(song: "Let it All Go" - Birdy + Rhodes)

"I thought I was going to be back by the end of the week, but I just started thinking about things, you know? I really thought I knew my Nana well and now I have so many questions, I feel like I need to stay until I have the answers."

"Stay for how much longer? Another week?"

"Actually, I was thinking more like a month. . ."

I laid on the guest bedroom floor while I spoke on the phone with my boyfriend Alex. We started dating when I became captain of the women's soccer team for my school over a year ago. Alex was the guy every girl in school wanted to be with, and I felt so lucky to be with him. I tried my best to be what i thought he wanted or needed in a girlfriend. Our relationship had it's ups and downs, but for the most part it had been functional.

The problem with high-school sweethearts is what happens when you both graduate?

Alex's voice sighed heavily.

I knew he was disappointed. After the summer Alex was going to a college in Portland and I was going to one in Seattle. Originally, my plan had been to attend college in Seattle to be closer to Nana, but now with her gone, my plans felt hollow.

"I'm really sorry, Alex, but it's just four weeks and then we'll have the rest of the summer together."

"Lily, I really didn't want to do this over the phone, because you deserve better than that. . ." His voice trailed.

The tone of his voice made my heart feel like it was breaking into a thousand pieces. I knew where this was going. I could tell when someone was trying to give the 'break-up speech'.

I rolled over from my back onto my stomach and pressed the heated phone firmer against the side of my face.

"Alex, please. . .not tonight, okay? Don't do this to me right now, not after just burying Nana," I begged. I didn't care how desperate I came across.

"No, Lily," Alex said firmly. "There's never going to be a good time to do this. We've put off this conversation all year. I can't put it off anymore. Look, I really love and care about you, but we're going to be in two different states and schools. Our lives are going in different directions. I want a fresh start in college, not be to hung up on someone I can only see once a month."

I tried so hard to not sob on the phone.

"Thank you Alex, for officially making tonight the worst night of my life." My voice broke a few times when I spoke. I ended the call before Alex could make any explanations or excuses. None of them mattered, the results wouldn't change.

I blocked Alex's number and quickly removed his contact listing on my phone. How could he leave me when I needed him the most?

Tears formed in my eyes, and there was nothing I could do to hold them back. First I'd lost Nana and now I'd lost Alex too. I wanted to stand, but my legs just wouldn't cooperate. I quietly allowed myself to succumb to sadness and cried until there simply weren't any more tears left.

As my vision cleared and I could focus. I saw a light flickering against the wall on the other side of the room. The light flashed in sequence on and then off again.

I curiously turned to try and find the source of the light.

It was coming from my window.

I slowly approached the window frame and opened it to gaze at Mrs. Whitman's house. I could see Marcel standing beside three different telescopes. All of them were pointed at the night sky. He had a flashlight in hand that kept flickering on and off.

Audrina's words from earlier echoed in my mind. How could my Nana possibly believe that Marcel was a 'star boy'? Seriously, there was obviously some huge misunderstanding here. From what I could tell, Marcel was just a socially inept guy with a huge interest in astronomy. I'd been teased in middle-school and called 'broom-hair', so I was positive this rumor was the result of bullying in school.

My Nana definitely was the type to stand up for someone being bullied. Maybe that's what was really going on.

But then again, there was the box. . .

I turned away from the window to stare at the box. It was a strange box. In the shadows it looked like a pure black square of nothingness. It was so smooth, and edge-less without creases. It looked like there was simply no way to open it and that it was one solid piece of mass.

Marcel had told me to contact him if I wanted to open the box, but I was positive I could figure it out. I slid the box from off the small vanity to hold it in my hand. It felt so cold to the touch. As I held it up I could see the moon and the stars outside the window reflecting onto the surface of the box. Suddenly, I understood what the black box was. It was the night sky and it's reflective surface helped to capture the full moon against it.

It was shockingly beautiful.

I looked back down to where Marcel and his telescopes were and found his eyes locking with mine.

I lifted the box high enough for him to see the moon's reflection and I pointed a finger skyward. I wanted to know if my suspicions were correct.

Marcel nodded and smiled.

