degrassé

adj. Entranced and unsettled by the vastness of the universe, experienced in a jolt of recognition that the night sky is not just a wallpaper but a deeply foreign ocean whose currents are steadily carrying off all other castaways, who share our predicament but are already well out of earshot—worlds and stars who would've been lost entirely except for the scrap of light they were able to fling out into the dark, a message in a bottle that's only just now washing up in the Earth's atmosphere, an invitation to a party that already ended a million years ago.

John Koenig, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

–––

This novelette is one of two entries for Literary Lounge's Gen 3 2022 contest. In three months, the goal was to write a 7.5-20k novelette using the keywords: Edge, Envy, and Escapade. Degrassè is complete with nine parts at 8k words.