The Star He Never Took Off

The first time my exboyfriend called me "the missus," I was on a video call with my current boyfriend. That day, my boyfriend's roommates were clamoring to see his girlfriend.

One of them snatched the phone, laughing. "We're all brothers here. What's there to hide?" I sat up straight without thinking, ready to say hi.

But when the screen steadied, the smile froze on my face. The guy who kept insisting on seeing "the missus" was my ex—the one I'd had an ugly breakup with and never spoken to again.

He stared at me for a long moment.

Then one corner of his mouth jerked. "Shit." Chapter 1 The instant he bent down, the silver star pendant hanging at his collarbone brushed past the camera.

And my breath stopped the second I made out his face. Sweat ran down Kieran's sharp jawline into the open collar of his jersey.

He stared at the screen, frozen for two seconds, his eyes going wide with shock. "…Shit." The next second, the phone went flying who knows where.

The screen went black for a moment before someone hurriedly picked it back up.

Luke held the phone, annoyed. "What the hell is wrong with you all of a sudden?!" Kieran paused, then scoffed. "You've got lousy taste." Luke, gentle as he was, actually lost his temper for once.

He said coldly, "My girlfriend is great. Don't talk crap about her." "Seriously, the missus is gorgeous. I'd say she's hotter than the prettiest girl in the language department.

Blackwell, what's wrong with your eyes?" "If I could date someone like that, I'd live on instant ramen for three years!" "Get lost, I'd do ten—" His roommates broke into a rowdy uproar.

Kieran didn't say another word. Luke picked up the phone. "Sorry, Star.

He probably lost at basketball today and he's in a bad mood." A voice came from offscreen, through gritted teeth: "I won.

I won by twenty!" Luke didn't miss a beat. "Then his brain's glitching. Star, I'll pick you up for dinner tonight." … After we hung up, I quietly lay back on my bed.

The latesummer sun was a little too bright, so I draped my arm over my eyes. It had been three years, it seemed, since I'd last seen Kieran.

I never thought he'd still be wearing the star necklace I gave him. Such a cheap thing.

I still remembered the price tag—just $39.99, and with the matchingpair deal at half off, each one came to only twenty bucks. I had no idea where I'd tossed mine long ago.

He didn't seem to have changed much, and yet he seemed to have changed a lot.

It was clearly the same face, but growing up had only made his edge sharper, like a gemstone ground into facets. The defiance around his eyes was impossible to hide.

I suddenly remembered three years ago, before we'd graduated from high school.

Kieran had been in a jersey just like this one, too, standing below my building, redeyed, begging me. "From now on, I'll do whatever you say.

If you don't like me being around her, I'll never see her again. "We promised we'd go to the same college—" His voice went hoarse, and something glistened in his eyes in the dark. "As long as we don't break up, I'll agree to anything you say.

Okay?" He looked so pitiful, almost ready to get down on his knees and beg.

But I just looked at him for a while, expressionless, and said softly, "Kieran, I changed my mind about schools. "I'm not going to T University anymore." My relationship with Kieran began with the new girl beating out the childhood friend, and ended with the childhood friend beating out the new girl.

Junior year, I'd just transferred in and immediately ranked first in our whole grade.

Back then, teachers liked to seat a girl with good grades next to a boy with bad grades so she'd pull him up, and so I got assigned the seat next to Kieran.

But Kieran had zero interest in studying. He was very interested in me, though.

Chapter 2 Either he was tugging my hair or snatching my pen and holding it up high, then looking down at me with a wicked grin. "Estella Russell, you're so short." He passed me notes in class.

I opened one, and it was a stickfigure drawing of me.

I was about to call him childish when the teacher spotted the note, held it up for the whole class to see, and then kicked us both out into the hallway.

I was a textbook good student back then, and I'd never been treated so unfairly.

Eyes red, I shoved Kieran. "Kieran, what is wrong with you!" He knew he was in the wrong and didn't say anything.

After a while, he folded the note with my drawing on it into a star and quietly slipped it into my hand. I looked at that star and couldn't help laughing through my tears.

Things between Kieran and me slowly got better. I made him sit through my explanations until he understood the problems, checked his homework, and wouldn't let him copy answers.

He waited downstairs for me every day so we could walk to and from school together, and we'd browse the accessories shop across from school.

On some impulse I couldn't explain, I bought two star necklaces and gave him one. … Kieran was a big deal at school—goodlooking, rich, good at basketball.

