My Universe

19: “She’s a cutie.”

The sharp sound of skin being hit could be heard as the raven immediately slapped the latter’s hand away from her when she realized the close proximity between them while a tint of red was painted on her cheeks. The husky chuckle of the latter blew along the gust as it sent shivers on her back when it entered her ear.

It was a reaction that Aster had already expected from Winter that she could not help the grin from spreading across her face because of how fun she thought the situation was. It felt like joining a conversation where the speakers were speaking utter lies when she already knew the truth beforehand as it also felt like playing a minesweeper game that was in a new difficult level. Aster loved seeing different sides of people and playing that puzzle video game.

Seeing the same person since a year ago got the brunette to observe little things about Summer that she knew about how she disliked having her personal spaced invaded, which includes being touched by people that she does not approve. If Aster was able to touch the raven, she could expect receiving a punch in the gut or having her wrist twisted to her back without waiting for a second to pass.

Because of the assumptions that Aster made about Summer, she could basically come to a conclusion that the woman in front of her really was not her.

Aster leaned back with a playful smirk plastered on her face as she watched how Winter stood up from her seat to walk away while facing the opposite direction. The brunette did not need an answer to her question anyway as she took another beer can from the plastic bag and leaned on the wall while opening the aluminum object, loving the satisfying sound of it opening.

Oh my god, she’s so annoying, Winter thought as she chugged the remaining liquid from her can of beer while facing her back on the other woman. The reason why she joined the brunette to the rooftop was to waste time because of her inability to go back to sleep at that moment, though she was starting to regret her decision and wished that she just stared at the ceiling while lying on her bed in silence for an hour instead.

“Do you want another one?” Aster asked when she noticed that the raven had finished her beer.

“No, I’ll be leaving now,” Winter said without meeting her gaze as she turned around. “Thanks for the beer.”

“All right then,” the brunette simply replied while watching the latter walk toward the door without throwing a glance at her and she knew that it was because of her questions and action from earlier. Thinking about it brought a smile of amusement on her face as she continued to drink her beer.

The door was slowly closed to be careful of possibly causing disturbance to anyone that might have hear as the brunette was left alone on the rooftop like how she had always been. In her usual nights on the rooftop, it was just Aster watching the stars or the streets while consuming the alcoholic drink that she would always bring; though that night was a memorable one since it was her first time to ever bring a person to the rooftop during her night routine.

“She’s a cutie,” Aster mumbled as she let out a chuckle after while slipping her hand in the pocket of her sweatpants to rummage in for a cigarette.

The brunette slumped down on the vacant chair and placed her can of beer on the floor next to her as she pushed the stick in between her lips. She leaned back and stared at the twinkling little crystals above her as she played with her black lighter between her fingers. There was nothing much going on in her mind except questions about who could be inside Summer’s body at that moment and how it was possible.

When Aster was born, she would get confused a lot of times whenever she finds herself in places that she had never been to with people that she had never met before every six months as she thought that was a natural thing that happens to all people not until everyone that she talked to about it got confused while the others made fun of her, which made her realize that she was special among all people in the multiverse.

Because of that, the brunette assumed that was happening with the raven though it confused her about why she seemed to know nothing about it in a confused manner when the brunette thought that people like her were born with it.

The moment that Aster had already switched her lighter on and was about to light her cigarette, the door suddenly swung open as the same woman from earlier came into sight.

“Did you forget something?” Aster asked with a friendly smile playing on her face.

“Well, you see.” Winter cleared her throat as she looked at the sky to avoid making eye contact because of embarrassment.

“Hmm?” The brunette slowly returned her lighter and cigarette in her pockets as she patiently waited for the latter to continue her sentence.

“W-will you please accompany back to my room?” Heat could be felt rising up on her cheeks as the raven lowered her head while keeping her eyes shut for the latter to not see her blushing face.

An amused low chuckle escaped the brunette’s lips before she stood up and replied with no hesitation, “Sure. Let’s go then.”

Immediately, Winter turned around and started to go back downstairs while Aster followed from behind. Since she was going to return later anyway, she did not bother bringing the plastic bag that she brought as she shoved her hands down the pockets of her sweatpants and walked down the stairs along the raven as she made sure to keep a close distance with her because she could see the nervousness and fear in the aura of Winter.

