“Don’t you just wish you could reach up and grab the stars?” The girl asked, eyes turned upwards and arms outstretched.

“Not particularly.” This came from the boy in the corner, arms folded and leaning against a part of the railing that was shrouded in shadows.

“I’d like to make a crown of stars,” she went on dreamily, oblivious to his tone and the fact that he was staring blankly at the floor.

Her eyes sparkled as she gazed towards the heavens, filled with hopes and dreams of one who hasn’t let the world crush their spirit. Her very _soul_ danced with the promise of something great.

He looked at her now with something like pity creasing his brow. His lips parted to tell her she was being foolish, but something in her face as she turned towards him made the boy pause.

“My dad told me that all I had to do was snap my fingers and the world would be mine,” she whispered, “he said that dreams aren’t just for sleeping if you believe hard enough.”

The boy remained silent, looking at her. She was so innocent, so unscathed by the cruelty of the world around her. It angered him. He wanted to yell, to scream in her face that she was an idiot and stupid and delusional. He wanted to snatch up that light in her eyes and snuff it out, if only because if he didn’t break her now, someone else would later on and it would hurt much, much worse.

But he said none of those things. He had been just like her once. Full of dreams and possibilities and _hope_. Before those things had been stolen from him. Shattered like glass and driven into his soul until he was nothing more than an empty shell. Broken. Angry. Numb.

He would not ruin her. As she gazed heavenward, he stepped up to the railing next to her and rested his arms next to hers. She smiled at him and pointed as a shooting star went soaring down.

“Do you think it’s possible?” She asked, her voice still barely above a whisper; “To touch the stars?”

He pondered for a moment, eyes on the horizon.

“I think when you’re already a star,” he whispered slowly, “anything is possible.”

She smiled.