"I don't know, mom. I schedule the sessions when I feel I need them," I sigh into my phone, glancing at the clock as it edges closer to ten.

I'm frantically getting ready to meet Zayn at the cafe, but my mother won't stop chatting me up. I guess it's my own fault. I haven't spoken to her in a while.

"Okay. Have your meds been working? No more of those... thoughts?" She asks warily. I can tell she is exhausted, probably taking on another long shift at the diner. I'm sure she is lonely. My father is never around anymore.

I try not to sound too down as I answer her. I don't want to give her any reason to worry. "Yeah. They make the days easier. It's up and down. I'm fine, momma."

"Okay, baby. You know you can call me when you need anything." Her voice is tired and low.

"I know," I put the phone down and pull my jeans on quickly, picking it up again. "I gotta go, momma."

"Goodnight, Scar. I love you. I'll see you for your graduation, yeah?"

"Yes. I will send you the tickets tomorrow. I love you," she mumbles an okay in response, and I hang up, looking at my hazardous hair in my dirty bathroom mirror.

"Fuck. I'm late," I grumble to myself as the clock hits 10:05 PM.

Jordyn is sitting on the couch with Riley, cuddling up with a giant bowl of popcorn. They pause the movie and look at me pulling on my shoes and a jacket.

"In a hurry, Scar?" Jor asks, a tight-lipped smirk on her lips.

"Yes. No. Well... fuck off." I stutter. She knows I have plans with Zayn. She smiled proudly when I told her I would be with Zayn tonight. The interrogation she gave me after he left this morning was comical.

I grab my keys, and Riley waves goodbye. "Have fun on your date!" He shouts.

I flip him off. "It's not a date!" I shout back and walk out the door. I hear their laughter behind the closed door and find myself holding a small smile, too.

I rush to my car and start it up, heading towards 25 Hours. I really hope he's not upset with me for being late. I doubt he's much earlier than me, anyway. I can't imagine him being in a hurry to get to the cafe.

I pull into the small parking lot and take my usual spot right on the edge of the lot. I lock my car and head into the cafe, covering my body tightly with my oversized zip-up.

Once I walk in and hear the small chime of the bell, I see Zayn's muscular back crouched over our usual table in the corner. He's clad in his usual black hoodie and dark blue jeans. His brunette curls are a mess on top of his head.

Even his back profile is handsome.

I go up to the counter and order a black coffee, waving to Bonnie, who's smiling behind the counter. As I wait for my coffee, she comes up and chats with me.

"Hi there, sweet girl," her calm voice puts me at ease and always makes me feel like I've found a second home here. "What've you been up to?"

"Hi Bon," I give her a short hug over the counter. "Oh, you know, final year of college things." I wave my hand, trying not to think of the long list of responsibilities I have.

"Ah. I remember those days," she says, reminiscing.

"Where'd you go to school, Bon?" I ask. I've always wanted to know more about Bonnie. She's this perfectly put-together woman with a successful shop that she started on her own. She's always here. I wonder if she has any family. I think she said she did, but I can't remember.

"I went to Berkely like your handsome date over there," she nudged her head to the man I've come to know these past few weeks. I turn to face him and catch him staring, causing him to snap his head back to the empty chair in front of him. Bonnie and I try to hide our laughter.

"We're not dating, Bonnie." I corrected her. She doesn't say anything, though. She simply rolls her eyes and hands me my coffee.

"Whatever you say, child." She gently pushes my shoulder and sends me on my way, causing me to walk slightly faster over to my usual table.

I know Zayn's aware of my presence, but he pretends not to see me until I'm sat in front of him. "Hi,"

He looks up and smiles, one that actually meets his eyes this time. "Hi,"

"Were you spying on me?" I joke, raising a brow flirtatiously.

"I wouldn't use the word spying... but yes," I'm shocked by his honesty.

I roll my eyes playfully. "Oh really? What would you call it then?" For once, our energy feels a bit more energetic and fun rather than serious.

