~~

Artem

~~

After my three friends walked away, her cousins came over to her, Bailey was carrying a small box.

“We didn’t get you anything new, Star, I’m sorry that we didn’t know what to buy.”

“You being here is gift enough.” She smiled at him, at all of them.

“I knew you would say something like that.” Reed smiled back at her.

“Still, I do have something for you. I was going to give it to you the other day, but I was convinced to hold it until today.” Kent looked over at my sister then, his new mate, and grinned. “But this box is filled with things from your mother. We took them from the attic of the house when we left. We always hoped to get you out of that house someday and we wanted to have these for you. We haven’t looked through them, not once. I wanted to save that honor for you.”

Bailey handed the box to her then. It was a small antique wooden trunk, maybe about a foot from side to side, eight inches from front to back, and maybe 6 inches from top to bottom. It wasn’t really big, but it would hold a lot all things considered. And it looked really expensive.

“This was my mother’s?” Star looked like her heart was breaking then.

“Yes, I remember she brought it with her when she came here from Colorado.” Bailey smiled at her.

“Thank you. Thank you so much. I never thought I would ever have anything of hers. I don’t even remember what she looks like.” She hugged them then, all three of them, she hugged them like they were the only thing keeping her grounded.

It took a few minutes for her emotions to settle after that. But after a little while her eyes seemed to clear and she finally put down the box that she had been cradling against her chest.

“Thank you all so much. These were wonderful gifts.” She was smiling at them all as she spoke.

“That’s not everything.” Chay beamed at her, stopping her from ending it all right then.

“What are you talking about?” Star was confused, looking at the empty table where the gifts had been.

“I hid ours in the other room.” Chay smiled. “The ones Artem and I got for you.”

“But you already gave me something earlier.” She protested. “And Artem gave me so much already.”

“This is your birthday, take them and deal with it.”

“But-.”

“Please, Star, let me give them to you.” I smiled softly at her, hoping she would accept them like she did from the others.

“O-ok.” She stuttered for a moment as she looked at me, a glazed look appearing in her eyes. I had been seeing that look a lot today when she looked at me. as she just dazed from looking at me.

“Thank you.” I smiled despite the look in her eyes.

Chay went out of the room then and got what she had hidden. We had several gifts so she had also enlisted the help of Bailey to get it all. They came back with several boxes and bags between them.

“This is all too much.” Star was protesting before she even opened a single thing that Chay and Bailey had brought back in.

“Just open them, please.” Chay actually asked her, that was a first for her. I thought she just demanded that everyone do what she wants when she wants.

“But why did you get all this? What did you even get?” Star laughed as she asked the second of her two questions.

“I guess you need to open them to find out.” Chay was grinning. “Remember, no take backs or give backs.” With a wink Chay left her side and went to stand, arm in arm, with Bailey as they watched my mate together.

“Hahh, if I have to.” She sounded upset, but there was a slight smile on her face too.

Chay had set the bags up in a specific order, and I realized what that order was immediately. They were in the order of when I had bought the gifts for her at the mall the other day.

The first thing that she opened was the purse, green with black and the paw print. It was the exact same purse that Star had wanted when she was shopping with Chay.

“When did you get this?” She asked with awe.

“Well, Artem was at the mall too. I swore to you that I wouldn’t buy those things for you, but I never promised that Artem wouldn’t.” Chay was giving a look that made her look like an evil little imp.

“But how did he know?”

“I sent him pictures of the things you wanted. I could tell what it was you liked and so I sent him to go get it.”

“Is that what all this is?” Star looked like she had just had her mind blown and I could expect to seem smoke coming out of her ears any second.

“Some of it.”

Star then proceeded to open all the gifts that were lined up, in order. She came across the shoes, the watch, the sunglasses, the shirt, the cute little skirt. Everything it was that Chay had sent me the pictures of. There were about twenty things in all that I had gotten at the mall that day.

“This is all too much.” Star looked like she was filled with emotions that would soon spill over.

“If you ask me, nothing will ever be enough.” I smiled at her. “I have something else that I got you, something I picked out myself. If you don’t mind.” I offered the box that I had hidden in my pocket.

The box was long and skinny, inside there were two pieces of jewelry. There was a charm bracelet and a necklace. The bracelet, made of white gold, had small gold charms that were accented with diamonds. All the charms were of stars and moons, alternating on the bracelet. The necklace only had two charms, one star and one moon, they too were white gold and covered in diamond.

“This is so pretty.” She really seemed to like the gift that I had picked out for her. “You chose this for me?” She looked at me with such an emotional expression that I felt myself starting to lift off from the ground, flying high on her love.

“Yes, it made me think of you.” I looked away, embarrassed for just a moment.

Star jumped to her feet then, joy on her face. She rose so quickly that I was almost tempted to step back, afraid we were going to collide somehow. But then, she wrapped her arms around my neck and hugged me tight.

“Thank you Artem. It’s lovely.” That’s when she kissed my cheek.

It was quick. It was innocent. It might not have meant anything. But to me, it was like the big bang was taking place all over again. The universe had just imploded and then restarted from the fragments left behind. Press the fast forward button for a few billion years and you will get us standing here in my house once again. And even after restarting the universe I would think that I had just been kissed by an angel that had come down to the earth to live among mere mortals.