astrophilia (n.)

the love of and/or obsession with planets, stars, and outer space

* * *

"WHERE are we going now?" I asked as Eli ushered me into his car.

He slammed the door behind me and jogged over to the driver's seat. "It's a surprise."

"I hate surprises."

"I know," he smirked as he started the car and backed out of my driveway. "Makes it even better."

"But it's my birthday," I pouted, crossing my arms. "You can't tell me?"

"Nope."

"Not even one hint for the birthday girl?"

"Nope."

"Pwease?"

"Nope."

I glared at the smug smirk on his face. "Eli, seriously, the anticipation is killing me." I tried to catch his gaze to give him puppy-dog eyes, but he was laser-focused on the road.

"Try and hold on a little longer. I can't have you dying before we get there."

"And where exactly is 'there?'"

"Somewhere," he said after a minute or so.

"You are so, so infuriating."

"I know," he sang.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "C'mon, Eli."

We sat in silence until he spoke again, "Okay, fine. We're going somewhere you haven't been yet," he said as we pulled into a parking lot.

I motioned to the golden arches in front of the building. "I've been to McDonald's before."

"This is just a pitstop. What do you want? Or do you want me to surprise you?" he teased.

"Oh, fuck off," I grumbled half-heartedly. "Fries and an Oreo McFlurry, please." I reached into my wallet to hand him money.

"Nope. It's your birthday, so I'm paying."

"You pay for everything. I feel bad."

"Get used to it. I like buying you stuff." He pulled into the drive-thru lane and gave our order.

"I'm paying next time," I grumbled.

"Keep telling yourself that, sweetheart... Just sit back and relax. I'll even let you pick the music and won't complain about your girly songs."

"How nice of you," I said tonelessly.

"I know," he smiled. "You're welcome."

I cranked up the radio and sang along to bubbly pop music with my tone deaf voice, just to spite him. And based off the barely controlled grimace on his face, it worked.

An hour later, we made it to Provincetown, the town at the very tip of Cape Cod. Despite my constant begging throughout the drive, he remained reticent. The only reason I knew our location was because of the huge 'Entering Provincetown' sign.

"Okay, so we're in Provincetown... What are we doing here in the middle of the night?"

"We're almost there," Eli responded as we turned a corner.

I looked out the window, eagerly searching for a semblance of a clue. I couldn't see anything other than the small area the headlights illuminated.

"We're here," he said, parking the car in an empty parking lot.

I looked around at the sand dunes and beach grass. "We came all this way to go to the beach? There are beaches at home."

"There's a meteor shower tonight," he supplied. "There's too much light from the houses back home, so we needed to come out here to see it."

"This is perfect," I breathed. "So are we going to watch it on the beach?"

"Nope. Somewhere even better."

"Why do I have the feeling that I'm not going to like this?" I groaned.

He wordlessly motioned to the antiquated lighthouse to our right.

"We're climbing the lighthouse?" I asked dumbly.

"Yep."

His silver tongue could convince me into anything, but I wouldn't let him win this time. "No way. It's probably illegal. I don't wanna start adulthood in jail. Not—"

He kissed me to shut me up, but I kept going as soon as he backed away.

"—not to mention, it looks so... old. How do you know we won't fall? There aren't even railings up there. I'm too young—we're too young—to die. Not today, Satan. Thank you, next."

"How about we go and look? Just take a look then you can decide."

"I've already decided: no."

Before I knew what was happening, Eli got out of the car and scooped me up. I tried to wiggle out of his hold as he ran across the sand, but he was too strong. I finally got my way when he set me down at the base of the light house.

Turning on my phone's flashlight, I inspected the ladder he wanted us to climb. It was made of rusty orange steel, and the platform thirty feet up looked like those ancient fire escapes in cities. It was practically begging for us to climb and fall to our deaths.

"No way in hell am I going up there."

"Do you want me to go first? I can show you it's safe."

