Starlight

My heart can’t take a Moo-llennium Crunch kind of night. The glow of my cell phone lights up the entire car. Dad’s face buzzes around in the cup holder like an electric firefly.

I put the car in parked at the stop sign and inhale what feels like my last breath before I answer. It always feels like my last breath when Dad calls. I always know what he’s going to say.

Hello? My heart doesn’t pound or thump or even flutter. It goes all corpse-like, completely lifeless inside of my chest.

Hey Chloe, have you guys dropped Paige off yet? Dad asks.

I nod, even though he can’t see me. Yeah, just left her house.

Alright, well, we need you and Aralie to come on home. We’re thinking about going out for ice cream, he says.

Oh, I say. What are you craving tonight?

Please don’t say Moo-llennium Crunch. Please don’t say Moo-llennium Crunch.

I glance over at Aralie, who’s texting in my passenger seat as if the ice cream conversation isn’t going on next to her. I don’t know how she stays so freaking calm at times like this. The ice cream conversation always means something bad has happened – something really bad, on a national level – and when your secret-service-agent of a dad tells you to get home, there’s room for panic. But Aralie never panics.

I’m thinking just plain vanilla tonight, Dad replies.

The gods of cell phone transmissions rejoice as his words carry over the airwaves. He rambles on with the typical dad-lecture about safe driving, but I’m too thrilled about my heart’s resurrection at the word ‘vanilla’ to even listen to him. I probably say the word ‘okay’ eight times before ending the call with him.

So, vanilla disasters, Aralie says after I give her the rundown of Dad’s info. Let’s see what kind of headlines CNN is running.

Her face lights up in the blue illumination of her cell phone screen. Vanilla disasters are usually big disasters that won’t affect us personally – hurricanes, tornadoes, or escaped inmates. They’re still big deals, and to anyone who’s being affected, it’d be more of a complex Moo-llennium Crunch kind of disaster, but for us, it’s vanilla. Moo-llennium Crunch disasters are for big things like 9/11, terrorist attacks, or pretty much anything that puts the USA on high-alert.

Okay, check this out. Circus Elephant Shot in Drive By Shooting, Aralie reads. You know PETA is all over that. Hmm. They’ve upped the reward for any tips that may lead to finding that dude’s body that was stolen from the morgue.

That headline has been on every news channel, internet site, and trending on Twitter for weeks. Even Dad is sick of hearing about the kid, and he’s the type to volunteer for odd cases. That corpse is long gone, and the sick creeps who stole it will have to live with that on their consciences.

Oh my God, Aralie says. She buries her phone into her chest and throws her head back laughing. Shots Fired at Spaceships Around Saturn’s NYC Show!

I almost laugh too until I imagine the look on Emery’s little five-year-old face if something happened to her beloved boy band or worse, her precious Benji Baccarini. I let off the accelerator and coast along the streets waiting for Aralie to say something.

Don’t give me that look, she says. "They’re all fine. Even Benji Bikini. I deserve a laugh after sitting through two and a half hours of werewolf lust and listening to your annoying best friend through it all."

She has a point, so I keep driving. Aralie and Paige were my only options for seeing Bloodstream, the second movie in the Rainwater Trilogy, in theatres. It’s not like I could go with my old clique after the breakup heard around the world. In fact, if I never see Deacon McCullough again, it’d be too soon. He’s a Moo-llennium Crunch kind of disaster.

Black cars and SUVs fill our wrap-around driveway before we even get home. I pull around to the side of the house and park my car. No one thinks twice when our house is slammed with government agents. There could be a national crisis happening in our living room, and the entire city would be oblivious. Sadly, this is typical.

My money’s on the elephant, Aralie says. What do you think?

By the lack of PETA vehicles, I’m going to go with the kid from the morgue, I say.

I sling my purse over my shoulder and follow my sister to the front door. As predicted, uniformed officials rush around in our house. Mom brushes by, making mention of bed sheets and clean towels, while Dad wraps himself up in a conversation with homeland security agents. I don’t need an ice cream conversation to tell me that this goes beyond circus elephants and drive by shootings.

Whirlwind mode takes over. The uniforms become a dark blur, spiraling around me like a massive black hole sucking me into the depths of space. There’s so much static and noise fizzling in and out. It doesn’t even feel like our living room anymore.

Dad finds Aralie and me somewhere in the mix of it and pulls us toward the dining room. Mom sits at the table, and Godfrey, our fake butler and pseudo-grandfather, stands behind her. Did someone die? Their faces have aged in minutes.

We haven’t explained the ‘why’ to Emery yet, Dad begins.

He sits next to Mom and motions for us to sit across from them. Godfrey remains a statue.