Who knew how many girls had crushes on him. One of them cornered me and asked if I liked Kieran.

Teenage pride and an irritation I couldn't quite name made me blurt out, "I'd never like someone with worse grades than me." The girl looked past me.

I whipped around and only then realized Kieran was standing behind me. There was no telling how much he'd heard. He walked past me without any expression.

After that, Kieran never came looking for me again. He stopped talking to me in class and stopped walking to and from school with me.

We still sat side by side and didn't say one word more than we had to each day. I wanted to explain, but he never gave me the chance.

Until a year later, when Kieran's grades made such a staggering jump that he tied me, both of us ranked first.

That night, he stopped me and said, dead serious, "Estella Russell, my grades aren't worse than yours anymore.

Can you like me now?" By now, my memories of that time have gone blurry. All I remember is that the jacaranda on campus was in full bloom that day, like a sea.

When the wind lifted the petals, that boy's eyes were brighter than an exploding star. The light crossed lightyears of vast universe and landed straight in my heart.

In that moment, I heard my own voice. "Okay." And just like that, we were together. Young love spread like wildfire, impossible to hold back. We were glued together every day.

Kieran introduced me to all his boys and even got my name tattooed on his body. I said I wanted to go to T University, and he said he'd go to the same college as me.

His mom was overjoyed at his sudden drive, and luckily my grades didn't slip either, so parents and teachers alike just looked the other way.

We became the couple everyone at school knew about. Back then, I truly believed we'd go the distance.

Until I found out there had always been a girl in his heart who mattered more than me. Kieran had a childhood friend who'd grown up with him, named Brianna.

Years ago, Brianna's dad had been the driver for Kieran's father.

When an accident sent them both into the sea, he risked his life to get Kieran's dad out, but then he didn't have the strength left to make it to shore himself, and that was it—he was gone.

Chapter 3 Kieran's dad was a very decent man.

Without a second thought, he took Brianna and her mother in on the spot, saying he'd treat Brianna like his own daughter and take care of them both for the rest of their lives.

Brianna had been inseparable from Kieran since they were little, and even after we started dating, she didn't back off. She tagged along with us to and from school every day.

Kieran and I fought about it more times than I could count.

It took forever to finally get Brianna to stop following us, but not two days later, she suddenly showed up in front of me again, leaning on Kieran. "Sorry, Star.

I know you don't want to walk with me, but I sprained my ankle, and Kieran insisted on taking me home." Kieran's eyes were all on her.

Frowning, he scolded her, "You hurt your foot and didn't tell me? If I hadn't come looking for you, were you planning to hop home on one leg?! Hop on!" I still remember that day.

Kieran carried Brianna on his back the whole way, walking ahead of me. Brianna lay against him, telling funny stories from when they were little. I couldn't get a word in.

She whined, "Kieran, my foot hurts so bad!" I'd never heard Kieran's voice so gentle. "Your foot hurts so bad?

What are we gonna do about that?" "I want cake from that place on the corner—the most expensive one!" "Okay.

I'll drop you off at home first, then go get it for you." "Kieran, can I keep walking with you from now on?

When I walk by myself, there are always these creeps who don't even go to our school staring at me.

I'm so scared." Kieran frowned. "Why didn't you say so sooner? "I'll come get you tomorrow morning.

From now on, if I'm not with you, you're not allowed to walk alone." Brianna smiled and glanced back at me. "Okay." … The setting sun stretched their shadows out so long, impossible to pull apart.

I fell farther and farther behind on my own, and Kieran never once looked back at me.

It wasn't until he'd dropped Brianna off that he turned to me and said, "I've gotta go buy Bri her cake, so I can't walk you home today. "Star, you go on home by yourself." I looked at him for a long time, then turned and left.

After that, Kieran and I gave each other the silent treatment for a whole week. At first, Kieran didn't think he'd done anything wrong. "I've always seen Bri as a little sister.

She hurt her foot—how could I act like I didn't see it?" My face was blank. "She hurt her foot, so she could've called her mom to pick her up, or your family's driver.

Why did she have to wait there for you, of all people?! "You see her as a sister—does she see you as a brother?!

Can you honestly say you don't know she likes you?!" Kieran's eyes darted away. In the end, he sighed and pulled me into a hug. "Star, I really only like you.

I'll talk to her and make things clear, and keep my distance from her, okay?" I closed my eyes for a moment. "Okay." After that, Kieran really did go talk to Brianna.

I didn't know what he said to her. All I knew was that Brianna ran out of the classroom crying and never came looking for Kieran again. I thought that settled it.

But then one day, Kieran suddenly came to me with a frown, hemming and hawing. "Bri says some guy from another school keeps bothering her.

She's turned him down a bunch of times, but he won't leave her alone.

Today he's hanging out with some of Bri's friends, and she wants me to pretend to be her boyfriend so he'll back off." He watched my expression and added, "Just one night.

Just enough to make the guy give up." Chapter 4 "Didn't we already settle this?

Today she sprains her ankle and needs you to carry her home, tomorrow someone's bothering her and she needs you to play her boyfriend—what's next?!" Kieran wasn't exactly eventempered, but with me, he was always patient, always coaxing. "If Bri's dad hadn't gone in after mine back then, he'd still be alive, and she'd still have a father to protect her.

I really can't just leave her on her own. Just this once.

If you're worried, come with me, okay?" Once it had come to that, I knew arguing with Kieran any further wouldn't get us anywhere. All I could do was agree. "Just this one night.

And I'm coming with you." Kieran broke into a smile, cupped my face, and kissed me. "Babe, you're so understanding.

Love you the most!" That night was my first time at a bar—one of those places that never carded anyone.

Sure enough, there was a guy hovering around Brianna—really tall, really built. Not badlooking, but he had a sleazy vibe, and he kept trying to drape his arm over her.

Kieran stepped forward, shoved him aside, and pulled Brianna into his arms, glaring at the guy from under a lowered brow. "Keep your hands to yourself.

She's my girlfriend." Kieran had trained in kickboxing since he was a kid. When he went cold like that, the sheer force of it cowed the guy into silence.

Everyone else hurried to smooth things over. "Wanna play truth or dare?

Tyson's buying tonight, so order whatever you want, don't be shy!" Tyson was the guy who'd been bothering Brianna.

Rumor had it his family was mixed up with the mob—every shop on this street had to pay his dad a cut. Protection money, basically.

He was a classmate of Brianna's friend's boyfriend and went to a votech high school. He'd met Brianna at a dinner with friends and had been chasing her ever since.

Brianna had turned him down plenty of times, but he wouldn't give up.

This time, he'd gathered a group of friends for dinner to find out whether Brianna really had a boyfriend like she said.

Kieran gave a soft scoff and tossed an Amex Centurion black card onto the table. "No need. Everything tonight's on me." Every eye was drawn to that black card.

One girl's eyes lit up. "Is that the legendary black card?

Bri, that's so shady of you—having a boyfriend this hot and this rich and not telling us!" Brianna smiled and leaned against Kieran. My fingers curled slightly.

Kieran instinctively glanced at me, and I turned my head away so I wouldn't meet his eyes. Tyson's face darkened.

His buddy's girlfriend, maybe afraid he'd get into a fight with Kieran, held up a bottle. "Let's play truth or dare!

Whoever the bottle points at goes!" For the first few rounds, everyone picked truth, and nobody asked anything too out there.

Just as I was letting out a breath, thinking tonight would pass like this, the bottle suddenly stopped in front of Brianna.

She smiled and tucked her bangs behind her ear. "I'll take dare." My heart sank. A bad feeling rose up in me.

Sure enough, the next second, the girl beside her said excitedly, "Then pick one of the guys here and kiss him—with tongue!" Brianna blushed, her gaze landing on Kieran.

Kieran's face stiffened slightly, and he frowned without meaning to. "Then I pick—" As Tyson's face grew uglier and uglier, Brianna pointed at Kieran without a moment's hesitation.

Kieran's face was grim. "Pick another dare." The girl raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you two dating? What's there to be shy about? Kiss!

Kiss!" Chapter 5 Everyone started egging them on.

Tyson's eyes narrowed with suspicion. "Are you really Bri's boyfriend?" Brianna put on a small smile. "Of course." A hint of pleading came into her pretty eyes.

She held on to Kieran's forearm, her red lips parting slightly. "Kieran…" My heart slowly went cold. Kieran stiffly let Brianna lean in.

A second before their lips met, I shot to my feet! He turned his face slightly, and Brianna's kiss landed at the corner of his mouth.

He reached for me in a panic, and I yanked my arm free! Ignoring the stunned looks of everyone there, I walked out fast.

I made it into a narrow alley before Kieran caught up and grabbed me