Somebody Else's Sky (Something in the Way, #2)

by Jessica Hawkins

“You wasted your time.” “Maybe I did,” I said, “but time never feels wasted on you.”

“You would’ve thought I was awful.” “No way.” She swayed us back and forth. “You’re my best friend. My right to judge you was automatically revoked when you earned that title.”

“You think I don’t know how you feel? You think I don’t carry the burden of our love on my shoulders just to keep it from crashing down onto you?”

Manning had once told me you couldn’t move the stars. I’d thought that meant our love was predestined, written in the night sky, sure as death. Behind my lids, I pictured the two stars and realized for the first time the permanent distance between them. And I accepted that there was, and always had been, a third star. You can’t move the stars. I had tried, and I had failed.