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The end of January was much colder than in previous years. We’d had a terrible snowstorm, which caused our university to cancel classes for the week, and the news had been asking people to stay indoors as much as they possibly could. Although some of the snow had started to relent, you still risked frostbite if you went outside and didn’t cover up adequately.

My friend Waldo had organized a movie night that weekend with Ari and KT. Since it had been a slow week, I agreed and headed over to his apartment. Everyone else was already there, all bunched up together on the three-person sofa. KT’s chocolate eyes lit up when she saw me. I waved to her, and she gave me a bright smile. It was so similar to Blaine’s, and she had the same shade of brunette hair, but her hairstyle was free and tousled about, probably messed up from wearing a beanie or from the wind.

Ari gave me a sweet smile too. She was much shorter than KT; her ethnic, woolen sweater was pulled up around her neck, nearly reaching her lips.

Waldo didn’t seem to notice me enter. His eyes were squinting from behind his black-rimmed glasses, and his body was in full concentration mode: he was flicking through a selection of movies on the menu. I noticed that the TV screen was reflected in his glasses. Suddenly, he paused and his lips broke into a grin.

“How about this one? Interstellar. I think it sounds right up our alley.” Waldo waved the TV remote at the screen, trying to get everyone’s attention to approve his selection.

Moving towards an empty recliner, I took a seat and eyed the title on the screen cautiously. I didn’t want to crash the party by any means, but over the last several months, I had been quite nervous about anything related to outer space. I thought about the fact that right there was the love of my life. I knew he was doing important work on the moon and that this was his passion, what he wanted to be doing, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t lie awake every single night, worrying myself to sleep at the thought of it.

We were all physics students, so sci-fi was our favorite genre. Thus, there hadn’t been any arguments with Waldo’s movie choice. He let it start playing, settling back on the couch, quite pleased with his selection.

The movie was about a man on dying Earth with withering crops. He left his family to venture into space to find hope for humanity. Soon, he ended up lost in space, drifting farther and farther away while his family was getting older and older, waiting for his return. All he wanted to do was to hug his daughter, but it seemed like that might never come to be.

I remember the panic rising in my chest the longer the movie went on. My throat was clamming up, and I felt nauseated, my mind overcome with anxiety and fear as I thought about Blaine drifting eternally in space, never to return to me.