe couldn’t live here. Not even for her.
“You know I wouldn’t have agreed to stay with you if you’d told me we were going to the Bronx,” he said.
“Oh, I had a feeling,” she replied. “That’s why I didn’t tell you.”
Gabe threw up his hands. “This was a trap!”
“Okay, Admiral Ackbar, calm down.”
“Still with the Star Wars jokes, huh?”
She smirked. “You know it.”
“Well, it’s nice to see some things don’t change.”
Michelle was quiet for a long moment. “I’m not the one who changed.”
Direct hit. He was the one who’d lied, and then left. And she wasn’t going to let him forget it.
But he’d left for a reason. He’d stayed gone for a reason. And that reason was living in the house right next to the one she expected him to stay in for four days.
Fuck their agreement. He couldn’t do it. This was beyond what he could tolerate. He’d sleep there tonight, but in the morning? He was leaving to find a hotel.
No matter what Michelle said about it.
Sixteen years ago
Windows Messenger Chat Transcript
Celestial Destiny: Episode 1 Planning Session
Celestial Destiny: A Beyond the Stars Season 2 Fanfic
Episode 1
By BxGamer15 and ChelleBlockTango
Disclaimer: We don’t own the rights to Beyond the Stars, we’re just two fans who are mad that we finally got Latinos in spaaaaace but they were canceled after one season.
Gabe:
What the heck is up with your username?
Michelle: