"Did you know that everyone is made of stardust?"

Parker laughed at the familar voice "Hello to you too, babe"

"Well, did you?"

"Yeah, I did"

"Aww, I wanted to be the one to tell you, and you could be like 'wow, really? That's so cool!'" The girl giggled, the buzz of alcohol in her system making her act differently.

"Sloane..."

"Yes...?"

"Have you been drinking?"

"Yes!"

Parker ran a hand down his face, stifling a laugh at the crazy girl.

"What are you listening to?" He asked, still amused at her blatant honesty.

"Valerie"

It was silent as he listened to the music in the background of the call, hearing as it ended, before starting at the beginning again "On repeat?" He asked, perplexed by her.

Sloane shrugged, even though he wasn't able to see her "It's my happy song" She admitted, staring at her feet.

"I never really thought of it as a happy song" Parker thought aloud.

"Happy songs aren't always happy" Sloane mumbled, biting her nail as she thought deeply about her words.

"That makes no sense"

"It was my mother's favourite song" She spoke solemnly.

"Was?"

Sloane held back tears for the thousandth time that day"The past is unchangable"

"I know" He agreed, his voice so quiet it barely came out as a whisper.

"What would you change? If you could?" She asked, playing her life through her head and picking the moments out carefully.

Images of Parker's older sister flashed into his mind, but he pushed it away before thinking too much about it.

He shook his head "We're not talking about his when you're drunk"

"Not drunk, just tipsy" Sloane corrected.

"And why's that?"

"It was her birthday yesterday. It's always quieter when we're thinking about her"

'I know exactly what you mean' Parker wanted to say, but held himself back.

As much as he trusted the stranger on the other line, his biggest regret was not paying attention to Sam when he knew he should have.

Sloane sighed deeply, taking another swig from her bottle "You know what they say; when life fives you lemons, you can only hope they're poisoned before you make the lemonade"

Parker pursed his lips "That's pretty cynical"

"What can I say? I'm a petty cynical girl" Sloane said bitter-sweetly.

The line was quiet as the two thought deeply about themselves, what they'd lost.

Sloane stared out her window, up to the stars she had always been told to look at in times of sadness.

Though now a days, the stars only made her sadder.

Even the stars were dead...

A few tears streaked down her cheeks, a small sob building at the back of her throat.

She couldn't help but to whimper.

"Sloane, are you crying?"

She wiped underneath her eyes, taking a deep breath to calm herself down "Yeah"

"Why?"

"I looked at the stars like I do every night, but this time, I remembered that some of them are dead" She mumbled, her voice wavering as she spoke.

"But some of them aren't"

"Lucky them, huh"

Parker felt the urge to reach out to this girl, to comfort her somehow. He needed to make her laugh again.

"Seeing the stars this brightly  just remind me of that time my ex girlfriend threw me out of her house in the middle of the night. Like, legit, threw me onto the grass out the front of her place. God, she did not give one fuck"

Sloane felt a slight bit of jealousy of this ex girlfriend, one who got to know Parker, to see him.

And who was she?

Some random girl he accidentally texted.

Though the more she thought about what she had just told her, the more she wanted to laugh.

"Threw you?" She asked in hope for clarification.

"Yup"

"If she was your ex, what were you doing in her house?" She asked, giggling rather embarrassingly.

"Breaking up with her" Parker admitted, rubbing the back of his neck as he laughed softly, realising how much of a bad person he seemed in that moment.

He pushed that bad feeling aside as he replaced it with the sound of her laugh replaying in his mind, and feeling a sense of accomplishment that he was the one to make her laugh.

"My god, you broke up with her at her house? Didn't she have family home?"

"No, she was kinda hoping for..." Parker stopped himself "Something"

Sloane rolled her eyes at the way he tried to censor himself "I'm a big girl, Parker, I've had the talk already"

"She wanted to have sex but at that point I wasn't really interested in her anymore, so I didn't think it'd be fair on her" Parker slapped his forehead, the memory of being pushed out her door all too familiar.

"So you were being a good guy about it but she still threw you out?"

"She didn't take well to rejection, we can say that much. She was all 'I'm the best fucking chance at a hot girl you've got, Parker!' and I was like 'okay, sure' and apparently that was out of line and she threw me out" He retold, making the girl on the other line laugh.

"Respect"

"Now I feel like a twat, do you have any fun relationship stories?" Parker asked once he felt his face adequately on fire out of pure embarrassment.

