Noelle said. “Maybe it’s stupid but I thought that might help you as well.”

For a few seconds, all I could do was stare at her. My voice sounded watery when I choked out, “Not stupid at all. Thank you, Noel e.”

Noelle suddenly looked alarmed. “Why are you crying? Did I do something wrong? Do you want me to—”

“No,” I said, wiping away the traitorous tears that had spilled out against my will. Looking at the fairy lights and at Noelle’s worried face, my heart felt like it had grown to twice its size, so big that it filled up my entire chest and all I could get out was,

“You did nothing wrong. Thank you.”

Her shoulders sagged in relief. “Goddammit, Greene, don’t scare me like that.”

I released a tearful laugh. “Sorry.”

“Are you going to turn them on, then?”

Nodding, I got up to turn off the ceiling light before I switched on the battery pack.

The lights illuminated my half of the room just enough to turn the otherwise threatening shadows into chairs and desks and drawers, each of them glowing comfortingly like tiny stars trapped under our ceiling. A small galaxy just for us.

° ° °

Surprisingly, they helped.

I had two nightmares in the following three days and each time those fairy lights were the first thing I saw when my eyes snapped open, reminding me where I was and that the girl who had brought this light to the darkness for me was sleeping only a few feet away from me.

They didn’t make my nightmares any less awful, but they made the aftermath more bearable.

It was the fifth night after Noelle had hung them up that something was different. Usually, she was still asleep when I woke up, or at least she didn’t say anything; this time, she was the one shaking me awake.

My eyes flew open the instant she gripped my shoulders, my hands reaching up to clasp at her arms.

“Hey,” she muttered, her head blocking out the lights as she leaned over me. “You’re okay. Just another nightmare.”

My chest was still rising and falling rapidly as I let go of her and dropped my head back onto my pillow, blinking as if that would dispel the images burned into the back of my eyelids.

“Sorry,” I rasped. “Did . . . did I talk in my sleep?”

“You were screaming.”

I fisted a hand in the sheets, willing my breath to stop rattling in my throat, my heart to stop pounding, my body to stop feeling like I was going to shake apart under Noelle’s steady gaze. Finally, I managed to say, “Sorry for waking you up. You should go back to sleep.”

“Don’t be stupid. Tonight was worse than usual, wasn’t it?”

“Yes,” I whispered.

“Then I won’t go back to sleep.”

“Noelle . . .”

“I want to help you. Is it okay if I do?”

I sat up and, after a moment of hesitation, gave a small nod.