✓ 𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗦𝗦┊z. herron

10

following miami past multiple partly closed doors, zach reached what seemed to be miami's room. walking into miami's room, he saw a bed with cream bed sheets and a white headboard. fairy lights hung off of a portion off the wall, and to the right of that, was a wall of polaroids. 

zach glanced behind him to see miami walk into the washroom with the bag, he headed to the polaroid wall. he brushed his fingers over the photos, eyes lingering on the photo in the very middle. it was a photo of miami and someone who seemed to be grandma.

hearing the sound of the door of the bathroom open, zach turned around and pointed at the photo, "who's this?" he asked. he wanted to be sure his assumptions were right. 

"who?" miami asked, walking over to where zach stood. miami's eyes then glancing to where zach's finger was pointed, "oh that? that's my grandma," smiling softly, she gestured to zach, "follow me, i have something to show you." she then headed over to her window. sliding the window open she crawled out. zach expected her to fall, but what he didn't expect was a ledge a little bit lower than window. 

eyes wide, zach peered over the edge, "are you sure this is safe?" 

smiling at him, miami made herself comfy, "for sure. i've climbed up here so many times since i was 6. it is definitely fine."

finally assured, zach joined miami on the roof jutting out just under her window, "so. is this your place or something?"

"yeah," tilting her head, miami pointed up at the stars, "i found out i can really see the stars from this spot." 

"is stargazing something you do a lot?" zach asked. 

shifting into a position on her back, miami turned her head over to look at zach, who will still sitting up, "when i was young, my parents would travel a lot because of their jobs. during those times, my grandma would come over to look after me, you can imagine we got pretty close. one of her hobbies was stargazing and while my parents were out of town, she would take me somewhere and we would look at the stars."

"you must know a lot about stars then, right?" zach asked, "does your grandma still take you?"

"she died a year ago. from lung cancer, so she doesn't take me out anymore. i'm old enough now for my parents to leave my home alone though, but if it's more than a week, they send me to my friends house."

"oh, i'm sorry for your loss," zach said.

"it's fine, it was bound to happen anyways. you know, i don't think she would have ever gotten lung cancer if she didn't involve herself with the wrong people when she was young. my grandma told me she used to smoke a ton, but that stopped after my mom hit 8, but the damage was already done." shrugging her shoulders, miami smiled sadly, "i miss her a lot though."

looking over at miami, zach slowly reached his hand over. taking her hand in his, he intertwined their fingers and smiled at her, "why don't you show me some of your knowledge?"

miami was glad the darkness hid the blush on her cheeks. over the short period of time, she had grown a liking for the brown haired boy, and it was a strange feeling to her. pushing aside those feelings, miami pointed up the a line of stars located in front of them, "that, is cassiopeia. it's my most favorite constellation because cassiopeia was named after the vain queen cassiopeia who was talked too much about her beauty. the funny thing is, even though the star is named after her, i don't get it, the star is just a zig zag. what could be so important about this that they named it after such a vain and pretty queen?" looking over to zach, she stared at the boy who was staring open-mouthed, "what?"

"i'm sorry, but i did not understand i word you said," zach said, his voice sounding confused, "all i caught was the word 'vain'."

gasping at zach, miami frowned playfully at him, "were you not paying attention?"

shaking his head, zach said, "no. i just think it's too confusing."

"are you saying you don't have smarts herron?"

whipping his head over to miami, zach shoved her shoulder lightly, "no! i just said it was confusing!"

"yeah right," miami said, grinning at zach, "you're the high school dropout after all."