Only If She Stayed

11. All the Stars

NOT WAITING TO ASK, I lunged at him and tugged at his jacket. "What do you think you're doing?!"

The boy fidgeted, shaking me off. "What the...Wait, Rose? Why are you hugging me from the back?"

Those familiar hazel eyes flickered in bewilderment. "Ashton?" I retracted from him. "Oh, sorry...I thought you were going to..." I trailed off.

"Leap to my death?" he finished for me, and bizarrely enough, he laughed. "I wouldn't dream of it." He brought his leg into the room and was back on his two feet. "You know you should tell someone before you body slam them like that. A warning would've been nice."

"Sorry," I muttered, tucking a strand nervously behind my ear. "I saw you there and I reacted before I thought."

"It's okay. No harm done," he shrugged. "When did you come? I haven't seen you till now."

"I arrived a little over thirty minutes ago. I didn't think you'd make it."

"I wasn't going to come originally. Michael was right about not knowing anyone here. It's a tad bit strange. I should've waited till there was party thrown by a West Vista High kid."

"Oh, you don't want to go to a West Vista High party. They get crashed by police almost eighty percent of the time." I acknowledged, recalling the amount of times Edgar and I ran out of house parties at the sound of sirens. "The only time I would recommend going to a West Vista High get together is if it's a bonfire. Those are fun and they rarely end tragically."

"I'll remember that." He snapped his finger.

I clasped my hands behind my back, twirling my idle hands. "So, are you going to tell me why you were dangling from a two-story window or are we saving that for later?"

He chuckled, reinstalling the thought of how I first thought of his laugh. I hated the sound of, but only because my own lacked the same authenticity. I wasn't as happy as him. I lied to so many people with my airy, soulless mirth, that it fooled everyone into thinking I was okay.

Yet, I was the exact opposite of okay.

"Do you want me to show you what I was trying to do?" He extended his hand and I hesitated, arching a brow. "It won't be too scary."

"Too scary," I echoed. "You aren't selling this to me very well, Ashton."

He cracked a smile. "Okay, it won't be scary at all. Look." He guided me so I was closer to the window. There was a flat area right below the window and on the roof. The balcony wasn't very visible when you were at the door, but the closer you got, the more you could see it.

"Why do you want to go down there?" I inquired in a feebly voice. "Is the party so boring that you want to hanging out on a roof?"

Not saying anything, he pointed at the night sky above our heads. Since Orson High was closer to the drylands of California, there was a smaller population here. Because there was less people and less cars roaming the streets, the stars in the desert shinned bright. The breathtaking stars shimmered blue – and not that dull shade I saw back home.

My devastation with how things went with Michael, adding it with the disappointment I had for Edgar, I didn't see the glaring reason to why staying with a boy I barely knew anything about was a bad idea.

I messed everything up with the last two important people in my life - not including my parents, obviously.

For everyone's safety, I shouldn't be around anyone I knew until I sorted what the heck went down with Michael and I.

If there even was a Michael and I to consider thinking about....

I couldn't survive a dismal conclusion. First with Edgar, and now with Michael, this night was set to be ruin before it started. But maybe this could help. A distraction never hurt anybody.