Tangled Thoughts (Book #2 Rossi Series)

Stargazing 101

I remember when my siblings and I were younger before Gemma's kidnapping; her and I would always go into our backyard at night and stargaze..... Obviously with one or both of our parents on the back porch making sure we were safe and sound. Sometimes it would be Renzo, Matteo, Valentino, Nikolai, or Julian who would watch from a distance. It's funny how much we were and still are alike. After our tremendous rough patch when she finally came home after all those years; we would be caught stargazing like old times. Only difference, we're older and we don't have a chaperone watching us from afar. It was just the two of us deep in the backyard of whatever house we happened to be at.

Tonight we're still at the same house we've been at since we found Myra's location. Gemma and I haven't stargazed in a few weeks; well, it might be going on a month now. I lightly tap on my sister's door with our usual picnic basket that has our blankets, water, snacks, and her favorite hoodie of mine safely tucked into it. Her door slowly creeps open and her lamp light by the door is on. She steps barely out her door in her footed unicorn onesie pajamas.

"You got the goods?" She whispers.

Why is she whispering?

"Uh yeah?" I question confused.

"Shhhh. Valley fell asleep on my bed." She whispers again.

Oh!!! Don't poke that grizzly bear.

"Secret passageway number 54?" I mouth out.

We have numbered all our passageways. Our favorite is 54. It's the best on to take. We rigged it up to where if our brothers were to come down here; they run into Home Alone boobie traps. Last time Julian came down in this passageway; he came back looking like he was a 7 foot chicken. Or rooster. Nikolai came out once holding his back; the ninja was taken out by hundreds of marbles. Once, we came down here to Ren and Matty hanging on to the pipes that swing out when you walk through. If only they knew Valley put a code on the side of the doors in the passageways; it would stop their torment. We continue to let them get tripped in or rigs.

"Duh." She mouths back at me.

I step away from her door so she has room to walk out. I watch as she lifts up on the tips of her toes and creeps out of her room completely. She slowly closes her door which makes a faint clicking noise. We silently creep back down her stairs. As we reach the bottom, we both let out a series of laughs. We each slap our hand over each others mouths. Once our laughter has died completely down, I grab her hand with my only free one and pull her down the narrow hallway. She hit the brick wall with her hand and the wall slides open. I pull her through the entranceway and down the small hallway. I turn to the right, dragging her behind me. She bumps into the wall and this causes both of us to burst into fits of laughter all over again. As we make it to the end of the hallway; all you can hear down here is our laughter bouncing off the walls. The exit is right in front of us; however, we stay standing in front of the door. Both of us trying our best to quit laughing. Again when we have finally finished our laughter fits, I open the door. Our beautiful garden is surrounding us as we step outside. I quickly tug her through the garden's maze and out the other side. As we have exited the maze, she lets my hand go. Before I can blink she's already climbing up onto my back. Again we start to chuckle as I walk through our backyard towards our favorite spot; with my sister safely on my back.

"Giddy up Cian. We're going to be late." She whispers.

"Late for what?" I whisper back.

"The moon is calling us. She's been calling for like the last thirty minutes." She comments.

Her comment again has me throwing my head back where her head is beside mine. I let out a full belly laugh at my sister.

"Seriously Gems." I say in between my dying laughter.

"Duh. When am I joking about the moon?" She deadpans.

Only Gems.

We finally make it to our spot. It's a small clearing at the other garden at the edge of our backyard. I drop Gems to the ground. All I can hear behind me is a oomph sound. I glance over my shoulder and don't see Gems. Panic starts to slowly creep in. This causes me to fully turn around. My panic subsides when I see her feet in the air near her face; her back against the grass.

"Damn you Cian!" She groans.

"Oops." I say with a shrug of my shoulders.

I turn back around and put the basket down. Slowly I take out our blankets and set them on the ground. I place Gems's other blanket onto her ground blanket. I toss her snacks and water onto her blanket. I begin to set up mine with my ground blanket overlapping onto hers. Once everything is set; we both plop onto our blankets. I lean back and fall with my back on my blanket. The sky above is in my eyesight now. I glance over to see Gems on her back with her arms tucked under her head looking at the night sky above. She looks over at me and a smile is placed on her face.

"Long over due." Is all my sister says.

"Most definitely Gemstone." I comment back with a smile on my face.

We both glance back up at the sky and start to point out each constellation we see. So far we're tied. We keep spotting the same ones at the same time.

"How's your demons in your head?" Gemma says with a curiousness to her.

"They're still living rent free in my skull." I mumble back.

"Are they bad at the moment?" She asks with concern.

"Not at this very moment. But I have my moments though. What about you?" I reply back to her.

"They're still dancing in my empty head." Is all she says.

"Want to talk about it?" I ask her.

"One day I will." She mumbles.

"If they ever get too bad come tell me." I say sternly to my sister.

"Same goes to you, you stubborn brute." She says with a small chuckle.

"Deal." We both say at the same time.

This is how our night went; us in silence looking up at the dark night sky. Stargazing with our favorite human.

A/N:

I'll be back sometime this week to update this story. I hope you enjoyed it this far! ❤️