We don’t want her to get upset, Dad continues. There were shots fired tonight in New York at the…

Oh, I know this isn’t happening. Did he seriously call us and get us home because of Emery’s boy band? Dad clearly doesn’t understand the emotional turmoil I’ve faced since prom night when I was officially labeled ‘The Ice Queen’ of the senior class. My summer plans were to forget about stupid boys. Yet Dad calls us home to tell us someone’s blasting off at five, admittedly, cute Canadian boys?

But that’s not even the worst of it.

….on American soil…feel obligated to protect…sort of like witness protection. Dad’s words come in spurts.

Emery bursts into the kitchen, and Dad falls silent. Her golden blonde curls flap in the air as she runs toward us, hugging her Spaceships Around Saturn pillow to her chest.

Do you think they’ll sign it? I need a Sharpie! Chloe! I need Sharpies! She screams the words in my face. Her eyes get all crazy, like a taxidermy laughing hyena.

Mom gives Dad those sad eyes. She and Godfrey hurry Emery back upstairs, and Dad leans in on the table. He uses his serious voice.

Here’s the deal. We don’t exactly have a plan of action for situations like this. There was a media frenzy, and our number one priority was the safety of those boys, he says. So in the midst of it all, someone suggested hiding them out while we follow leads, and I volunteered to let them stay here.

Ohhh God. Aralie groans. I thought you said this was a vanilla disaster. It’s feeling pretty Moo-llennium Crunch to me. You think Emery will actually keep her mouth shut when Benji Bikini is in our house? The world will know in three minutes with her mouth.

Baccarini, Dad corrects her. Please be respectful while they’re here, Aralie. None of those silly nicknames. Emery will be silent because we’re going to be on lockdown. The Saturn boys and, well, you girls.

Lockdown. I don’t even know what Dad’s definition of ‘lockdown’ is, but it instantly sounds like misery. Being locked down with Spaceships Around Saturn is the dream of nearly every teenage girl worldwide, but we have plans this summer. Our social calendars are full, and that Cancun trip took months of begging, convincing, and negotiating.

Now our summer is a prison sentence.

It shouldn’t take very long, Dad says, as if it’ll make things better. A week, maybe two. We already have a few leads, and we’ve got a huge team of people working around the clock to catch the person or persons responsible.

Sometimes I think he forgets when he’s supposed to be in dad-mode. He slips back into government jargon so easily. Simple conversation always sounds like a press statement. He even has that political tone.

Aralie sighs next to me. Why can’t you just put them in witness protection or something?

Dad shakes his head. Witness protection would keep them in society under aliases. We really need them to fall off the map. This will be their safe house until the situation is under control. But that means they can’t be seen, and you girls can’t really afford to leave any more than absolutely necessary. The less you’re exposed to the public, the less chance of the secret slipping.

I can’t allow myself to listen as Dad rattles off the list of things we’ll have to miss out on during this lockdown. There goes my summer, Aralie’s summer, and our entire calendar of pool parties and festivals and sunshine. There goes Cancun.

Those glorious plans shrink further and further away from me until they’re just tiny dots being sucked into the galaxy…all the way to Saturn.

Our living room is like a piece of candy on a sidewalk, swarmed with government ants and SAS staff. Dad ushers all of us back toward the couch. Emery beats us there, all snuggled up to her bright purple SAS pillow that’s shaped like the planet Saturn and has the guys’ pictures on it. If there is a poster child for Saturnites, Emery is it. This is so not the first impression I want them to have of us.

Dad nods to a lady with dark hair across the room. She’s probably old enough to be my mom, but she’s wearing a black cocktail dress and bling. She was probably headed to some awesome after-party in NYC. She steps into a corner with her cell phone. That nod from Dad must’ve been some kind of secret agent signal.

This is Wendy Smith-Lewey with Kathryn Hunter Public Relations Company, she says into her phone. Our official statement to the press is as follows.

She clears her throat before reading a carefully-worded document.

Tonight, shots were fired at the boys’ show in New York City. The boys of Spaceships Around Saturn were immediately removed from the location and taken to a safe house until further notice. The United States government responded quickly to the threat and have eliminated the possibility of further danger. Shows for Boston, Washington D.C., and Nashville will be rescheduled for a later date. More reschedulings or cancellations may follow as the situation progresses. Right now, our number one priority is the safety of Spaceships Around Saturn and their many fans who attend their shows each night. We will be closely in contact with government officials throughout this investigation. Thank you.

She bolts out of the room as quickly as she entered to read her press statement. A slew of agents follow her outside. As the crowd dwindles and Dad stalks the windows, I realize we’re minutes away from being the envy of every girl across the globe.

Emery hums next to me and bounces on the couch.

Benji…Bikini…Baccarini, she sings to herself in a random tune.

This is a thousand times worse than when I lost the coin toss and had to follow the guys on Twitter for Emery. Aralie likes to inform people that I follow not only the band’s account but each guy individually. Not having to follow them was an ultimate victory for her.

