Stella's Story

Chapter 10 - Stella's POV

   It's been five months. Five months since I've been living with Ash and his family, which his brother turned out to be the boy who helped me in the alleyway, Justin. Their parents seem alright but I have noticed that Justin and Ash don't get along too well, which is a shame really. It makes it hard to be in the same room with them, they're constantly arguing and the other day they almost got into a fist fight. They don't know how lucky they are to just have each other. Their mom welcomes me as a daughter, which is nice if I do say so, but their dad isn't home all that much. He hardly ever joins us for dinner or talks to us, and I'm pretty sure he didn't even realize I was living here until about two months ago.

   I mean that could be partially my fault, I'm almost always in my room and if not then I'm outside in the forest behind their house. I stay away from all running rivers though, I don't want a repeat of what happened last time. Yes it was during winter, but I was underneath the water and drowning. Tell me that doesn't scar you for the rest of your life, especially at a young age. If I'm being honest though, I do miss my home. I miss my room with all my belongings in it, I even miss Parker and Maddie believe it or not. I didn't even get to say goodbye to them before Ash dragged me towards Justin's truck.

All in all though it's been pretty good here, I have a roof over my head along with amazing food! I just can't stop thinking about Alec and where he is now, if he's doing ok and when I can see him again. I really miss my big brother.

There was a knock at the door then a voice, which belonged to Ash. "Stella can I come in?"

"Yeah sure." I replied. Ash opened the door and poked his head in before coming in and closing the door behind him. "What's up?" I asked.

"I just wanted to know how you're liking it here so far. So far five months down now it's just a year and seven months more until your parents say it's ok for you to go home. Almost there right?" He nudged me in the side.

I smiled softly at him. "It's alright. There have been days where I've been missing my friends and my room, but I like it here. I feel... Welcomed." I explained as best I could.

Ash sat on my bed next to me and stayed silent for a few minutes. It was starting to get uncomfortable, then all of a sudden he stood up.

"Come with me, I want to show you something." He held out his hand and waited for me to grab it. I gave him a skeptical look but took his hand nonetheless. Over the past few months we've gotten to know each other really good and became really close. Trusting him though is still a bit of a rough patch, which makes him even more determined to gain it.

He took me out of my room and down the hall, past his room, up the second flight of stairs that leads to his brothers floor, and to a bookshelf. Not the same one that Justin and I snuck out when he helped me and first brought me here. This bookshelf was skinnier and had more knick knacks than books rather. Ash looked at me over his shoulder and smirked while pulling a dark green covered book. The bookshelf opened up to a spiral staircase that went up past his brothers floor.

"You ready cupcake?" He asked me.

"As ready as I'll ever be I guess."

He smirked and started up the stairs not waiting to see if I would follow him or not.

Screw it just do it.

I started up the pitch black staircase holding onto the wall the entire time. Right when I got to the top of the stairs I saw just a small amount of natural light shining through from somewhere. I took another step and tripped almost crashing to the ground and busting my jaw, or worse, but was stopped when a pair of arms wrapped themselves around my waist.

"I got you cupcake, you're alright." Ash whispered in my ear. He helped me upright and we walked up the rest of the way together. What I saw when I stepped through the door at the top of the stairs was incredible. Almost every free space on the walls of this room was covered in paintings. Incredible paintings that absolutely blew my mind. (Sorry if it looks bad I did my best to get them all in one picture).

"Ash this is... I don't know what to say this is amazing!" I told him while walking in to get a better look at them. They all had so much detail that I wanted to reach out and touch it to see if it was real or not. I looked back to see him leaning on the door frame just watching me admire his work.

"How did you do this?" I asked him.

"Paint, paint brushes, blending tools-"

"It was a rhetorical question."

"Ah I figured." He started to walk towards me as I looked around and saw that one wall was left unoccupied.

"Why is that one empty?" I pointed to the wall opposite of us.

"I'm waiting for something or someone special to be my inspiration. Until that time comes it will remain blank." He explained.

"That must be something really special in that case." I said.

Ash looked over at me and smiled. "Come on we better get back down or else mom will have our butts for being late to dinner." He took my hand and led me back down the dark spiral staircase and onto the same floor as his brothers. Just as the bookshelf closed Justin came out of his room and saw us.

"Hey sweetheart, whatcha guys up to?" He asked me.

I wasn't sure if he knew about Ash's secret room or not so I decided to keep my mouth shut about it.

"We just came up to tell you that dinner is ready." I told him.

"Oh, well mom had called me over the intercom and told me, but thanks anyway I guess." He walked past us and brushed into his brothers shoulder and went downstairs.

I shook my head and started to head down but was pulled back into Ash's chest. I looked up at him and he smirked down at me, since he was a good six inches taller me. He leaned down and put his lips less then an inch away from my own. Every muscle in my body was screaming at me to just lean in, don't think about just do it. I guess I took too long though because he sighed, pulled away and walked down the stairs towards the kitchen.

What just happened?