The Night Our Stars Vanished

Eighteen year old bookworm and color conscious Dwight Moors is no stranger when it comes to injustice. After all, it's in his bloodline, people dying over injustice. His ancestor Prince Jabari drowned in the Atlantic Ocean when he sacrificed himself for his wife Arjana. While Dwight takes a walk at midnight in the summer before his senior year, he's assaulted by three thugs who nearly beat him to death inch by inch. When the police arrive, the young African American's filled with relief, only to be deemed as the villain as the police aim their guns at him. Dwight measures his life through the muzzles of their guns. On the same night Dwight's caught in his own midnight madness, Leon Evers, a Caucasian boy who has an infinity symbol tattooed on his inner wrist, loses his virginity to Charlie Abrams. It's everything ever dreamed of. With each kiss, each caress, he feels a warmth that's like no other, a torch that he can keep forever to combat the feeling of losing his mother Elina Evers who died during childbirth. The warmth vanishes once Leon finds out that Charlie, the person he gave his heart and body to, gave him HIV. Now he wonders if he'll ever love someone again. What's worse. How can he tell his two closest friends without unraveling at the seams? Tired of carrying this secret, Leon confides in Dwight who he barely knows outside of school. Dwight initially doesn't welcome him openly, but soon the two teens grow to be friends and are surprised that there's more than what meets the eye. A dual narrative story, this story deals with issues involving race, notions of masculinity, sexual awakening, and follow the journey of two boys who try to regain the stars they lost the night when their lives derailed.