"No!" I exclaimed. "I don't want you to fall. And before you say you won't, you will. Look how ratchet this ladder is." I kicked the bottom rung, and rust came crumbling off. To further illustrate my point, I rested my foot on it and watched the weak metal bend under my weight. "It can't even handle my foot resting gently on it. There's no way you'll make it up there without it snapping."

"Okay, maybe it wasn't my brightest idea."

"No, it wasn't," I chuckled. "Good idea in general, but I don't want to die. Maybe we can find a safer lighthouse and do it this summer."

"I'm holding you to it, Hanson."

"Okay. I guess I pinky promise."

* * *

Eli made a brief trip to the car to get blankets to keep us warm. He returned a few minutes later juggling two bulky laundry baskets stacked on top of each other.

"How many blankets did you bring?" I asked, pulling one from the top basket.

He snatched the blanket from me. "Nope. You're the birthday girl, so no working for you," he said. "And, just a few. The bottom basket has part two of your present."

"Part two?"

"Of course," he grinned. "You really thought the hoodie and star were it? You know me better than that."

I shrugged. "You got me McDonald's, too."

"I guess that makes this part three, not that a McFlurry counts."

I watched as he spread a large picnic blanket on the damp sand before layering another on top of it. In one fluid motion, he sat down and placed me between his legs, so I could lean my back on his chest.

"There," he said, wrapping an additional fuzzy blanket around us. "And, here's part three of your present." He dragged the basket in front of us.

I grabbed the stuffed animal off the top. "Perry the Platypus?"

"Yes. Platypi are your favorite animals."

"It's actually 'platypuses,'" I corrected, "but I love it. Thank you."

"The rest has your favorite foods," he explained as I searched through the rest of the basket. "Well, more like favorite snacks. Favorite snacks for my favorite girl."

"More green M&Ms?" I asked, taking the gallon-sized jar out. "I've hardly made a dent in the other one."

He shrugged. "It's impossible to have too much candy."

I pulled heart-shaped Reese's, cheddar Goldfish, and hot cocoa thermoses out. I turned to Eli when I found a photo thrown in there, "A closeup of my face?"

He snickered and snatched it from me. "Okay, this is my favorite snack."

"You're such a dork—"

"I'm your dork."

"—but what happened to Oreos? I thought they were your favorite snack, not me."

"You're better than Oreos," he said gravely before his lips twitched. "I put them in there, too."

I looked at the bottom and found a family-sized package of Oreos."Any jelly?"

"Of fucking course." He grabbed the cab of raspberry jelly and popped it open. Stealing the cookies from my lap, he ripped into the plastic and grabbed five cookies.

"You're going to eat my present? That's awfully rude of you."

"You can have the first bite." He dipped an Oreo into the jelly and shoved it into my mouth without warning. "There ya go. My turn now.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement up in the twinkling stars. One shot across the sky before the light faded away.

"It's starting," I gasped.

Scared of crushing Eli, I moved off his chest and laid on my back next to him. Our legs tangled together for warmth as he threw an arm over my torso. While I focused on the shooting stars soaring across the sky, he chose to stare at me instead. I didn't know why, but to each their own.

"Make a wish," he whispered in my ear.

I was speechless for a moment, unable to think of anything to wish for; my life was perfect and I didn't know how it could get better than this. "To freeze this moment in time and live in it forever."

"Good choice," he hummed, absentmindedly playing with the ends of my hair. Tingles shot throughout my entire body as he twirled a lock between his thumb and forefinger.

"What about you?" I asked into the darkness.

"Elotte for eternity."

I laughed. "Did Delaney teach you our ship name?"

"Aliyah, actually. But, hey, it's pretty catchy." I rolled onto my side just in time to watch a lightbulb go off in his head. "Let's name one of our kids Elotte."

"Kids? Already? Aren't we a little young to be planning something ten years in the future?"

"Five or six years," he countered. "And it's already planned, so why not think about it? This fall, we'll go to Revere together. Then after college, I'm putting a ring on you." He traced a circle around my finger, right where his aforementioned ring would sit. "We'll build a big house and have a bunch of babies. You'll be the best journalist ever and the hottest wife in the NFL. And I'll be the best quarterback in the league."

