Chapter 10
Chapter
Ten
THEN
February, Sophomore Year
“ H ow did you get these tickets again?” Zayn asked Aiden as they stood in a long line outside the university planetarium.
“Bram gave them to me. He said he’d planned to use them, but something came up, and he didn’t want them to go to waste.”
Zayn nodded. That made sense, and he’d always happily go to the planetarium, whatever they were showing for the night.
But when they got to the entrance, Zayn’s eyebrows rose. A violently pink sign was stretched above the door, elaborate calligraphy declaring the event, Written in the Stars: A One-of-a-Kind Valentine’s Day Experience .
He blinked at it, then pulled out his phone.
Oh. It was February fourteenth. He hadn’t realized, but when he glanced around, he noticed the line consisted of nothing but obvious couples.
He looked up at Aiden, who was clearly having the same realization he was. So definitely no deeper, hidden meaning. Right. Not as if that thought had crossed Zayn’s mind. After a year and a half of living together, he knew not to get his hopes up. But it was fine. It was the planetarium. He’d been there with Aiden dozens of times. This wouldn’t be any different.
Except the smiling lady at the entrance had never handed him a large box of chocolates before.
“It’s so great to see regulars here on a night like this,” she said.
Aiden laughed nervously. “Yeah. Can’t wait for the show.”
They settled into their seats, their arms bumping against each other on the armrest between them as the lights dimmed and music swelled.
The show took them through a tour of constellations, each featuring a romantic tale written forever in the stars, from Perseus and Andromeda to Altair and Vega, even the lost Pleiad, Merope, and her love for the mortal Sisyphus.
It was terribly unscientific, but Zayn couldn’t say he minded, not when Aiden was right there, his arm still brushing against Zayn’s as they watched stars dance across the domed ceiling, the show reaching a climax with a dazzling display of shooting stars and swirling galaxies in the artificial sky above them.
No, he didn’t mind at all.