A/N: To my amazing reviewers:
grunt100: Now THAT is high praise. Glad I'm keeping you interested in the story, and be happy, new chapter's here! ;)
Jinkling: Well… Gotta have a post-theatre-opening kiss, don't we? Haha
To the remaining, THANK YOU very much for your feedback and compliments, and I love you guys. Also, I made the chapter extra-sweet for all of you romantics out there. There is drama, there is romance! *dramatic music* Hope you enjoy the 11th chapter of Story Not Told! Longest chapter so far.
Ash went over the broken ceramic and plaster pieces trying to find her guitar case. There was no way in hell she was going to use that dress for another second, the competition being called off so suddenly. Finally grabbing the case, she inspected it. Minor scratches around the thick oak wood around it, but at least her clothes were not ripped and somewhat dry. She looked back. Buster was still where his beloved theatre used to be.
She directed herself to one of the stores nearby to get changed. Upon her return, the koala's doddering assistant had left, and he was looking for something in the middle of the debris.
"Want help?" His ears perked up, but he didn't turn to face her. Kneeling down, she started going over many broken items with him. "What are we looking for?"
"Ash…"
"What are we looking for?"
"A portrait. The one you saw, hanging on the wall." His voice was low and teary. Of course. What was the one thing he loved more than theatre?
"Got it." She dug deeper into the mess.
"Ash, about the prize money, I didn't-"
"Let's find your thing, and talk afterwards." Buster knew better than to argue with her. Silently, both went over the mess, until finally finding said portrait. "There we go."
"Thanks." He dusted his hands off, and helped her up. She nodded.
"Don't mention it." She closed the distance between them. "Look at me." He faced her. She promptly threw her arms around him, hugging him tight.
"I'm sorry…" His voice was faltering, and he held her back. "I'm so sorry… I didn't mean for this to- It was a mistake, a big mistake." He fell to his knees, bringing the porcupine along. Soon he was sobbing, and blabbering things she couldn't quite make out.
"I'm not mad at you, I just wanna know what happened." His breathing went a tad bit steadier. She breathed on his neck, making the koala shiver. "Tell me what happened."
"The flier should say $1,000, not $100,000. Miss Crawly added a couple more zeros by accident."
"Why didn't you tell us?" He scoffed.
"Would you have stayed in the competition to win that symbolic value?" She went silent. "That's what I thought. I played along with it, and tried getting the money with Nana, but this-" The words got clogged in his throat. "This happened."
"Where are you staying?"
"I'll find a place."
"You can stay with me."
"Listen, Ash, why don't you just…" He sighed. She froze, and hoped he wasn't about to say what she thought he was. "Go back to your house, to the life you had before all this, and-?"
"No!"
"Ash you deserve better than this! I have nothing to offer!" He came closer to her, and gently held her shoulders. "This is my fault, okay? We shouldn't have, I shouldn't have, this was all a mistake. I'm sorry, I can't do this…"
"You're giving up on us because of what happened here?!"
"We weren't meant to happen!" Her heart was shattered inside her chest. He started walking ahead. "Let's just… Move on."
Her sadness boiled into anger. Grabbing her guitar case, she exited the site, shooting him a last glance. Had all that been for nothing? Those kisses, those cuddles, that show? She had been walking for a good five minutes when a familiar sound caught her ears. Hell, she knew that voice like the back of her hand. Lance. Turning at a corner, she spotted him. Better, she spotted them. Lance and Becky. Performing a gig. Staring lovingly into one another's eyes. She turned around, devastated.
She walked a few more steps before coming to a halt. No. He didn't mean anything he had said. He was upset because of what happen to his theatre, right? He did love her. He had said so himself! He did all he could to keep their relationship a secret, just so they wouldn't be separated. He was just broken. He didn't mean anything he had said. Right? Without a second thought, Ash turned and ran back to the place that used to be a theatre. If he was broken, she was going to put his freaking pieces back together, whether he liked it or not.