"What else?"

"Well, you can't forget your Australian Shepherd. Hmm, maybe we can get two. Our kids shouldn't grow up without a pet, and I can't have you being lonely when I'm off winning Super Bowls."

"Wouldn't I be in the stands?"

"For sure. Realistically, you won't be there for every single game, but you'll still be my biggest fan—aside from our kids."

I grinned and poked his side. "And how many kids will we have? And now that I think of it, you're the only guy I know who openly wants kids."

He shrugged. "Ethan wants kids with Aubrey."

"Okay, but Ethan and Aubrey don't count. They're practically married at this point... But you didn't answer my question: how many kids are we having?"

He grinned toothily at me, "I'd love a whole football team army of mini-Elottes. However, I'm smart and will gladly take whatever you are willing to give me. One or one hundred and thirteen would make me equally happy."

"Good, 'cause there's no way I'm pushing that many babies out of my vagina. You can have two. And not until we're at least twenty-seven," I informed him. "You'll have to survive with fur-babies until then. I won't put any restrictions on puppies."

"Sounds good to me. You get to call the shots as long as I'm in the picture. Happy wife, happy life."

"Smart boy."

Lost in a daydream about our future, I gazed up at the myriad of stars in the sky. They were twinkling like diamonds, while a few shot across the blackness, glowing leaving trails behind them.

Somewhere in my musings, Eli pulled me closer into his chest. I rolled onto my side to stared intently into his starry eyes, instead of the starry sky. His fingertips ghosted all over my face, lingering on my nose as he met my gaze. Those gold and blue flecks I loved so much swirled with that emotion I had been seeing the past few months—love.

"Thirteen," he announced.

"Thirteen?"

"Thirteen freckles on your nose," he said as he flicked it. "My favorite number on my favorite person."

"Unlucky thirteen?"

"Nope, lucky thirteen. I was born 11:47 pm on August thirteenth, which was coincidentally a Friday. Also, 11:47 pm is thirteen minutes before the end of the day... And, thirteen is my number in football. I met you on Friday the thirteenth, which was the thirty-first Friday the thirteenth I have lived through. And what's thirty-one backwards? Thirteen," he grinned. "Anything that has to do with you or thirteen is considered lucky in my book."

"Mine too, then."

We fell into an easy silence as Eli continued tracing patterns on my skin. I rolled over, looking up at the stars and trying to find constellations. He eventually got bored and started helping me find the star he bought me.

"Look," he murmured in my ear, taking my hand and guiding it into the air. "Right there. See that? 'Eli and Charlotte forever' is written in the stars."

All I could feel in my stomach were butterflies as my heart turned to mush. Eli was too damn cute.

"You're too cute for your own good."

"I know."

I lightly whacked his chest.

"I'm being serious, though," he said. "Something about you moving here and sitting next to me in Environmental Science seems like it was meant to be. Especially with all the connections to the number thirteen."

"I completely agree." Maybe I was getting caught up in our romantic date, but something about meeting Eli seemed like it was fated.

On my first day at school, I instinctively gravitated toward him, like the pull between the Earth and Moon. It was almost like there was an invisible, yet tangible thread that finally pulled taut and guided me to him; a green string of fate tying us together.

Things don't always seemingly go to plan, but that's the beauty of life. I didn't end up where I thought I would, but that thread connecting me to Eli led me to where I was meant to be.

* * *

A/N: Thanks for reading chapter 40! Vote and comment if you want to read more Elotte fluff in the future 💚

In case anyone was wondering, the Friday the 13th stuff Eli said checks out! If you pick a Fri, Aug 13th on a calendar, 18 years and 2 months later is a Fri, Oct 13th. And, there are also 31 Fri the 13ths between the dates. I didn't even realize this until after I wrote them meeting on a Friday and had his bday be Aug 13th 🤯

QOTC: If you saw a shooting star, what would your one wish be?

My Answer: honestly, I don't know. My life is pretty good right now, and there isn't one thing that would exponentially make it better. Maybe I'd wish for more time/money to travel.