It took Sloane all but a second to think of something "My ex accidentally sent my best friend a dick pic"

Parker nearly choked on his breath, believing - and hoping - that he had heard her wrong "He what?"

"Yup. I dodged a bullet that day. He was drunk off his ass and his friends dared him to, but then he clicked Bea and bam, Bea's scared for life. I mean, it's not like she was interested in the first place, but definitely not now" Sloane giggled as she felt the alcohol take effect once again.

"Dear God, poor thing" Parker mumbled, almost imagining the face of Sloane's poor mortified best friend, his fist curling as he thought of how much that guy deserved a good punch in the jaw.

"I couldn't look him in the eye for two solid weeks and had to break up with him through text. Best part was, he thought I was mad because he sent it to the wrong person. Like, no! I didn't want to see your dick in the first place!"

"You prefer dog pictures then?"

Sloane bit her lip, sitting more comfortably on her bed "You have no idea"

"As much as I understand that's horrible, I think the time a girl cut some of my hair off to keep is worse"

Sloane sat up straighter "WHAT!?" She exclaimed, before covering her mouth and hoping that no one heard her.

"Yeah. We were only like ten, but we were hanging out at her place once and I had soccer earlier, so I fell asleep and she cut off some to keep for when we were going to get married and she could joke about it. I left very quickly"

"Okay, you win." Sloane surrendered "That's terrifying. You were ten, what the hell was she thinking?"

Parker ran his fingers through his hair as he laughed "I have no idea"

"Would it make you feel better if I told you that I accidentally flirted with one of my teachers in year 11?" She asked, her heating up at the memory of her embarrassment.

"How?"

"He was new, and only just out of college, and I thought 'hey, he's cute' when I saw him and so I pulled a move and 'accidentally' ran into him and was like 'wow, you have really pretty eyes' and he was going to reply but got a call and said 'bye, gorgeous' and winked"

Parker was cringing the whole time he listened to Sloane tell the story, and at this point, he couldn't tell if it was because she had embarrassed herself, or because he was jealous that she hadn't been flirting with him.

"Next day, he's the sub in my class and I straight up just walked out"

"You know, that does make me feel a little better"

"Have you ever had any good relationship ending?"

Parker thought it over before shaking his head "Nope" He replied, popping the p "You?"

Sloane shook her head before remembering that he couldn't see her "No, I don't think so"

"So we're both relationship losers?"

"You bet, baby"

"That's just a little upsetting"

"Nah, not really. I find it funny to look back and think about how dumb it all was"

"I mean, sure it makes good stories, but fuck is it awkward in the moment"

"Oh god yeah. I was tempted to move schools several times"

"Could you count on one hand how many times you've been utterly embarrassed by that shit?"

"Not at all. Even almost relationships have gone down in a ball of flames"

"Almost relationships?"

"You know, the kind where his friends tell you that he likes you, your friends tell you he likes you, you start talking and flirting, but you're both awkward as shit so nothing eventuates"

Parker had guessed that she must've been beautiful with having two boys after her semi-recently, but was she really that adored?

How would she ever look at someone like him?

"That's happened more than once?"

"At least twice this year"

Parker felt protective of her, as he knew just how bad guys could be, but thought it best to keep the call in good spirits "Wow, Sloane the player"

Sloane groaned, hiding her face in her hands "Don't call me that"

"Didn't you have those two guys try with you just since texting me?"

"Yes"

"So you're rather sought after?"

"I wouldn't say that..."

"I would, Jesus" He admitted, pushing back the want to imagine her face, the face that would match her laugh, her voice, her.

"I think I let people down too easy, I might be leading them on"

Parker shook his head, though she couldn't see "Of course not. If they take your rejection than anything other than a rejection, then that's their issue"

Sloane smiled with butterflies in her stomach, biting her nail "Thank you, Parker"

"Anytime babe" Parker smiled, before his happiness was ruined by a text from Vincent, meaning he was going to have to pick him up.

When Vince texts 'j love yiu man', that generally means it's time to get his ass home.

"Apart from this time. Vincent's drunk and I need to pick him up"

Though disappointed he had to leave, the promise of speaking again made her heart flutter "Of course, we can talk soon"

"Bye"

Just before hanging up, Sloane spoke again "Hope that girl doesn't clone you with your hair"

"You know what? Me too"

------

Henlo friends!

I know I say that I update on Mondays but I'm really sad, stressed, anxious and broke,  but somehow updating always makes me feel happy so that's what i'm gonna do.

I hope you are all feeling good, and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

So much love,

Sage xx