Buster sat on a broken chair. He knew that by now both the bank and the police were on their way there. He breathed out heavily, and couldn't help but think of Ash. Poor girl had been dumped twice in a row. He loved her with all he had got. He knew he had broken her heart, and felt terrible about it. But it was for the best, right? She was going to find some other guy, closer to her age, and be happy with him. Some guy who wasn't middle aged, had a crippling debt with the bank and wasn't sitting in a pile of rubbish thinking over his decisions. And who hadn't almost drowned his theatre's cast, in the first place.
He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he missed the llama going right past him, and only woke from his trance when he heard hammering. Looking to his left, he saw the bank employee putting up a sign in the debris. Property of SFJ Bank. That was it. Besides his father's loyal bucket and the portrait of the theatre's grand opening, he had nothing. Grabbing both items, he proceeded to exit the place, shooting the llama a last glance. She held a frown that could melt iron. He crossed the street, directed to his childhood friend Eddie's house.
He failed to notice a porcupine following him, trying her best not to be seen. He walked a good four blocks before stopping outside a house, and circulating it. Ash not once losing his track, despite carrying a heavy guitar case along the way. She figured it'd be better to keep a distance now, and hid behind a tree. Buster went into, she figured, a pool house and rested his belongings by the door. It was strange seeing him like this, him usually being so cheery and happy. Not too long after, he came out of the place and rested upon a sun lounger.
Ash silently approached him, cautious of his hearing capacity. Buster had his eyes shut tightly, and seemed to be a mess. His suit was creased and his tie was unaligned. Taking a seat by his side, she realigned his tie. The sudden touch scared him.
"A-Ash? What are you doing here?" He tried to sit up, but was held back.
"Take off your shirt, you're gonna get sick." She undid the tie, and tossed it to the ground.
"What are you- Hey!" She pulled him into a sitting position, and started undoing the buttons of his shirt. Done, she took it off.
"Just watching out for you." She grinned. "Besides, that's a nice look."
"Ash, what… What did we talk about?"
"We didn't talk about anything, all I did was listen to you."
"I explained everything to you, to why I am doing-" She tried kissing him, but he moved away. "I love you, and that's why I care about you. You're gonna find someone, someone you don't have to be secretly dating, a younger guy. This, us, it's not going to work out."
"We'll make it work out." She held his face, and gently pecked his lips. He shut his eyes. "We'll work this out together."
"Ash…" She wrapped her arms around him, and rested her face on his chest. "I'm soaked wet."
"I don't mind." She started running her fingertips along his exposed area. "There is one other thing I want to talk to you about."
"What's that?"
"About the show."
"What show?" He chuckled sadly.
"The show we would've put up if it hadn't been for those bears."
"Ash, it's over. We don't have a stage anymore."
"We can find one."
"It's over. No one is going to participate without the prize."
"You don't know that." He shot her a disbelief look. "Come on, where is the glass-half-full Buster I know and love?" He laughed a little.
"Back there at those debris."
"Come on…"
"Ash I'm not going to put any show together, none of them ever worked out."
"My movie director friend likes your shows. She says you write like Orson Whales." He gave a heartfelt laugh.
"Tell your friend she's too kind."
"Come on, Buster, you don't even wanna try?" He shot her a sad grin. "What will it take for you to try?"
"I've been trying for 6 years, Ash. I destroyed a historical theatre." He turned away. "Literally." She hugged him from behind, and he held her arms around him. "Thanks." Ash kissed the nape of his neck, and he curled up. She laughed. He had to be the cutest thing she'd ever seen. "What?"
"You. You're funny." She held him closer against her. He smiled. He liked the sound of her laughter.
"I get the shivers when someone pokes back there." He chuckled. "It's a weird reflex I got."