We've been dealing with so many real-life problems that I haven't really been able to discover the goofy side of Zayn.

"You know, casual staring that takes place over several long minutes?" He explains, sounding unsure of his attempted joke.

I bite back my laugh and shake my head. "I think that classifies as spying,"

"You're probably right," he concedes and takes a large bite out of his cookie, crumbs falling as he does.

I pull out my journal with our list in it and open it to the page. I scan the list and look to see which option seems most ideal for tonight. We both seem to be in a decent mood, so maybe something more fun and adventurous.

"Which one?" Zayn asks me, his eyes focused on the list.

"Number ten?"

10. Climb a mountain & scream at the very top

He smiles. "I hope your lungs are well-rested,"

I take a dramatic deep breath and exhale loudly as if to show my perfectly functioning lungs. "Trust me. They're perfect." Luckily, my nicotine addiction in high school faded away once I got to college. Now I avoid anything other than oxygen greeting my lungs. My addictive personality can't handle it.

"I know a place," he says, looking as though he's deep in thought. "It's not really a mountain, but a really steep hill."

My mind takes me back to the open field I found him drunkenly spinning around in. How does he find these places?

"Let's go!" I jump up from my seat and grab my coffee. I don't know where this sudden good mood came from, but I don't want it to go away any time soon.

Zayn shuffles us from his seat and grabs his remaining two cookies and his coffee, following me to the door. The cafe is nearly dead, with only one employee on a shift other than Bonnie.

"Goodnight, Bonnie!" I wave goodbye to her, and she gives me her usual warm smile. Zayn says his goodbyes as well, and we pull open the door, stepping into the welcoming darkness of the night sky.

There's a small breeze tonight, causing me to tug on my jacket. I can't help but frown as the lights of the roaring city block the visibility of the stars. I hope wherever Zayn takes me is away from the city so we can take in the stars.

We hop into Zayn's car, and his scent fills my nostrils. His musky cologne and vanilla car freshener provide an odd sense of comfort.

"It's kinda far, but it's worth it," Zayn says, turning on the car.

"I'm controlling the radio," I swat his hand away from the volume, and he chuckles but pulls his hand back anyway.

"Yes, ma'am," he pulls out of the parking lot and heads on his way as I fiddle with the music. I love the calm control he always seems to have, even when he's not in control whatsoever. He always seems to have this confidence in his movements.

I find myself sneaking glances at him every so often, and to my surprise, I catch him doing the same to me, too. I lean my head against the window and let the soft vocals of the old rock station blanket my ears.

"We're here," I hear Zayn's voice before I feel his hand gently shake my shoulder. "Are you asleep, Scarlett?"

I did dose off a bit, but I've still got a lot of coffee left. I rarely get tired. I don't know what came over me. I mumble a 'no,' and Zayn laughs at the expense of my sleepiness.

I look out the window and see we're parked on the side of a long empty road, nothing but the moonlight illuminating the world in front of us.

I quickly jump out of the car and look up, nearly gasping as I see the black sky covered in thousands of small twinkling lights. "Oh my God," I am in awe of stars. Living in LA ensured that I rarely saw stars, and when I did, it was never like this. I'd be lucky if I could spot the big dipper. Now, the sky is being consumed by them.

I try not to get reminiscent of home as the nearly full moon joins my vision. My parents loved showing me the sky and pointing out the different galaxies and planets visible that night. I believed them no matter what because even if they didn't truly know, I was still amazed.

"C'mon, Scarlett. This way," I hear Zayn's deep voice snap me out of my stargazing. I run to catch up with him, and we walk side by side across the road and to the steep hill.

It's completely dark other than the moonlight and now Zayn's flashlight. I take my phone out and use mine as well, the darkness making the hairs on my neck stand. I subconsciously step closer to Zayn. I'm not really scared of the dark, but I am scared of murderous serial killers that hide in the darkness.

"There's a stone path that makes it easier to climb over there," he points to the left side of the hill, luckily the side with the moon shining down to give us a bit more light.

