Shooting Stars(Sesha Ballins)

All The Stars We Cannot See ੈ✩‧₊˚

Seth knew that alcohol was never the solution, but it did help him forget his past mistakes. It was a hard night for Rollins as Sasha's words or lack of words replayed in his mind for the past hours. Zahra was there too and it seemed like she knew her time with him was coming to an end. Zahra got closer to him on the couch and their knees touch and he thinks of Mercedes, his Mercedes, a look she gave him once, nothing special, just looking back at her as she stood at the front door, asking if he'd seen her keys. A forgettable moment if there was one, but Seth spent five years in the imprisonment of his own mind remembering it.

The lights from the television flicker multiple times and he found himself remembering all the times she would interrupt their make-out session to pontificate about things on the tv. "Can we talk?" Seth looked at Zahra who agreed, knowing what was to come, knowing it was the end.

Sasha stayed in a condo with Ashley in Moline, she was too parched to travel back to Boston and Ashley had no place to call home after her divorce from Thomas Latimer. She had been coping with the separation better than most people would. She would be crying during the day and kicking ass at night. "I know you hate it when I ask you this but everyone saw you and Colby's little scene on Monday and I must ask you why." She gently asked, no force applied this time. Mercedes sighed and placed her warm cup of tea down on the coffee table. "We dated for a couple of months in 2010. I know you always told me that I'll never experience real authentic love until I'm at least 25 but I was 18 back then and if that wasn't love then I don't know what is." She wasn't talking about his love for her, he was talking about how she loved him.

"I don't know what I'm talking about most of the time when it comes to love anyway. Look at me, 29 years old and I've been divorced twice." Ashley exhaled through her nose. At this point, Ashley acknowledged that when it comes to marriage, she's very Scarlett Johansson, always unlucky. Ashley knew that she wasn't completely blameless, she just hated how fast she was to jump to the altar. "No offense but your failed marriages are probably some generational curses," Sasha suggested regarding the nature boy's three marriages. Ashley laughed, it felt good to have some moment of happiness.

"What went wrong? You and Colby." Ashley asked. Sasha didn't know how to say it without fully pinning the blame on him, she tried to analyze some sort of flaw but she couldn't point out anything. "I guess all relationships have a breaking point. There's this three-month expiration date to a relationship where one becomes increasingly uninterested in the other. I think that's what happened. I hate telling the full story, it really does nothing but hurt me more. I feel like it pains me more because he was my first everything and he just left me like that, no closure, no nothing. I spent more time moving on than I ever did with him." She chuckled at the ridiculousness of the situation. Two women who had been hurt by men, and have a hard time forgiving and forgetting.

"And yesterday, what did he say to you?" She continued the interrogation. "He didn't ask to get back together with me, he'd be a fool to do so. He offered closure. I feel like if I forgive him, he could forgive himself too." She explained, Ashley nodded. Ashley is protective of her friends and would not hesitate to hurt anyone who hurt her friends, and she felt like she want to punch Seth in the gut. Ashley didn't know the full story but she knew Sasha wasn't a whiner or a crybaby, but it was evident that she was hurt and she had punished herself for years for what had happened.

"I hate him," Ashley mumbled, staring blankly.

"Is it bad that a part of me still loves him?" Sasha wasn't guilty that her heart was shattered, she felt guilty because she knew if it was taped back together, it'll beat for him all over again. "Nah, you don't control who you love and once you do love there's nothing stopping you from ever loving them. It's like some sick drug." She complained. "Once you love someone, there's no going back. Even if you're wound up with someone new you can't help but care for your past. Which is why people can never be friends with their exes." She explained thoroughly. Ashley is the most experienced when it comes to relationships in the Four Horsewoman, it was what dubbed her as the older sister of the group.