I Told the Stars about You

END Chapter 34: Like my own breath

A/N: This is the ending chapter! I'm really excited for you to read it. You'll get an Epilogue after this and if I get comments or votes for it I'll release a bonus chapter with them. But this is the official end... Enjoy it! Please vote if you've liked the book, it always makes me smile :)

Rose's POV - September (after summer)

The space feels cold. Anxiously, I tug at my trainers and turn my feet.
Inwards.
Outwards.
It does nothing but give my mind precious moments to forget about the biting cold nipping at my skin.

I thought it would still be warm. Guess summer passed too fast.

Summer with Ash. Spending hours swimming in the sea, cliff jumping, reading and going out for coffee. I stop myself from thinking about it because if not I'll start crying. I can't believe it's September and we're off to a new future.

My suitcase is on my right, covering the view of the screen withholding all the destinations of the trains today. I find it weird how some are so close, places I used to go to on the weekends with my parents, and others are hours away.
I'm going somewhere hours away.
6 hours.
After all my life, all the hard work and the revision and the hours at home dreaming of doing medicine. Here I am, on my way to do what I really wanted to do. Art.
Ash got his school results and excelled. He's doing biology, like his mum did and giving basketball a break. I feel like he needed that to distance himself from his dad.
Now he's here, in this station, waiting to get on a train with me to drop me off in France because he really is that stubborn. It's been delayed an hour and I'm still waiting on him bringing us our coffees.

I've never stared at my trainers for this long.

I don't know how, for the first time in my life, I'm leaving this town to go to a different country. I can't even believe I'm going to be speaking French. I really should have payed more attention in French class, or at least taken it in my final year. The way I excuse my behavior is by telling myself that I wouldn't have met Ash if it weren't for Spanish class.

"Hey, love." Ash's voice pulls me from my thoughts as he sits down next to me on the floor and hands me a coffee.

I open it, find it stuffed with cream, milk and what smells like... sugar?

"Ash-" I start.

"I know, I know it took a while. There was this massive queue and once it was my turn they ran out of coffee beans so they had to go and grab more from the storage but they'd lost the keys and-" He stops speaking when he sees my grin. "What are you laughing at, Rose?"

"You don't drink black coffee, do you?" I ask, still grinning.

He looks horrified.

"No, love. Trust me, I love it. I love whatever you like."

"So why is there cream, milk and sugar in this?" I open my cup to allow the sweet smell to fill the air between us. "You're telling me you, who gets everything right, ordered the wrong thing?" I direct him an unamused stare, trying to hide my smile.

"I- love" He says slowly, "I didn't tell you because I didn't think it was important."

I find it so cute how he's trying to explain himself to me.

"You get these little loyalty stamps at the coffee shop across the street when we both order black and you're always so excited that, well, I guess I made it a habit."

Three seconds of silence pass between us and he takes it as a bad sign, although in reality I'm five seconds away from bursting out laughing.

"Love, I'll go back to black coffee. I don't mind." I wouldn't even believe it if it weren't happening in front of me, but Ash actually looks desperate. "I actually don't even like cream that much. Or milk. Or sugar."