Tossing Glitter, Making Wishes

Lennon opened his eyes and looked around. The crowded bus was silent, except for the occasional snoring or mumbling, and everyone was asleep save for the driver. He carefully reached for the hand luggage compartment and pulled his schoolbag out. Inside, he found his sidekick and checked the time.
3:16 am
Lennon yawned and tossed his phone back in it. Three in the morning and he was on a double-decker, along with everyone else from his school year, on a three-day-long trip to the middle of fucking nowhere. They were headed to some forest nearby, and just the thought of it made him shiver. He hated the woods. Wasn’t that the place where murderers hid their victims’ corpses and ghosts scared the living shit out of people?
So maybe he was overreacting, but either way, Lennon just didn’t like the woods. They were too grim and full of... trees. That was all he could think of that was wrong about forests, so for now it was his excuse. There were too many trees.

The place where they were staying was not as random as Lennon first thought. It was owned by a company, some kind of getaway place right by a dense forest. If you walked for a minute or so, you would reach a big lake. There were kayaks on the right margin and, on the other side, stood a shelter with no walls, a computer, massive speakers and a ridiculous amount of lights.
Unfortunately, it was closed after 2 am during their stay. Most of the students complained about this, but Lennon wasn’t very fond of the other side. It had less space without trees.
Lennon was paired up on one of the smaller tents with a boy from his English class. He was considered an odd piece, with tanned skin, black hair and features resembling the Native-American tribes: not what you would expect in a bloke from London. Most guys would avoid him because he was openly bisexual, which Lennon found strange. No one avoided him when he said he was gay -- not completely, at least. There was the occasional homophobic dickhead, but nothing he couldn’t deal with.
Lennon was wondering if he should go talk to the kid, in case he didn’t know who Lennon Foster was, but quickly realised he didn’t even know the boy’s name. Either way, he didn’t need to, because the ‘odd piece’ himself walked towards him.
“I’m Cygnus; you’re Lennon, right?”
Lennon wondered if he was that popular at school. But no, obviously not, so it probably had something to do with the fact that he was the only person who looked completely lost, standing next to a tent fabric spread out on the floor.
“Yeah, that’s me.”
Cygnus nodded and looked over Lennon’s shoulder. “Looks like you need help setting up the tent.”
Lennon scratched the back of his neck. He hated tents.

Lennon shifted uncomfortably in his camping mattress. He had tried everything to fall asleep by now, and nothing had worked. His back was in pain and he was starting to wonder if the ground wouldn’t be more comfortable than his camping mattress. He would have given it a try, but the space inside the tent was completely occupied by his and Cygnus’s bags and it would’ve been impossible. Giving up, he pulled a pair of jeans on and left the tent.
He had begged Cygnus to place the tent as far from the forest as possible; but it seemed as far as possible wasn’t far enough. The fact that someone could come running out of the middle of the woods and slay him with a stake freaked him out. Being so, he nearly ran towards the lake, trying not to look at the trees. Damn, those were some tall trees.
His attention was stolen as soon as he reached the lake. On the other margin, thanks to the lights coming from the shelter, he could see a body shifting in the dark, moving around and dragging something with him. Lennon narrowed his eyes to force them into seeing better, and he could make out some kind of stool supporting a cylindrical object.
Lennon’s eyes widened as realisation suddenly hit him. It was his worst nightmare. He couldn’t even bring himself to say it. However, as the lights coming from the now empty ‘party-shelter’, as some idiot from his Algebra class had named it, gave him a better view of the man, he found those broad shoulders rather familiar.
He hoped in a kayak and paddled to the other margin.
As he approached the other man, Lennon’s muscles started relaxing. He could now see more of the man’s body and was sure of his identity. The man, on the other hand, hadn’t seen him yet. He was looking through the cylindrical object which Lennon recognised as telescope.
Seeing as there were no guns and no unknown people, Lennon figured it would be okay to say something.
“Hey.”
The other boy’s body jerked backwards and he took a deep breath.
“Shit! Fuck. You scared me, man.”
“Sorry.”
Cygnus shrugged as a small smile started to take shape in his lips. “Whatever.”
Lennon sat down next to him and crossed his legs.
“Can’t sleep either?” he asked, after a small, awkward silence.
“Actually, I don’t want to.” Lennon narrowed his eyes in confusion. “I found a cabin right at the entrance of the forest with a telescope, so I decided I’d come and take a look at the starts. This place has a pretty clear sky, you know? Unlike the city.”