On the way back to the dim, silent hallways, none of them bothered to utter a word as they just focused on getting back to Winter’s room without looking at each other since what Winter only needed was Aster’s presence to accompany her until she gets back to her dorm room. The sound of their footsteps as they walked was the one that was breaking the deafening silence and they both agreed that the atmosphere was awkward though the brunette did not mind that much unlike the raven.

It felt like it took a half an hour until Winter finally arrived in front of the door to her dorm room and a sigh of relief left her lips when she realized it. The brunette raised an eyebrow as she turned to look at the shorter woman while expecting for at least a thank-you from her for keeping her from being terrified at the nonexistent monsters freely lurking around the building.

And Winter’s parents taught her well about manners as she shyly turned to the taller woman and looked at her neck instead of her eyes. Saying thank you was one of the basic things to say to show good manners toward someone and she could do that easily that she would also sometimes thank a random tree for blocking the sunlight from burning her, which was why she was flustered about why she could not bring herself to say a single word to Aster.

“Are you just gonna keep staring at my neck?” Aster asked with a playful smile plastered on her face.

“N-no, of course not,” Winter immediately said as she looked away and shut her eyes tightly for a second before moving her head to finally meet the friendly gaze of the latter. “Thank you. For walking me to my room.”

“No problem.” Aster smiled.

“So, yeah. Good night—good morning—whatever.” Winter shook her head in embarrassment as she swiftly opened the door and ran inside the room, shutting the door right in front of the brunette’s face.

Aster widened her eyes for a second before she let out a chuckle at how adorable the raven was being. Memories from the past that were almost exactly the same like Winter flashed in her mind as she could only smile in nostalgia while staring at the door.

The brunette went back up to the rooftop as she took the cigarette that she was about to smoke earlier out from her pocket again. She stared at the unused stick with squinting eyes as she debated in her head whether to smoke again or not. The thing was that Aster was not a smoker though that did not mean she had never tried one. She was never fond of the taste of cigarettes though she always kept a cigarette and a lighter with her in case she would ever come to a situation where she would find herself smoking what was not her obsession while being in too much misery; and the reason why the brunette was prepared for that was because she watched too many movies.

Eventually, Aster slipped the cigarette back in her pocket as she took the plastic bag with all of the cans of beer from the floor when she decided to wrap up the night and go back to her dorm room. A gust of wind blew her hair back as if the nature was telling her to have sweet dreams before she turned to go back inside.

***

Winter was not brought to the world of dreams though it was fine for her as she preferred just being in pure darkness instead of being in a place with someone that she wanted to forget while feeling mixed emotions that was already getting exhausting. For some reason, the mind of the raven was slowly gaining back her consciousness though she did not want to open her eyes yet as she buried her face on the soft pillow even more while making up scenarios about the personification of bagels.

Since the raven used a school setting for her made-up scenarios in her head, that brought her back to reality as she realized that it was not a weekend nor a holiday. The woman jerked on her bed as she quickly turned around to face the ceiling while abruptly opening her eyes, causing her to squint instantly because of the bright sunlight from the window. Even though Winter did not like anything about the life that she had at that moment, that did not mean she would give no attention to studies since she had no reassurance to hold onto about the possibility of going back to her real life as Winter Kali.

Even though her body was still half unconscious, the raven forced herself to sit up as she rummaged through the bedside table for her phone. She turned it on and looked at the time with squinting eyes, only to have her eyes widened when she saw that the time was already past 10 in the morning. Noticing the vacant space on the other bed and the quiet space in the bathroom, Winter knew that her roommate had already went to her classes without waking her up as she ran to her study table to take a look on her class schedule.

The raven let out a sigh of relief as she did not have to worry about having a bad attendance record when she saw that she had no morning classes for the day. Winter went back to slump her body down the bed as she closed her eyes again though she was already completely conscious. For no reason, Aster’s face up close suddenly appeared in her mind as the raven furrowed her eyebrows because of it before aggressively shaking her head.

Since Winter had a lot of free time that she could use without sleeping, an idea popped up in her head for her to do today as she nodded in agreement to herself before getting back up.