Troublemaker (5SOS)

Chapter Twenty

Tara was still wide awake at 2 in the morning, well past the time her sister decided to retreat to her bedroom for the night, so she grabbed her phone and a blanket and climbed out of her bedroom window to take a seat on the flat rooftop. Since she had just been texting with Ashton, she decided to give him a call. He answered immediately upon the first ring, which made her smile. The weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky, and the lack of city lights nearby allowed the stars to show.

"I was just thinking about you," he says, as she wraps the blanket around her shoulders.

"Oh, you were? I wonder why..." her tone was teasing, but they'd been chatting back and forth all night again, as they did for over a month before they decided to meet.

He sighed deeply, as if he was just getting comfortable. "I wish you were here right now".

I could be, she thought for a moment, but decided against it. She didn't want to get too attached to both guys; the situation was already sticky enough after impulsively inviting Michael over.

"Where are you right now?" She asks, instead.

"In bed," he says, as if he wanted to follow up with another question but ultimately decided against it.

"Can you easily get to a place where you can see the stars?"

Ashton tells her to hold on, she hears some rustling, and then he responds with "yes".

"I'm on my roof, by the way." She laughs quietly, in case Kody's bedroom window happened to be open.

Ashton wasn't as quiet; he wasn't worried about any neighbors listening. "I'm on my balcony. Where are we looking?"

"See the tiny red dot close to the moon?"

He was quiet for a moment. "Just barely."

"That's Mars," she says, and continues to point out the constellations she can make out from her spot.

Ashton just let her talk, only responding when there was a long break in the conversation, otherwise Tara happily filled the silence with her knowledge.

"How do you know all this?"

"My dad taught me. I've always been interested in astronomy. We used to spend entire nights on my roof, where I am now, staring up at the sky and telling me stories about Greek mythology and the stars named after them."

Ashton loved hearing the passion in her voice. She spoke of stars the way that he spoke of music. "Sounds like an intelligent man."

"He is. I don't see him much anymore, though." Tara's voice dropped off, as if she was waiting for Ashton to ask why, but he never did.

When Tara was still a teenager, her parents separated and one day, after they came home from school, her dad was just gone, barely a trace left behind. She held resentment for her mother for a long time, mostly because her dad was her entire world. Kody bonded with their mother more, who happily showed her how to be feminine. As she told Ashton all of this, she could feel the tears stinging the corner of her eyes, hoping that he couldn't hear it in her voice. Now she's lucky if she even hears from her father on days other than Christmas or her birthday. She thinks that she and her sister are nothing but painful reminders that their relationship ended badly, but she can't say for certain that that's the case.

"I'd hold you right now if I could," Ashton's voice is calming.

Tara relaxes and lies back, closing her eyes as she listens to him talk for a while. They discussed date ideas, he asked her if there was anything in particular that she was craving, or if she had any favorite restaurants in the area. Tara asks if it's possible that they meet up earlier, because she just couldn't wait that long to see him.

"What do you have in mind?" Ashton asks excitedly, where as Michael would ask in a suggestive tone.

"It's a surprise, but I think you'd love it."

"Oh, as long as you're there, I know I will."

Eventually, Tara makes her way back into the house, pulling back the sheets and dropping into bed as she and Ashton end their conversation.

"Is it stupid how excited I am just to be able to hold your hand again?" Ashton asks, which makes Tara laugh.

"I can't even believe you're real. Why are you the sweetest? It's not stupid at all. I can't wait to do that, and more."

"Goodnight, beautiful."

Ashton has always called her beautiful, but it meant so much more to her now that he knows what she looks like and still thinks that she is.