ACT I: A Story About Love

" She had the sweetest voice the world had ever heard. It was a voice that could make a man kill his wife with just one whisper. It was a voice that others begged to hear just because it sounded like honey suckles and spring time romance. She could make people both love and hate themselves with just one look, but it was a power she never abused.

Her voice was the second thing that took Adius by surprise. The first was a red, white, and blue matching underwear set. He had come outside because people had started to smoke in the house. Even though he was an athlete, his lungs weren't built to take in smoke like that.

As he stumbled further into the luscious garden, he came across a crown of lights sitting in the grass. Upon further inspection, he realized that the lights were shinning from inside bright yellow flowers and resting in the never-to-be-tamed brown curls that belonged to a very familiar face.

He had never formally met the girl behind most local and national clothing and make up brands before that day. He had seen her face everywhere, had heard her name in the mouths of all those that passed, but he had never seen her like this before. He had never talked to her.

He was nervous.

Even in the night time he could see that her photos didn't do her justice, he could understand that the gossip didn't paint her in as big a picture as she deserved to be. There she laid, her hair lit up and splayed all around her like an angel's halo. One hand was raised and it seemed like she was counting stars.

The other hand was resting on her stomach where it fiddled with a belly piercing.

Here was his chance to finally meet the girl that the world was raving over. But she was alone at a party, that surely must have meant that she didn't want company. His body must have figured that his mind was seconds away from chickening out because before he could process it, he was walking closer then plopping down beside her.

"This is what you like to do at parties?" He had asked. She didn't bat an eyelash, nor did she stop trying to count the stars. That was all the indication that he needed to tell him that coming to talk to her was a bad idea.

He had sighed and started to get up.

That's when he felt her hand on his wrist. That's when her eyes fell on him. That's when he heard her voice for the first time. "Stay and count with me," She had ordered. And that's what it was, an order.

It was a demand he couldn't refuse, because when Adius looked into her eyes, he saw something so immensely broken that he didn't dare say anything to further the cracks. There were no tears in her eyes, but one could just tell that she was one wrong move away from breaking down.

Or maybe she had already broken down, that might explain her in her underwear, or maybe it wouldn't.

Adius laid down next to her and watched her out of the corner of his eyes. She had resumed doing the impossible. Wasn't the definition of insanity doing something over and over again and expecting different results? By that thought alone, Adius figured that she must be going insane.

"I'm not actually counting the stars." He heard from next to him. "I'm just acknowledging them. You know that when you ignore the memory of something, it starts to fade, and soon enough, you won't even remember what it is that was so important to you. I would never want to forget a night full of stars like this."

He didn't know what to say, so what came out was the first thing that came to mind. "If you wanted to remember, couldn't you just take a picture? That way you could always have it with you?" The girl had stopped everything she was doing as soon as he spoke.

Adius immediately figured that he had said something wrong.

She sat up, the light followed and illuminated her every move. Adius followed what she was looking at and realized that there was a grasshopper sitting on her knee. She smiled at it and gave it a little push in the direction of the semi-tall grass.

"You and everyone else don't seem to realize just one important thing." She turned to look at him and he swears to this very day that her eyes sparkled, and it wasn't a byproduct of any reflections. "It's not mines to have forever. I shouldn't be able to hold something as big and as beautiful as galaxies in my hands, that isn't the way it should be. Besides, I could never capture what I actually see on film."

That's when she finally stood.

She grabbed her long and flowing maxi skirt from off of the ground and slipped it on. After she pulled her peasant styled shirt on and tucked it in, she held out her hand and with the most gorgeous smile Adius had ever bared witness to, she said, "I forgot to tell you, I'm Corrina Nova, but you can call me Hope." "