I sat down next to him and looked up at the stars again. A part of my wished that Jacob and I were nine again like his little sister Alora. And then I’d probably be spending the night under these stars without any consequences.

“I think I need some of these stars in my room,” I said. “I used to love falling asleep to them when I was little. The good old days.”

“The good old days, huh?”

I nodded.

“Well, I have a solution for that.” Jacob stood up on his bed and pulled one of the stars off the ceiling.

“Oh, you don’t have to...”

But he’d already tossed it at me.

I laughed and caught it in my hand. “Thank you. I’m surprised you still have them up at all.”

He shrugged as he sat down on his bed again. “After my dad died, my mom told me he was the north star. Looking down at us. Protecting us. I couldn’t fall asleep without looking at the stars and saying goodnight to him. And the stars are so dim in the city. Coach put these up when we moved in, so I could always say goodnight to my dad.”

I felt tears welling in my eyes. I didn’t know any of that. Seriously, I’d known Jacob practically my whole life. Why did I not know the north star story? “I can’t take this.” I tried to hand it back, but he wrapped his hand around mine, sealing the star in my palm.

“I want you to have it.”

“Jacob...”

“It’s just a little something so you can think of me as you fall asleep.”

I swallowed hard. It was something my kiss thief would say. My eyes fell to Jacob’s lips.

And he moved just a fraction of an inch closer to me.

“I want to ask you something,” he said. “But before I do, I feel like I need to tell you something else.”

“Okay.”

“Practice was...off today,” Jacob said.

“Off how?”

“Axel stopped handing me the ball again. He knew we were hanging out tonight. And he’s still being really weird about this.”

“This?”

“You and me hanging out.”

Hanging out. What did that mean exactly? And gah. Freaking Axel. How was he ruining this moment without even being here? “I don’t need Axel to protect me.”

“I know. I just...” Jacob shrugged. “If we keep hanging out, we might end up losing every game this season. And I just wanted you to know that you’d be hanging out with a running back of a team with a losing record.”

I laughed. “I’m sure that’s not true. And I don’t care whether Empire High wins or loses. I just like cheering you on.”

“And what about Axel? You two have been friends forever and...”