Lennon nodded and started playing with the grass. After a while, he looked up, and found Cygnus eyeing him from head to toe.
“Come here,” Cygnus offered, nodding towards the telescope.
As Lennon did as he was told, Cygnus adjusted the device and looked for a specific thing in the night sky.
“You gonna show me the stars?”
“Please, to show you the stars I would just point at the sky.” He seemed to whisper some directions to himself, but Lennon had no idea what he was talking about. “There. Look.”
Lennon leaned over to look at the sky.
“Pretty, isn’t it?”
Lennon was too astonished to actually speak, so he just blurted out a weak “yeah”. Cygnus chuckled and moved closer to the telescope, as a sign for Lennon to move over.
“It’s a Star Cluster; a globular one. I’d find you an open one, but I don’t think there are any in this area... or any worth seeing, that is.” Cygnus shrugged. “But, if you just let me adjust this...” he moved closer to the telescope. “Let’s see where you are, shall we?”
Lennon backed away from the other boy just enough to get a good view of his body. He had noticed that, much like him, Cygnus was only wearing jeans, but seeing as he was terrified of being murdered, that information hadn’t sunk in. His eyes roamed over the other boy’s body countless times until Cygnus suddenly backed away from the telescope and, smiling, gestured for him to come closer.
“Lennon, meet M27. She’s a Nebula; or he is, not sure. Either way, isn’t she pretty?”
Lennon was at a loss for words, so he simply nodded. Cygnus, being a little paranoid as he was, thought he was probably being a bore.
“Sorry. You don’t have to look at goddamned stars, if you don’t want to.”
“No, I love it!” Cygnus gave him a sceptical look. “I mean, it’s not my favourite hobby, but it’s not like I ever did this before. And... they’re pretty. Really.”
Cygnus smiled slightly and bit his bottom lip like he was struggling with his will.
“I’ll just show you one last thing.”
This time, Lennon focused on his lips and the way they moved, sometimes too fast for him to understand a single word, other too slow for him to remember the last syllable. He really did want to be there. Lennon didn’t fancy stars that much, but he was beginning to fancy Cygnus. Or at least, enjoy his company.
“Alright, there it is. Just know that this is as close as you’ll ever be to aliens, unless you become an astronaut.”
Lennon chuckled and moved closer to look through the telescope lenses. His jaw dropped and he quickly turned his head to Cygnus.
“Is that a galaxy?”
Cygnus nodded and grinned as Lennon leaned over to take a better look at it.
“So you do know a bit about astrology.”
“Everyone knows what a galaxy looks like. It’s like a whipping-top tossing glitter around.”
Cygnus laughed at the description, and Lennon soon joined him. The dark skinned boy lay on the grass and looked up at the sky. There were so many things he knew about it, and it still felt like so little.
Lennon lay down too and observed Cygnus’s face yet again.
“Don’t take this the wrong way- but how come you’re so... tanned?”
Cygnus’s gaze shifted from the sky to Lennon’s vivid blue eyes and he smiled.
“I’m a Native-American descendant. My mum was born in London, but her dad belonged to a tribe called Blackfeet.”
Lennon replied with a small “oh” and decided it was his turn to look at the sky. As he did, Cygnus admired his expression, though he had memorized it by now.

