On With The Show

6

Tommy was sitting alone on the roof, his legs pulled close towards himself. He looked up at the sky - something he used to do as a kid to calm himself down - and blinked, looking for the constellations he loved pointing out.

Orion. Ursa Major. Pegasus.

He bit his lip, playing with the frayed hem of his jeans before taking a second to look down. He ran a hand through his hair, sighing softly to himself. At least he'd managed to get away from Honey, right? The rest didn't matter. It's okay. It was all okay. Just like the skies are magenta, it's all okay.

He let out a dry laugh to himself, before looking back up at the sky. There weren't as many stars visible in Los Angeles as there were in Athens, or even Covina. He ran a hand trough his hair, counting them.

One, two, three - wait, I know there are supposed to be more. What if while I'm counting them, there's wind, and some of the clouds go away? How do I count them then? And what if there's a star I count twice accidentally? Do I start again?

Tommy was lost in thought, leaning against the brick wall on the entrance to the roof of the building. He lay his head back, half closing his eyes as he thought about summer when he was a kid. All those nights, stealing snacks and sitting on the roof till he got tired enough to go back to his room. Or, on other days, just fell asleep there, in the middle of the flat portion of the roof just above the garage.

There was always something that was just beautiful and calming about the night sky for Tommy, no matter what was going on.

He felt his eyes about to close, and didn't bother fighting it. He smiled and leaned back-

When the door slammed open. Tommy opened his eyes, snapping his head back. No, it couldn't be...

But it was - Nikki was standing on the rooftop, running a hand through his unkempt hair as he mumbled under his breath.

"Nikki?" Tommy said, slightly confused as Nikki turned to face him, relief flooding his features as he saw the younger one seated against the roof. His eyes are such a nice shade of green, Tommy thought to himself, as the moon hit Nikki's face just right.

Niki crouched next to Tommy, before sitting down so their faces were on the same level. "Nikki, I-"

Nikki cut him off. "I know," he said, inhaling deeply. "I know, Tommy. You told me. You're sorry," he said, brushing some stray hair out of Tommy's face. "For what it's worth, I - f.uck, I'm bad at this."

"Nikki, it's okay, you don't need to say anything. I'll find another place to stay, really, you don't have to deal with me anymore."

"No! No, Tommy, that's not what I'm saying," he said, "I - Tommy, I over reacted."

Tommy sat there, frozen. "I shouldn't have gotten violent earlier - I know you didn't get hurt, but I shouldn't have thrown that bottle of Jack either way. I shouldn't have yelled at you so much, I shouldn't have kicked you out of the apartment, and I shouldn't have just... Made you leave.

"Don't say anything, let me finish. I was scared, Tommy. I'm not used to having someone look out for me, it's not something I'll get used to any time soon, either. But the thing is, I've started caring about you, Tommy. And that scares me. You have no idea how much it scares me. Those lyrics I wrote - yeah, I'm mad that you read them. But I'm more mad at myself for treating you the way I did once I found out you read them. Hell, till I over reacted, you probably thought they were a random story I came up with."

Tommy nodded slowly. "Yeah, I did. Or like about a friend or something, since you mentioned Frankie earlier-"

"They're about my worst enemy, Tommy. I am Frankie."

Tommy fell silent again, before looking up at Nikki. "Is it okay if I hug you? I usually do that when I want to apologize to someone, but this morning when I hugged you you weren't the biggest fan of it."

Nikki didn't say anything, just sat down next to Tommy and opened his arms for him, as Tommy half flung himself at Nikki, hugging his gangly arms around Nikki, hugging him tightly as he buried his face in Nikki's shoulder. Nikki bit his bottom lip, slowly stroking Tommy's brown hair as he held him on the rooftop. Tommy inhaled deeply, curling up against Nikki. "Hey, um is it okay if we spend the night here?" he asked.

"How come?"

"I like looking at the stars, Nik," he said, still holding onto Nikki.

"Yeah, sure, Tommy," Nikki said, almost without thinking.

Tommy beamed - the moon reflected in his teeth as Nikki gave him a slight smile back, before they both got comfortable lying down. "I love roofs so much, I used to spend all night on the roof in summer when I lived in Covina. I'm so glad this place has a railing around the edge of the roof, it means it's possible to just lie down here. Do you know any constellations? I know a few, can I point them out to you? It's fun pointing them out."

Nikki smiled to himself as he felt Tommy go back to being himself. Motormouth. Sweet, though.

"Yeah, I know a few. You see that there?" Nikki said, pointing to a cluster of stars. "That's the Great Penis."

Tommy laughed, "No, dude, I'd remember if there was a Great Penis. That's not a real constellation."

"Yeah, it is, man - sailors used to navigate by the Great Penis. You can look it up," Nikki said, hoping to hear Tommy's laugh again.

"No, man, that's not a thing," Tommy said, unable to stop himself from laughing again. "B-But, that's pretty damn close to Pegasus. The Winged Horse."

"There's no Great Penis, but there's a winged horse? Pshhh."

Tommy laughed. "Yeah, man! You can see it if you look hard enough."

"Yeah? Tell me more," Nikki said, not even looking at the sky anymore.

"You see that cluster there? Those four stars, forming a sort of sideways L - that's the leg," Tommy said, pointing at the sky. "The square's the body..."

Nikki wasn't even listening anymore, just smiling at Tommy as he talked. "Yeah, I see it," He said, as Tommy smiled at him, inching closer.

Tommy pointed out a few more - The Great Dipper, Ursa Minor, Orion - and all Nikki could do was sit and watch as Tommy pointed out clumps of stars Nikki couldn't even tell the difference between. Tommy had moved closer to him, and was resting his head on Nikki's shoulder, yawning. Nikki smiled, nodding enthusiastically as Tommy pointed out the constellations he knew, before he fell asleep. On Nikki.

Nikki stroked his hair, he had promised Tommy they could stay here all night, and sighed before closing his own eyes, falling asleep soon after.