Curiosity got the best of me. I guessed it wouldn't be too terrible to ask him how to open the damn thing. Besides, the mystery offered a distraction from everything that was going on in my life.

I gestured for him to stay put that I was coming down.

He simply nodded again.

I slipped on a pair of shoes and tried my best to quietly slip down the hallway. I didn't want to risk waking my parents and deal with their questions. It was hard to be stealthy in an old house with creaking wooden floors and squeaking staircases.

Finally, I managed to find myself outside. If it weren't for the moonlight, I'd have been surrounded by total darkness. Washington was a beautiful, but often gloomy looking state. I walked past the far too overgrown shrubs until I found myself approaching the deck where Marcel stood.

I hugged the box against myself and watched him as he carefully examined the stars through his telescope.

"You know what's amazing about the universe? Everything we know about it, or think we know, is only in theory. And those theories are constantly changing based on new information being introduced. Everything out there is a total unknown," Marcel told me without looking away from the scope.

I'd never thought about much beyond just getting ready for college, much less contemplating the universe.

"Is this the sort of thing you did with my Nana? Star gazing, I mean," I asked him.

Marcel finally looked at me, and just the way he moved or watched me felt different from guys I was familiar with. "Well, for my thirteenth birthday I got my first telescope. I started using it every night, and yeah, your Nana noticed. She didn't come out here to star gaze, but she would ask me questions about it, sure."

"So. . .someone at the funeral told me about the rumors. . ." I didn't add on more, I waited for him to fill in the blanks.

Marcel knit his brows with frustration and looked back into the telescope. "I hate the people here sometimes. I wish they hadn't told you that."

I guessed I struck a nerve. I stepped a little closer to him.

"Oh, don't worry. You know, it's just stupid bully talk. No one even believes it," I tried to assure him.

He didn't say anything. He just kept pretending the stars above were more interesting than the conversation we were having.

"And the girl today said something even more ridiculous. I guess she misunderstood your connection with my Nana. She said something like my Nana believed the rumors. Totally ridiculous, right?" I scoffed.

He lifted his head and stared off into the dark shadows that formed between the trees.

"My grandmother believes it," he said softly. "She was the one who started the rumors. . ."

I had no idea what to even say to that. I couldn't even imagine what it would have been like to grow up with someone telling me I was basically an alien. I tried to change the subject as fast as I could.

"My boyfriend just broke up with me tonight," I said without even thinking about it. Immediately after I felt embarrassed and held my face. "God, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that. I don't even know you and I say something like that."

Marcel returned his attentions onto his telescope, but he spoke as he adjusted it. "He'll regret it and try to contact you later, but you're better off without him."

I shook my head. "How can you possibly know that?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he stated simply. Before I could even question him about that statement he reached out a hand to gesture towards me. "Come here, look at this."

I stood close beside him and felt him hover over me when I peered into the telescope. I'd never used a telescope before. I'd seen stars before, but never like this. There was such beautiful high-detailed clarity in what I saw. A series of brightly glimmering stars swirled together like a pinwheel twirling off in distant space.

It was magnificent.

"It's beautiful," I said unconsciously.

"That is Messier one-oh-one, otherwise known as the 'pinwheel galaxy' for how it looks. It's also the key to opening the box I gave you."

I held up the box and tried my best to look for a way to open it. I finally spotted some very fine creases along the sides of the box. They were difficult to have seen at first, but as I turned the box against the moonlight I could see that there was a series of smooth, black tiles fitted closely together. I pressed my thumb against one of the tiles and slid it to reveal a number carved into it.

"Your Nana loved these puzzle boxes. I tried to make them more complicated with each one I designed. I gave them to her as gifts around her birthday and the holidays. I'm sure you'll find them somewhere in the house." Marcel's voice was so smooth when he spoke.

I finally managed to slid only the tiles that revealed "101" and heard a faint click. I pushed the sides of the box and with ease it slid open.

Inside the box was all lined with pine wood and at the center there was a rock resting on a velvet piece of cloth.

"It's a rock?" I said with confusion.

"It's a piece of meteorite. The meteorite from eighteen-years ago."

A strange sensation came over me and I suddenly felt a chill rush up my spine.

"Why. . .did you want Nana to have this?"

"Because when it fell, your Nana was there. . ."