I huff. "Thank God I wore sneakers,"

Once we're in front of the stone path, Zayn shines his light on our feet and then to the top of the hill. Wow, it really is steep. "Ready?" He asks, looking down at me with a small smile on his lips.

I nod and take the first step up. "Let's go!" I keep climbing, overwhelmingly aware of Zayn's presence behind me and the yoga pants I decided to wear today. Well, at least he has a good view.

Before I can even make it a quarter of the way up, my foot slips, and I nearly smash my knee into the ground, but luckily two strong hands wrap tightly around my waist. "Careful, Scar."

Scar. I like that coming from him.

"Oops," I mumble. "Thank you."

"Any time," his hands linger for a second before he removes them, but I can tell he's hovering just in case I slip again. I can't help but feel giddy at the thought of him being protective over me.

"How did you even find this?" I ask, trying to focus on anything other than my heavy breaths from climbing.

"My brother proposed to his fiance here," he answers. I can hear the smile in his voice as he speaks of his brother.

I pause and turn around, facing Zayn with wide eyes and a smile. "He proposed here?! That is so romantic,"

Zayn chuckles, putting his hands on my shoulders and turning me back to face the path. "Yes. They love nature and live in a van for half the year. They drove past here on their way home from one of their road trips and fell in love with the place. They kept coming back every so often, and then boom, proposal."

It takes everything in me not to 'aww' out loud. In my head, though, 'aww' galore. "That is so freaking cute,"

Zayn tells me more romantic stories of his brother and his soon-to-be-wife as we approach the top of the hill (finally). If we didn't get up here in the next five minutes, I probably would've passed out. I rarely work out, let alone climb hills.

Once we get up, my breath is taken away as I see the view. In the far distance is the beautiful cityscape, the lights flickering at night. "Wow," is all I can think to say.

"Amazing, right?" Zayn says. "You should see the sunsets here."

I spin and look at him with a frown. "Aw, now I want to see the sunset." I pout.

He smirks and shakes his head. "Too late, beautiful."

I blush and turn away from the compliment, not wanting him to see the effect his kind words have on me.

I don't really think about what I'm doing when I lay down at the peak of the hill, not worrying about the numerous bugs flying around me or the vulnerable position. I stare up at the stars, losing myself in the cluster of lights that are millions and millions of light-years away.

Zayn lays next to me, his arm brushing against mine. "Lift your head," he demands.

"Huh?" I turn to face him, confused.

"Lift your head," he repeats.

I furrow my brows in confusion but do as he asked anyway. He puts his hoodie underneath where my head used to lay to provide me with a pillow rather than the hard ground.

Where the hell did I find this man?

"Zayn-"

"Just lay down, Scarlett." He interrupts, seemingly knowing that I was about to complain and tell him to take his hoodie back.

I decide to listen and lay back down, my head much more comfortable than before. We are blanketed in a comfortable silence as we both stare into the night sky. My thoughts are loud and quiet all at once. I'm thinking of millions of things, but none of them stick.

"I hate to disrupt your peace," says Zayn as he pulls himself to a sitting position. "But the task was to scream at the top of our lungs."

I don't miss the smirk on his lips as he stands up, leaving a hand out to pull me up after him. I grab it and stand up next to him, taking a deep breath.

"You have to scream really, really loud," I inform him. "And you have to, um- lookout like you're screaming at the world."

"Okay. Together?"

I nod. "Together. Ready?"

We both stand at the edge of the hill and look at one another with amusement. "Yep."

"3..2..go!"

We both stare out at the landscape of empty fields and far-off city lights as we scream as loud as we possibly can. I scream until my lungs simply can't let out any more air, and when we're done, we laugh hysterically.

I can't think of a night where I have felt this happy in a long time, and if I think about it too hard, I might spook myself, so I chose to enjoy the moment.

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Happy Sunday :) No one I really reading this anymore but I truly love this story a lot so I'm going to finish it. If you are reading, please let me know your thoughts and give it a vote if you enjoy

Thanks for reading :)