"It's funny." He smiled a little. Ash racked her brain for a plan. He didn't seem to be willing to put the contest together no more, and her strategies to get to him were failing. The sun was setting. Buster turned to see it, and brought her closer to him. She flashed him a smile, and hugged him. Silently, both watched the sun's descent.
"You know… When I was younger, me and my dad used to go to the hills and play counting stars. We'd close the car wash early, take the car, throw a couple sandwiches in it for us to eat when it got dark, and leave. It was an hour-long ride, far from all city light, but it was worth it." He talked dreamily about the moment. "We'd lay down and talk, and watch the sunset… Then count stars. It was great."
"What did you talk about?"
"Nothing important." He sighed. "Let's see… Shows that were coming to town, movies, recent discovers in astronomy… How good we were doing at the car wash…" He laughed. "Miss Crawly. Good god, my dad could talk for hours about the things she pulled. She worked at the car wash, and was pretty energetic back then." He smiled to himself. "And she loved pulling pranks on my dad, time to time. I'd help her, of course. And it was funny. She was kind of a second mother to me."
"What happened to your mom?"
"Died giving birth. All along it was just my dad and me, and he tried to pretend everything was okay, but he missed her a lot. I know he did. Maybe as much as I miss him now." He seemed lost in his thoughts. "You know, this one time? He told me my last name was Moon because mom had went to live with the moon when she was having me. That always got to me. I liked believing that. To my… What? 7, 8 year old self? It was special. Like our names were related to our story." He looked down at his hands. "What about you? I know the start, but I don't know how it ended."
"Believe me, you don't wanna hear about my family."
He shot her a small smirk. "Can I take a wild guess?"
"Go ahead."
"Your parents are strict. The kind that wants their kids to get great grades and sing at the church choir." She started laughing. "A rebel like you, you ran away, that's what you told me, how close am I to truth?"
"Close enough."
"Come on, tell me." He nudged her gently.
"There's not much to it… It's the typical story, strict parents who don't support their kid, the kid runs away, yadda yadda yadda."
"Did you run off with someone?" She lifted an eyebrow, and he put his hands up. "Hey, just curious."
"Not at the time. I mean… I had someone, but my parents made sure to ruin that as well."
"They chased him off or something?"
"They kicked him out of the house. We were performing, me and him. They found the show house god knows how. They went in and dragged both of us back home. My dad, he threatened Michael and, well… Kicked my ass. I ran off that same night, just off impulse I think. I had thought about it before, but that was the cherry in the cake. I grabbed a bunch of junk and climbed down the window."
"I would've helped you down. I can't imagine how suffocating strict parents must be."
"Well… Suffocating enough for us to be here today." She smiled at him. "So I guess it wasn't a bad thing after all." He took her hands, and swooped her in for a sweet kiss. Ash sat on top of him, and held him close. Parting lips, she got off of him. "I think I got a nickname for you."
"And what's that?"
"Full Moon. Fitting, uh?" He laughed.
"Buster?" Both turned to find a tall sheep right behind them.
"Hey, Eddie." Buster quickly got off the chair, and cleared his throat. "Uh, Ash, this is Eddie, my friend. Eddie, this is Ash. She is-" He stopped himself, and took a deep breath. "She was one of the competitors back at the theatre."
He approached the couple, lifting his hand to meet Ash's. "Nice to meet you."
"Same." The sheep looked anxious about something, so she proceeded. "I was just kinda… Leaving, now. Just came here to check on him."
"Yeah." Buster added. "I'm just gonna walk her out and we talk, buddy." Picking up her guitar case, he gave Eddie a thumbs up before following Ash out of the place. "Chances are he didn't see anything, but if he did I'll deny it vehemently. Okay?"
"Okay, but Buster… About the show-"
"We will have to talk later about this, just call me tomorrow. You have my number, just call me okay?" He pecked her lips and ran back to the pool house. "Eddie. What's up?" The sheep turned the TV on.
"You tell me."
A/N: BOOM, THAT JUST HAPPENED! Please rate and review :D