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Pidge didn’t even look up when she heard a car door slam out front. They lived on a street with tons of other college apartments, so people were always coming and going to classes and work. Their apartment building alone had four units in it, and three of those had at least one car to them, so the tenants were always engaged in a secret vicious war over the two parking spots in front of their building. Car doors slamming and the accompanying shout of “yes! Got the parking space!” was fairly common, and she didn’t pay attention to it most of the time.
It wasn’t until she heard footsteps running up the stairs outside of her apartment that Pidge knew the afternoon was about to get very interesting. The footsteps paused outside the door, there was a plastic rustling sound followed by the jingle of keys and the dull thunk of tumblers falling into place, and then the door burst open. “ Pidge !”
Pidge jumped about a mile in the air at the sudden noise, pencil leaving a jagged, dark line trailing from the math equation she had been working on. “ Jesus , Lance…” She pressed a hand to her heart and glared at him through the open bedroom door. He was standing in the middle of the living room with a grin on his face and his arms loaded down with plastic bags.
“I went to the dollar store!” Lance explained, kicking the door shut.
“Oh no.” The dollar store was the mecca for poor college students like them, and her loveable boyfriend sometimes went a little overboard there.
“Oh yes ,” he corrected, setting the bags down on the floor and plopping down in the center of them, looking like a kid on Christmas day. Except he already knew what was in the bags, and Pidge was the one about to get a surprise. He dug through one of the bags and pulled out two candy bars. “First and foremost, a Reese's peanut butter cup for you and a Crunch bar for me.” He drew back his arm and chucked the orange wrapped package through the doorway and she caught it in her hands.
“Bribery will get you nowhere, depending on what else is in those bags.” Pidge told him.
“Oh hush, I’m brilliant.” Lance dug through the bag and pulled out a tiny, cheaply-made ceramic statue of a black cat sitting on a jack o'lantern. The cat’s smile was wide and crooked, and one of its eyes was wonky. Only the finest a dollar store can provide. “Look!”
“Lance.” Pidge steepled her fingers and pressed them to her lips, then pointed them toward him. “It is August.”
“Never too early to start the Halloween season.” Lance said. “And speaking of that, check out these babies!” He pulled out two enormous, hideously-ugly curled witch shoes, one of which had a plush spider on it.
She stared at him flatly. “You are not wearing those out of the house.”
“Of course not, Pidgey, they’re slippers.” Lance said, as if that was the problem with them. He reached for another bag. “I also got an avocado slicer. Who knew they had a special slicer for avocados?”
“They do, it’s called a knife.” Pidge sighed. Him and his single-use appliances…
“And look at these little tins with penguins on them.” Lance waved two of them at her. “Look at them! The penguin has a hat on!”
“Once again, it is August.” Pidge repeated, rolling her eyes at the seasonal decor.
“Oh, and the coolest thing I found…” Lance whipped a small package of white-green stars out of the bag. “Ta-da!”
“Glow in the dark stars?” Pidge asked, arching an eyebrow at him. “Are you five years old?”
“Obviously not, since I bought them with my own money that I made at my part-time job.” Lance huffed. “And you can’t deny that these things are sweet.”
“If you’re a toddler aspiring to be an astronaut.” Pidge quipped.
“Never too late to dream,” Lance stood up and ruffled her hair as he passed. “I’m gonna put them up on our ceiling.”
“You do that, I’m going to finish my homework like a real adult.” Pidge said, turning back to her books.
“Joke’s on you, real adults don’t have homework.” Lance hopped up on their bed. “We are adults-in-training, ergo not truly adult-y adults.”
Pidge snorted quietly in amusement. A comfortable silence settled over them, broken only by the scratch of Pidge’s pencil against notebook paper, the click of calculator keys, the rustle of plastic as Lance opened it, and the occasional squeak of the mattress as he moved around on it. By the time he had finished sticking all the plastic stars onto the ceiling, the glow of the sunset outside had faded into early evening darkness, and the room was only illuminated by the bright glow of Pidge’s desk lamp.
“‘Scuse me, need this!” Lance said, suddenly grabbing her desk lamp around its metal stem.
“Hey!” Pidge frowned at him, unable to see her books properly without the light.
“Just wait, it’s gonna be cool.” Lance told her, shining the light up at the ceiling. She raised an eyebrow and doubtfully eyed the stars stuck to the plaster, white with a slightly greenish tint to them. She really hoped those didn’t leave a mark on the ceiling that their landlord would make them pay for later.
After a couple of minutes, Lance set her desk lamp back in its place on the desk. “Alright, that should be good for a little while.”
Pidge picked up her pencil again, but Lance twisted the knob on top of her desk lamp to shut it off, plunging the room into darkness. “Lance--!”
“Look up.” Lance told her, grabbing her hand. She did, and all of her protests died in her throat. Their bedroom ceiling was littered with dozens of stars, all glowing green. He had even arranged a couple of the large ones into a W-shaped Cassiopea (her favorite constellation) and the tell-tale line of three that made up Orion’s belt. Lance squeezed her hand, drawing her attention back to him. His teeth flashed in the dim light. “Want to go stargazing?”
“You’re just looking for an excuse to cuddle and take a nap.” Pidge saw right through him, but she stood up anyway.
“Guilty as charged.” Lance tugged her over to the bed and pulled her down with him, laying back against the pillow. She punished him by resting her head on his shoulder and throwing a leg over his own, pinning him down fairly well. He didn’t seem to mind, based on the way he pulled her closer and started brushing his hand through her hair. “So, now what do you think of my dollar store haul?” He asked, the words vibrating under her ear.
“The stars were a good idea.” Pidge admitted. “The avocado slicer was still a waste of a dollar.”
“I’ll take it.” Lance chuckled warmly.