Neptune and Pluto

Sasha Perez loved the sky, but she especially loved the stars and the planets that glittered at night. She found solace in getting lost in her imagination, creating stories, and staring up at the ones that wink back at her from above. No one ever understands where her mind wanders off to when she looks up at the sky and smiles.

Of all the planets and constellations, her favourite was Neptune, the furthest planet from the sun. Although Neptune is impossible to see from the naked eye, Sasha saw most of herself within the stormy blues of the solar system’s ice giant. She knew Neptune never strayed away from the orbit around the sun, always loyal, even from afar. The sun, our great Helios, may never even notice the ice planet revolving around him. And everyday, Sasha felt like Neptune, yearning for a man who doesn't acknowledge her infatuation.

The sun pulls neptune by a gravitational force, a pull so strong no one can oppose. That was how Sasha felt when she saw the man of her dreams, too afraid to confess how she felt. She was worried it'll shatter the fragile friendship she spent years nurturing, leaving it dilapidated. He is a star, incredibly magnetic, loved by everyone, and impossible to ignore. She's not the only hopeless romantic with their eyes set on him, and Sasha felt inferior to the others, for she knew some others would be a better fit. After all, how would an ice giant blend with a flaming hot star, without leading to a cataclysmic catastrophe?

But sometimes she looks up and wonders about the what ifs, the would've beens, and the could've beens. Day and night, Sasha lived in fantasies of her own making. But maybe they were the consolation prize for her heart, for not breaking every time her own Helios dances with a Venus, and dines with a Mercury.

For so long, Sasha has been yearning for a smile, a touch, or a glimpse from a man that might never appreciate the love she bears for him, to the point she forgot how exceptional she is. Self doubts clouds her thoughts, thinking she'll never be good enough for him. But maybe one day she'll wake up from her apprehensions and the loathing she holds for herself. Maybe then she will come to learn that he too loves the night sky. Maybe then she’ll learn that he sees himself in Pluto, a misunderstood dwarf, teetering on the outer edge. A frozen world just beyond Neptune, out of reach and out of touch.

He, Ezra Holland, would sit and reminisce how sometimes they would get close, only to drift far apart. He remembered the rare moments when they would sit together and talk about nothing and everything, until suddenly she would pull away, leaving him desperate and breathless, yearning for something more. Why doesn’t she see him? Why doesn’t she see the way his eyes seek her out in a room full of people? Why doesn’t she see the effect she has on him? How is it that she doesn’t realize just how enamored he is with her?

Ezra was a man who was always surrounded by the boisterous laughter of his friends, and he had so many friends. He had the kind of personality where socializing came easy, but when he sees Sasha smiling from a distance, all coherent words would leave him. Sasha and Ezra have been neighbors for almost 10 years now, and yet Ezra knew that she never really noticed him. But Ezra was magnetized by her the moment his eyes landed on her, with a smile illuminating the whole room and an effervescent laugh, bubbling like champagne. He wanted to befriend her, or maybe forge something more, something deeper. But she always kept to herself, and stuck to her small group of friends, and it seemed there was no room in her heart or her soul for Ezra. He would sometimes steal glances at her while she looked up at the sky and weaved her own fantasies, getting lost in a plane only she knew of. He always wondered what thoughts must be running across her mind, and whether one day he would be worthy enough to be the one she shares them with.

When Sasha first moved into the house next door to Ezra’s, he was only 15 and she was 14. Ezra remembered that day vividly. Sasha had her wavy caramel hair up in a ponytail, and she was laughing with her younger sister Abigail as they both looked at their new surroundings with curiosity and wonder. Since then, Ezra and Sasha went to the same school, but they never ran in the same circles, so the times they crossed each other’s paths in school were minimal. But on some warm summer nights and gentle spring evenings, they would sit together near the lake in their neighborhood, and get to know each other, or sit in comfortable silence. Those moments belonged to no one else but them, and Ezra held those precious moments close to his heart. He remembers all the times she would sit next to him and draw constellations within the stars, and tell him about the planets and the galaxies that exist in the skies above.

There were so many moments Ezra wanted to tell Sasha how entranced he is by her. But he worried that it would lead to calamity, and he would lose the small scraps of her that she shared. He didn’t want to lose the moments of peace they shared when they looked up at the sky, all because of his greed for something more. Maybe one day, when he gathers up the courage, he will confess to her how he truly feels. Sometimes he wishes upon a shooting star to let fate push them together.

Once every 248 years, Pluto crosses Neptune’s orbit, but the two celestials will never face each other, and their lives will never collide into one another. Pluto and Neptune will always be at least 1.5 billion miles apart, never within reach of each other. So dear reader, you and I both are left to wonder, will Sasha and Ezra be left with a similar fate, or will they put their trepidations aside, and plant the seeds to reap something beautiful?