There are pages and pages of this kind of thing, but as I skim, I realize the entries aren’t all about stargazing, and suddenly I feel like I’m stepping somewhere I really don’t belong because he’s writing about personal things. He’s moved a lot. And he’s angry and sad and sometimes scared. But the thing that makes me pause is his writing about his mom.

The Earth makes up 0.0003 percent of the solar system. I may not know where my mom is, but at least we’re on the same planet. In the context of the universe, that narrows things down quite a bit.

Why doesn’t he know where his mom is?

If/when the sun dies, there are some trees that will make it a few decades, but the rest of us will only make it a short amount of time before we all freeze to death. That’s how it feels without Mom. I’ve made it a short amount of time, but I’m running out.

That’s when I slam the notebook shut. He may have been trespassing on my aunt’s property, but that didn’t make it okay to trespass on his grief. Plus, there isn’t a single word that makes me think he knows my family. Is it possible our meeting was random?

But now I’m rethinking everything. Fate. Coincidences. My own judgment. Because the boy is suddenly standing directly in front of me, and I just sent a mouthful of coffee halfway across the café. Only a minute ago I was sitting with my mom, trying to come up with a way to bring up the curse, about to blurt out something brilliant like Heard any curse stories lately? when I hear his name. Mason.

And then I look up, and boom. There he is. The stargazer. Staring at me in total and utter disbelief.

Ditto. Because I’m sure I’m staring at him the exact same way.

Apart from him materializing out of thin air for the second time, the thing that shocks me the most is how tall he is. And how dark and tangled his hair is. His face is somehow even nicer-looking than I remember, with dark, expressive eyes that would leave me speechless even if I hadn’t run into him on a rooftop at midnight.

Which I most definitely did.