Isaac came home with his very own tripod. And he hadn't even paid that much for it. However, he should stop spending money on stuff like this or he would have to look for a job. A camera would have to wait, not that he was interested in that side of stargazing that much anyway, and the others could fork out money for another telescope. He already owned half of one.

Speaking of which, Isaac checked his phone to see if somebody had answered his question about plans for the weekend. Turned out that Boyd and Erica had other plans but Lydia and Allison would love to join them. Danny was on board anyway, Isaac hadn't expected anything else from him, but Scott still didn't see the appeal of sitting outside all night, looking at the stars. But he told them to have fun.

Allison did not have a camera which was a bummer. So Isaac's phone had to do for now which wasn't half-bad. It was more the location than anything else that prevented him from taking better pictures.

He sent Allison a picture of the tripod and added: at least I don't have to hold my phone any longer

They texted back and forth, Allison's class seemed to be boring today, and in the end, they agreed to meet up later to get familiar with the new equipment.

Isaac had to agree that it was a good idea to set up the tripod in broad daylight once or twice before he attempted to use it in the dark but he doubted that it required a lengthily testing session. But who was he kidding? He was eager to play around with the new toy.

If he was honest, he had kind of feared that Allison would keep her distance now that Isaac knew about her past. So her offering to spend time with him alone was a big deal.

Which led to Isaac's next dilemma. Should he tell her that he'd told Professor Hale about her? He had no intention to spill the professor's personal stuff, he needed time to digest that anyway, but should he tell Allison about the rest? His first instinct was to not tell her. He doubted that Professor Hale would do anything with that knowledge, he seemed content with letting the past be, so the professor most likely would not contact her or anything. Things should be safe on that front.

The problem was Isaac himself. He had not a good track record when it came to keeping secrets.

By the time he had to leave to meet up with Allison, he still had no clue how to handle the situation.

His new toy did gain him some time, though. It was used but hadn't been in use for quite a while so it was a bit tricky to adjust the length of the legs and mount his phone to it.

"That guy from the pawn shop had some trouble getting the camera off as well," Isaac said when it took way too long to set everything up.

"When did you have time to visit a pawn shop anyway?" Allison wondered. With her arms crossed over her chest and an amused smile on her lips, she watched him struggling with his phone.

"Skipped class," Isaac answered curtly but a second later he let out a sigh. If he wanted to tell her, this was the moment. Making a decision he continued: "Went to see Professor Hale over his office hours."

Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed her tensing up. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear in a nervous gesture, she knew where this was heading.

"I didn't mean to tell him," Isaac hurried to say. "We were supposed to talk about astronomy. I have a list of things I wanted to ask him." To prove his story he fingered for the list he still had in his pocket.

"How did that lead to you telling him about me?" Her voice was flat and she took a step back.

"I just wanted to assure him that we're not stalking him on that website." Isaac deflated. "Everybody except for you has sent him a friend request. I just wanted to let him know that we have no ill intentions."

Isaac fiddled with his phone without looking at her. At least she was still here, listening, and hadn't left to never speak to him ever again.

"I didn't even get to explain it to him, he already assumed the worst." And that had been the easy part of the conversation. "He didn't outright say it but I knew what he was talking about and he caught on to that. What was I supposed to tell him how I know?"

"That you googled him?" Allison suggested. "You're hardly the first who found out that way. No reason to mention me!"

"I did," Isaac defended himself. "Well, that I googled Peter. And then he wanted to know how I knew him. How was I supposed to explain that?" Isaac threw up his hands in frustration.

For a long moment, Allison didn't say anything. She had slung her arms tight around her torso as if she was trying to hold herself together and her eyes were too shiny.

"Hey." Awkwardly Isaac put a hand on her shoulder. He expected her to shrug him off, to tell him to fuck off, but instead she just kind of slumped into herself.

"What did he say?" She asked in a toneless voice.

"Nothing really." Isaac dared to drape his arm around her shoulders and after a second she leaned into him. "I think he was just as surprised as you were when you saw him in that coffee shop. I don't think he's going to do anything."

Isaac thought back to his conversation with the professors. This part had been kind of a side note but Professor Hale had been more worried about what Isaac would do with this information than anything else.

"He asked if you're okay."

"What did you say?"

"That you're doing fine." He squeezed the ball of her shoulder. "That you just want to live your life. I think it's the same for him."

Allison nodded and rested her head on his shoulder for a second before she wound herself out of his arm.

"Okay." She sniffed and used the heel of her hand to dry her eyes. "Didn't we want to take a few pictures?"