However, I can’t ever see what’s up with my favorite rock band because @Benji_Baccarini tweets all day, every day. If I could rewind tonight and get my summer back, I’d even retweet Benji’s pointless ramblings about his new shoes and hoodie weather and ugly hotel carpet.

Headlights twirl around the room. Dad rushes to the door, but Emery’s beloved Benji Bikini isn’t here yet. Instead, a tall Cuban guy with boulders for arms and a tight black T-shirt walks in.

Hey Tank! Emery yells across the room, waving her arms excitedly.

I cringe and wish there was a way I could slip in between the couch cushions to the land of lost pennies, dust bunnies, and bread crumbs. If Emery is this thrilled over seeing SAS’s bodyguard, I don’t even want to imagine the moment those Canadian boys step through our doorway.

Tank smiles and waves back to her. I feel like the ultimate loser of all eighteen-year-old losers because I, Chloe Branson, am familiar with Tank Rodriguez, and no girl my age should know who he is unless she’s directly linked to Spaceships Around Saturn.

I guess, in some way, I am linked now. I’m linked by a cosmic force called lockdown.

Aralie stretches out on the other side of Emery and asks the one question that neither of us want an answer to. When are they supposed to get here?

Emery’s eyes light up with that laughing hyena glaze again, waiting for Dad to announce the arrival of Benji Bikini and his four brothers from Saturn.

But Dad doesn’t get a chance to answer.

The doorbell beats him to it.

The idea to wedge Emery between Aralie and myself wasn’t strategized, but I do believe it was a genius plan. She wiggles around next to me, craning her neck to see into the foyer. Every possible person from planet Saturn files in through our front door. I don’t recognize anyone else, so I assume they’re probably management teams, public relations staff, vocal coaches, and whoever else may tour with the band.

Team Saturn flows from the foyer into the living room, lining our living room walls like paint. Then Dad and Tank rush for the door, and Emery’s arms flail with excitement. Aralie clamps her hand over Emery’s mouth the moment we see his blonde hair.

Benji Baccarini – the face of Spaceships Around Saturn – stands in our foyer, on our hardwood floors, breathing in our American air conditioning.

Even I’m a bit star-struck.

He looks like he does on the posters on Emery’s bedroom walls. He has a perfect blonde surfer shag and bright blue eyes and looks like he was plucked right off of a sandy beach rather than somewhere in Canada. He stretches his arms back while talking to Tank. The rings on his Saturn tattoo morph into a blur on his arm.

That hyena look in Emery’s eyes begins to creep me out. She can barely catch her breath, so her words come out in a crazed whisper. Benji Bikini is in our house!

Baccarini, I whisper back.

I admit, it used to be funny when Aralie called him Benji Bikini just to get under Emery’s skin, but now that he’s thirty feet away from us – in our freaking house – the nickname is so not funny.

Dad introduces the guys to Mom and Godfrey, then points toward the couch. Benji’s the only one in my line of vision, but he doesn’t smile when he glances up. I wonder if it’s because their summer tour has been ruined. Or maybe it’s because of that stupid purple pillow Emery is clutching. Either way, I don’t like his expression.

Dad motions them into the living room, telling them to grab a seat, and I swear, I feel the panic bubbling up in my chest. This must be how Emery feels whenever she watches their DVD and squees like a fangirl. If my heart is near exploding, I can’t imagine how fast her little heart is fluttering right now.

This is crazy. I’m not even a boy band kind of girl. Sebastian’s Shadow, my favorite band, is rock – screaming rock – with edgy guitar riffs and hardcore drum loops and metaphorical lyrics about ripping your heart out. Who knew the guys of Spaceships Around Saturn are actually ten times hotter in person than on Twitter?!

I may be able to tolerate lockdown just for the eye candy. Aralie, on the other hand, sighs dramatically and slouches on the couch. If any of us could pass for a rockstar, it’d be Aralie. She’s as much a poster girl for the punk rock scene as Emery is a Saturnite. Benji Bikini doesn’t rank very highly on Aralie’s list.

Fortunately for my and Emery’s cardiovascular health, Benji finds a spot on the loveseat across the room.

Noah, the tattooed brunette, sits next to him. He doesn’t look like the boy band type at all. He has more of the emo, punk rocker vibe about him. He’s as out of place as Aralie is.

Tate settles in on the other side of Aralie, introduces himself to her, and says, Welcome to the summer of hell. How sweet. He’s my age, but I swear, the guy looks fifteen. He has the kind of baby face that pre-teen girls are attracted to.

SAS’s resident bad boy, Jules, slams himself against the wall in true jerkoff fashion. He folds his arms over his chest and shoots evil eyes toward Benji. He’s probably relaying some Saturn-ish telepathic message about how miserable this is going to be.

Mind if I sit? A voice breaks me away from deciphering the cosmic communication between the bromance known as Jenji.

