It was quiet in the room for a few moments after Lucette had left, before Juniper said something.

“Y’know…. Waiting for her to say something probably won’t happen.”

Arlo turned his head towards her, as he sat down and leaned on the foot of the bed. “Meaning?”

“Meaning….” Junie strode over to the balcony doors, opened the curtains and peered outside, looking at the night sky. “We’ve known her long enough, she won’t notice anything if you don’t say anything….” Letting out a sigh, she turned on her heel, hopped onto the bed and poked Arlo’s head with her finger. “So, why haven’t you?”

“I have absolutely no idea what you are on about…” Arlo sighed as he shoved her finger off and stood up.

“I just hope that you don’t miss your chance, before someone else decides to… Swoop in.”

Arlo turned around and stared at his friend, who just sadly grinned at him before rolling onto her back.

“But who am I to judge what you do and don’t do, and don’t make that face. Remember who you are dealing with here….” She pointed at him whilst lying upside down. “I’m the mastermind of reading the male species, and I know for a fact that you…”

“Ok… Enough!” His short half angry and annoyed reply was all she needed to tell the total truth.

Smiling to herself she rolled back over, she knew she had won. So what harm was it to learn a few more things?

“How long have you..”

“Forever…” Was his reply as he stopped her before she finished her question.

“Hmm…. Then why have you never said anything?”

“Do words need to be words said?”

Junie blinked at him, was he being serious right now? Ignoring that weird quib, a small light bulb flickers in her mind. “I just thought of something amazing.”

“Anything you think of is far from amazing….”

“Shut it!” She pointed a finger at him, as she sat up, cross legged. “Imagine this…”

“I don’t…”

“I said shut it. You stupid mongrel.” Junie cleared her throat. “As I was saying, imagine this…. You say that you wanna go watch the night sky together. Marvellous idea, yes? I will make myself go scarce, and BOOM! your chance right there! You cannot mess that up.”

“I already said that words don’t need to be said.”

“Oh, give it up. If you don’t do it? Or at least try to? I will hit you…”

Arlo folded his arms. “You do that anyway….”

“You didn’t let me finish. I will hit you with a car.”

“You don’t drive, and your dad is a cop.”

“Precisely. That means I could get away with it!” Junie giggled somewhat evilly. 

“You're joking…”

“I could be… I could not be... Who knows, that is the mystery of the wonderful… Me!” Junie’s ears perked up. “Ah, now is your chance!” She whispered that last part, so that only Arlo could hear.

—-

As I opened the door to my bedroom, I saw my best friends staring at each other. Junie looked happy and mischievous, and Arlo? Looked both defeated and annoyed.

“Errr… Am I interrupting something?”

“Totally not! Plus…” Junie jumped off the bed and raised her hand. “I have to take a massive dump, it might take a few minutes.”

I was at a loss for words after Junie’s sudden announcement, as she walked past me and left the room. 

“Errr… Well, that is something…” I turned to look at Arlo, who looked like he was in pain. “You ok? She didn’t hit you again, did she?”

“Huh?” He looked up like he just noticed that I was there. “Oh yes, I’m fine… Hmm.. Do you want to go out on the balcony?” 

The change of subject threw me off guard, but I wouldn’t say ‘no’ to observing the beauty of nature. So, without even telling him my answer, I just headed straight to the balcony doors and slid them open. Given that it was early Spring now, it wasn’t all that cold outside, it was pretty comfortable. Arlo followed me as I took a step outside, and we both leaned on the railings, gazing up at the night sky.

“I won’t ever tire of looking at the stars….” I smiled to myself as I observed them all. Our town didn’t have a lot of outside lights during the night, so you could always see the stars clearly. Sometimes I feel sad for those city folk who probably won’t see this view enough. 

“They sure are beautiful…” Arlo commented. “They bring a sort of mysterious beauty to the world.”

“Could not have said it better myself…” I turned to smile at him, and I saw that he was already looking at me. “Hmm?”

“Ah... Nothing…”

Arlo looked away from me, leaving me a little confused, but I returned my gaze to the skies. It was then when I noticed something ‘odd’ in the sky. I never actually saw one, but I knew of them.

“Is that a shooting star?!” I exclaimed.

My sudden outburst startled Arlo, as I started pointing to the sky.

“Look! It totally is, right?”

Arlo looked at where I was pointing, and he scratched his head.

“Errr…. Are you sure it’s a shooting star?”

“Mmhmm…”

“Then why is it coming towards us?”

Feeling confused at his comment, I turned my attention back to the sky and, just as he said, the ‘shooting star’ was coming right for us. Now feeling a little concerned, I didn’t know what to do. But, before I could duck, a bright blinding pure white light hit us. It was so intense that I had to shield my eyes with my arm. Is this what they meant by seeing a bright light before you die?

“Are we dead?” I joked out.

“No? At least I don’t think so…” Arlo’s voice replied back.

As I lowered my arm, I looked towards Arlo, who was rubbing his eyes. As I looked around, I saw that we were totally fine, and that the ‘shooting’ star was nowhere in sight. Plus, it didn’t look like we had died, since we were both still standing on my balcony. 

“It looks like we are both ok...” I reassured Arlo.

But as I spoke, something in the corner of my eye caught my attention. As I looked in the direction of the thing that caught my attention, I saw that there was a flickering light coming from the beach. Huh… There are no lights down there, and that particular part of the beach was only accessible from a pathway from her garden, so it wouldn’t be someone with a light source. But, as I continued to look at the light, I felt something deep within my heart telling me to go towards it. Shaking my head, I ignored the light. Something then fluttered near me and, as I turned to look, I saw that there, sitting gracefully on the edge of the railings, was a beautiful purple butterfly. At first, I thought ‘how odd, there was a butterfly here’, but it also felt normal. My eyes widened as it looked like the butterfly was looking directly at me. It flicked its wings and took flight, and I watched it go towards where the flickering light was coming from. Is a butterfly really telling me to go towards that light? But… My heart was also telling me to go too. Maybe I really should.

“I… I will be right back...”

Without even second guessing it, I dashed through the doors, leaving a stunned Arlo behind, quickly left the room and nearly went down the steps two at a time. I just about noticed that Junie was in the lounge, watching TV.

“Woah? Is the house on fire?”

I heard her call out, but I brushed her off, and darted towards the kitchen to where the back door to the garden led to. I made a beeline for the gate that led down the beach, and that was when I saw that butterfly again. I skidded to a stop, as I noticed that it was perched on the gate heading towards the beach. It must’ve been the wind but the gate opened by itself, even though I swear I locked it. As I still followed this odd feeling, I continued on but, as I was hopping down the stone steps, I looked behind me and, for a moment, I swear I saw a dark feminine figure standing by the gate where I just came from. But, when I looked again, she was gone. ‘Tonight sure is the night for weird occurrences’, I thought to myself.

As I continued onwards, I reached the sandy beach. The tide was in, but not so much that I couldn’t walk safely along it. As I swallowed hard, I had to remind myself that I had made it this far, so there was no turning back, and continued forwards. When I got to the roundabout, where that flickering light was coming from, I stopped dead in my tracks. The light had vanished, but exactly where that light would have been was no star, it was not even a meteor. It was something else that baffled me to the high heavens. Why, do you ask?

Well, because the mysterious object was physically staring at me…