Ever since their first English class together, Cygnus had the biggest of crushes on Lennon. And maybe, just maybe, this was his chance to act on it. But instead of doing something reckless that would probably ruin everything, Cygnus resumed to moving closer to Lennon and pointing at the sky.
“See those seven stars in a zigzag?” He felt Lennon’s head nod next to his own and dropped his hand. “It’s called Lacerta. Lacerta means lizard. It looks nothing like a lizard, though.”
Lennon chuckled and lifted his hand.
“How ‘bout those over there? They’re like an arc or something.”
“That’s the Corona Borealis. It’s Latin for Northern Crown.”
Lennon moved his hand a bit to the right and pointed at two stars very close to each other.
“And those?”
“Yeah, I might be mistaken, but I don’t think that’s a constellation,” Cygnus replied with a chuckle. Lennon turned a light shade of red. “Don’t worry. At first I couldn’t tell the difference between a cluster and a galaxy. Just don’t tell anyone, alright?”
Lennon didn’t believe him, but he didn’t say so. He just smiled.
“I won’t.”
Silence settled for a few seconds, as both of them stared at the dark sky speckled with stars.
“That’s my favourite,” Cygnus said, pointing at it. “See that, over there? It’s like a cross.”
“What’s it called?”
Cygnus grinned, but didn’t answer right away. “That’s Cygnus.”
Lennon gasped and turned his head away from the sky and his eyes met Cygnus’s. He lifted his body and wrested on his elbows.
“You’re shitting me.”
“I’m not.”
“You’re named after a bloody constellation?”
Cygnus shrugged, and Lennon lay back down.
“What time is it?” Cygnus asked.
Lennon fished his sidekick from his jeans’ pockets and turned it on. “Almost four.”
Cygnus’s body jerked up and he was grinned madly. He reached out a hand for Lennon to grab, but the paler boy looked unconvinced. “Come on, I have something to show you.”
Lennon took his hand and stood up.
“What is it?”
“Help me put this stuff in the cabin and I’ll show you.”

Although Lennon agreed to help, he did nothing but watch as Cygnus covered the telescope’s lenses and carried it inside the small cabin. When everything was back in its place, Cygnus the cabin door and grabbed Lennon’s hand with an excited grin.
“This way,” he commanded, leading towards the woods.
Lennon froze.
“Hey, mate, what’s wrong?”
“The woods. I can’t go there.”
Cygnus wanted to laugh, but the terrified look on the other boy’s face convinced him otherwise. He opted for a small, reassuring smile. He wrapped his hands around Lennon’s arms and narrowed down the space between them.
“It’s okay. It’s just trees.”
“Haven’t you seen horror movies?”
“You’ll miss out on something really pretty,” he tried to persuade him. But Lennon wouldn’t move. Cygnus bit his lower lip while he thought about a solution for that problem. Suddenly, a smile formed in his lips. “I know what we’re gonna do.”
He almost ran back to the cabin. When he came back, he had two thin pieces of wood in his hands. The sticks were about 2 metres long and had pointy ends. He handed one of them to Lennon.
“What’s that for?”
Cygnus shrugged.
“Well, I figured if someone decided to chase us, we could just kill him first, right?”
“I guess...”
Cygnus grinned and took Lennon’s hand again, dragging him through the dense forest. As they walked deeper into the woods, Lennon’s muscles grew stiff and he intertwined his fingers with Cygnus’s, his grip tight and his hands sweaty.
“Don’t worry; we’ll be there in a minute.”
At last, they reached the end of the small forest. Lennon looked up at the sky, never letting go of Cygnus’s hand. The moon was twice as big as he’d ever seen it.
“It’s... pretty.”
Cygnus laughed.
“That’s not it. What time is it?”
Lennon checked his sidekick again. “Five past four.”
“Any moment, now,” Cygnus announced with an eager tone.
Not even thirty seconds later, a ray of light crossed the sky, leaving behind a trail of white glitter. Lennon’s jaw dropped and Cygnus smiled at him.
“I think your galaxy just tossed glitter at us.”
Lennon gasped and his stunned expression was slowly replaced by a thrilled grin. “That bitch.”
“Make a wish.”

“What did you wish for?” Cygnus asked, moving his gaze towards Lennon.
“Can’t say, or it won’t come true, right?” Lennon smiled. “What did you wish for?”
“Oh, nothing much.”
Cygnus narrowed down the space between them, slowly pressing his forehead against Lennon’s, as if asking for permission. He was ready for anything: a slap, a punch, or maybe just a few steps back. But instead, Lennon took a step forward and closed his eyes.
The tanned boy smiled and carefully pressed his lips against Lennon’s. He was still waiting for that moment when Lennon would stop him, but it never happened. Instead, Lennon wrapped a hand around Cygnus’s neck and deepened the kiss.
When their lips parted, they kept their foreheads pressed together.
“Nothing much, eh?”
The boys chuckled.