I glance up to see Milo, the only SAS guy with any sense of maturity, standing over me. He nods toward the armrest, and I quickly jerk my arm back toward myself. He eases onto the armrest, and the scent of his body wash makes my head swim. Can you faint from awesome boy scent?

Emery never says much about any of the guys aside from Benji, but I feel like I know the basic gist of who they are from their tweets. Noah and Tate are goofy and immature. Jules tries too hard to keep up a badass image.

Milo is the one who stays calm and collected through everything. He talks the others down from the ledge. He gets visible tattoos although management wants to keep him wholesome. He’s only rude when he’s been pushed to the limits, and he adds a lot of extra letters to the end of words because Spaceships Around Saturn has the best fans everrrrr.

But he’s never once tweeted that he smells like heaven or has eyes the color of the caramel inside of a Milky Way candy bar. These are the kinds of things girls need to know, Milo! Especially before you sit down on the armrest next to them!

Dad clears his throat, takes his place at the center of the room, and introduces himself as Secret Service Agent Scott Branson. He uses his official government voice. Then he looks to Mom. She rushes over to the couch, behind us, and leans over.

Emery, sweetheart, I need you to come help me, she says quietly.

Emery’s face scrunches up like an ugly baby doll. Her eyes squint, and she pouts her lips. Mom doesn’t buy the sad face, and even though tears drip down Emery’s cheeks, Mom carries her out of the room. That purple pillow remains in Emery’s grip. Thank God she took it with her.

That poor child has no clue that her precious Benji Bikini…Baccarini…had shots fired at him tonight. I zone in on Dad so I can avoid making eye contact with anyone else in the room, but Milo nudges my shoulder.

Slide down, he mouths. He nods his head sideways.

I scoot over closer to Aralie, forcing her closer to Tate, and Milo eases down onto the couch with us. He wedges me tightly between himself and Aralie. He repositions as best he can for comfort, then glances at me and mouths, Thanks.

I remain as still as I possibly can because if I move the slightest inch, his skin will brush against mine, and I don’t think I can take it.

If Emery was ever right about anything, it was Spaceships Around Saturn. Yeah, it was lame and clichéd and totally stupid when she’d say they were ‘out of this world,’ but really, these guys aren’t from Earth. At least not Milo.

No human boy smells this good or has eyes that caramel-ish. I’ve never seen a guy fit so perfectly into a T-shirt. The dark gray fabric hugs every curve of his body, every muscle in his arm, every ripple of his abs. Ohmygod this isn’t happening. I am not checking out Milo Grayson of Spaceships Around Saturn.

I’m dreaming because something this insane would only happen in my dreams. Or in Emery’s dreams. This isn’t real.

Part of me wants to take a deep breath and get myself together, but I know if I inhale too deeply, his body wash will rush through my sinuses and into my brain and down through my blood cells, and then my heart will erupt into little pieces of Saturn.

I settle on shallow breaths and remind myself that he’s just a guy – a human guy – who happens to be in an internationally famous Canadian boy band. He just happens to be even more beautiful in person than on Twitter, and screw this – he’s totally from Saturn. Earthlings don’t look like this.

Dad clears his throat, bringing me back to planet Earth, and explains the situation, repeating what everyone already knows – shots were fired, government is following leads, guys have to hide out– as we all pretend like this is the first time we’re hearing it.

But right now, we have to sort through what leads may be real and what may be rumors, Dad says. We have officials working around the clock to get you guys back on tour as quickly as possible. Hopefully this won’t take any longer than two weeks.

Two weeks? Jules bolts off the wall with asteroid-like impact. Do you know how many shows we have over two weeks? People schedule their summer vacations around us!

Benji jumps up and grabs Jules’s arm, pushing him back toward the wall, but it’s useless. Jules pushes Benji away and hurries across the room, into the foyer, and out the front door. Milo forces himself up from the couch to go after Jules, but Tank holds up his hand and halts Milo from going outside. Instead, the bodyguard goes after the bad boy, and Milo squeezes himself back in between me and the armrest. I wish he’d stop moving so much.

I’m so sorry, Mr. Branson, Milo says once he’s comfortable again. Jules has a tendency to blow up about things.

My dad says something about stressful situations and how it’s understandable to be tense at times like these, but I keep playing back Mr. Branson in my head and imagining what it’d be like if Milo was a normal Earthling who I could bring home to meet my dad. Thank the gods of Saturn I couldn’t see that moment when they first met in the foyer. I might’ve faltered witnessing that initial fatherly handshake.

Dad waits a few moments before he carries on. Jules and Tank don’t come back inside, so we venture from explanations into the rules ceremony.

The guys have to remain at our house, either inside or around the back patio, at all times. They cannot venture off on the property and risk being seen by neighbors, media, or passersby. They cannot access social media accounts or be present online at any time. They must turn in their cell