THERE WAS A LOT THAT COULD BE SAID FOR DAVID POWERS, AND PERHAPS TOO MUCH THAT STAR HERSELF HAD LEFT UNSAID. the reality which she had always struggled to reconcile was twofold; first, that he was ( despite her many attempts to avoid the issue ) genuinely apathetic to the blood on his hands, and occasionally self-indulgent toward the same end; second, that he had found her when she had most needed to be found, and hid a smile behind his other smile. one that did things to her insides.
it would have been easier for her to think of david as a force of nature. a tempest, or a tidal wave, or even the angle of death herself ── then his voice cracked, and her resolve broke. it didn't matter if he bared his teeth because she knew him, just a little, and oh she recognized him now. it was the kind of face that was all teeth and hurt and raw edges; the most human one he had.
" DAVID, DON'T DO THAT ── " maybe the whimper in her voice was pretty rich, coming from the girl who'd starved herself to the point of mutilation; what you couldn't say was that it was insincere. suddenly star reached out to enveloped his fist, frantic and warm and soft against the hardness of his heart. the fact was that she had never been strong enough to make david do anything ── and that made each time he lowered himself to her a marvel. it could have been shock, or disgust, or some predatory instinct in him that she had never shared, but what star did know was that when his hand fell from his chest, there was room for her to steal.
she pressed herself flush against him and only realized how much she was crying when taking note of the ugly wet patch against his sternum. she told him she was sorry, and repeated again and again a series of clipped and aborted thoughts that all seemed designed to tell him something he already knew. her heart was beating like a hummingbird and refracting off him all the while, until finally, finally, star landed on the most terrifyingly true thought of all: " i missed you, " she told him.
maybe later it would matter to her that being that honest was the beginning of another bad idea ── maybe it would matter to michael, and god, she had no idea what she was going to tell him:
hello, i found a ghost out near the shore today. i followed his voice and found a baby bird limping. i stuffed the worst half of myself in a bottle and sent it out to sea ── and it came back to hold me. i think it might bite.
suddenly star heaved, and for as quickly as she'd come when she saw him hurt himself, the subsequent disentanglement was slow. she kept her fingers to her lips and did not look at him as her head continued to swim with an excess of all things. her pulse ignited under a horrible sense of grief, terror, and joy, none of which were meant to coexist. star felt lightheaded as she tried to pull away; she was still shaking. " ... i missed you, " she repeated once ── and then again, even smaller, because it hardly even sounded real to her.
the last argument they'd had still played on a loop in her mind. she stood by the fact that i don't want to hurt you wasn't nearly as stupid as he had made it out to be ── that said, she had never intended to prove herself right to this extent. " david, can we ... " her gut pulled itself into a series of knots; she felt like roadkill. " ... sit down? "