"Yeah," Isaac made and hurried to get back to his phone. He should have brought some oil because moving it was met with quite some resistance and it took him a few tries to get it where he wanted it to go. With his back turned to Allison it gave her a moment to compose herself.

"I'm never going to be a photographer," Isaac said when he was finally satisfied with the setup. The phone was even horizontal, more or less.

"What you're trying to do is a completely different kind of photography," Allison said wisely. By now she sounded almost normal again.

Isaac brought the closest building into focus and tried out the zoom. The people inside were basically right next to him, at least compared to the stars, but it was still amazing how far he was able to zoom in.

"I never realized how good phone cameras are by now," Isaac said in awe when he saw the result. "This has stalker potential."

He was looking at the cafeteria. At this angle, he could only see people's heads but he could make out the faces clearly. He would be able to tell what was on their plates if he had a better angle.

"You had a telescope when you were a teenager, right?" Allison asked, somewhat amused.

"Yes?"

"Did you use it to spy on the neighbors?"

"My dad wasn't fond of me having it in the first place." Isaac shuddered at the thought of his dad. "I tried to keep it out of his sight so most of the time I took it out onto the fields. No neighbors there to spy on." He tried to crack a smile but it fell short.

"He sold it when he was short on money," he added in a quiet voice. "Bought alcohol."

"I'm sorry." Allison stepped up behind him but didn't touch him. "My parents are strict but that …"

"Yeah," Isaac made. "How's your archery doing? Do you have another tournament coming up?"

Isaac didn't know how they had ended up with all the dark topics but he desperately needed to get back to something more lighthearted.

"In about two weeks." Allison jumped at the change of topic. "I should be at the archery range right now but I wanted to see this." She gestured over Isaac's setup.

"Same." Done with the test drive Isaac tried to dismount the phone which was a struggle in itself. Which just proved the point that it had been a good idea to test it in broad daylight. "Can you imagine doing this in the middle of the night? When we don't want to have any lights?"

Isaac finally got his phone free and held it up with a triumphant grin.

"It would have been fun," Allison said with a glint in her eye. "Lydia and I would have commented from the sidelines."

"You just want to see me suffer," Isaac muttered. Next, he had to retract the legs but those too needed a healthy drop of oil.

"After you went through my past and told Professor Hale about me?" Allison crossed her arms in front of her chest again but the glare she was pinning him down with lacked hostility. "You deserve some suffering."

"Maybe." Isaac agreed even if he wasn't sure what he could have done differently. However, it looked as if Allison was not mad at him, and Isaac was glad that he'd told her about his mishap.

Allison had to hurry to get to the archery range, Lydia was already wondering what was keeping her, so she just waved him goodbye.

"Looking forward to Saturday," she said over her shoulder. "Can't wait to see what all the fuss is about."

"It's going to be fun," Isaac promised.

Isaac brought the tripod back to his room and then he went out to buy some oil. He wanted every movable part of the tripod to move smoothly by Saturday.

That's how Scott found him when he came home an hour later.

"Is that a gun?" Scott blurted out when he entered the room. Taken aback he just stood there for a second before he hurried to close the door.

"You have never seen a dismantled gun in your life, have you?" Isaac shook his head at him but he got what gave his friend the impression. On an old towel, Isaac had taken apart the legs of the tripod to properly clean them. He had a small can of oil next to him and an old rag in his hand, at first glance it must look like he was doing maintenance on a gun. At least if you believed what Hollywood told you.

"What is that?" Curious Scott stepped closer.

"It's a tripod," Isaac explained. "I can mount my phone to it."

Isaac explained what he intended to do with it but Scott wasn't getting it. He didn't understand the appeal of stargazing in general and even if he had to admit that those deep space pictures were pretty, he didn't get why Isaac even bothered with the low-scale pictures he would get with his setup.

"It's fun," Isaac defended himself. "Ask Allison, she understands."

"She's into all that art stuff, she sees a deeper meaning in blobs of color on a canvas." Scott threw up his hands but got a deer in the headlights expression a second later. "Don't tell her that I said that."

"I think she knows." Isaac returned to his work. "For some reason she still loves you."

"Yeah, isn't it amazing?" Scott stretched out on his bed with his hands folded behind his head so Isaac couldn't see his broad grin but it was audible.

"Do you have plans for the evening?" Isaac asked. More often than not Scott spent the night at her place.

"No." Scott sobered up. "She said that she wasn't feeling well and that she just wanted to turn in early."

"Hope she feels better tomorrow," Isaac said, deliberately focused on the work at hand.