Life fell into the mundane routine of everyday, which-despite the fact that technically, he snatched her away from the clutches of death-wasn't the strangest thing that happened to him, even given the circumstances.

For her, life went on in the form of school and books and tests and friends and projects and homework and church and home and family.

For him, life went on in the form of her, and the marbles slowly filling the jar.

One night, he stayed up late, talking to her on the phone while watching the jar on his desk, glowing with a faint blue light in the dark room.

"You know," she said, in a whisper so intimate it almost felt like she was saying it right into his ear. "I saw a shooting star last night,"

"It's not a shooting star," he said. "It's just an asteroid, tumbling through space so fast it appears like a stream of light shooting through the sky to the naked eye,"

"Shh. You're ruining the magic."

"Hah. Okay, so you saw a shooting star. And...?"

"I made a wish, of course," Of course, because she was the kind of girl who still made wishes on shooting stars.

"What did you wish for?"

A pause. "Someone worth all the asteroids in the universe."

He went to sleep that night, with the faint glow of the stars in the jar to accompany him in the darkness.

.....

New Year's Eve. At the countdown, at the park, with familiar company. And her, of course.

"Damn, look at what all this pollution's done to the sky," one of their friends said, looking up at the sky in dismay. Compared to the sky back in early November, the late December sky wasn't as full and bright. There were occasional stars, of course, but they were scattered. Littered throughout the sky like a thin layer of marbles. "Where have the stars gone off to?"

He felt a slight pang of guilt in his gut, but he pushed it away.

"It's like they're dying one by one," another one said.

She was sitting right next to him. "I really wish that the stars would come back," Her arm was brushing his.

"If you keep wishing for stuff like that, the asteroids of the universe won't stand a chance."

She laughed, a good-natured laugh that cleared all guilt from his gut, and he thought, You're worth even more than the stars in the universe.

The fireworks launched into the air a few minutes later, bathing the sky in a kaleidoscope, filling in the spaces between the stars with streaks of color. It was only temporary though. When the show ended, the sky seemed even more empty than the last time.

.....

One by one, the stars went out.

.....

Months later, the goddess paid him a visit, and she requested to see the jar filled with stars.

"Beautiful," she said affectionately, cradling the marbles in her arms. "I've never seen so many. How long has it been now?"

"One hundred and eighty four days," he said in a heartbeat. The goddess gazed at him, amused.

"Six months. I'm impressed. No human has shown such consistency with the deals I make. Especially not the expensive ones."

The goddess laid down the jar on the table. Stared at him for half a minute, before saying, "She will be leaving in a few months."

He flinched. "I know."

A lapse of silence. She hummed, something which, he figured, was supposed to calm him down. "In a sense," the woman said. "The time you bought to be with her will be up soon enough."

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