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When it comes to stargazing, equipment like telescopes work better in open urban areas to see things like nebulae and galaxies. But tonight, Simone didn’t want to see anything big, she just wants to see Venus.
Looking outside her window or the balcony can only do so much for her. So, she planned to sneak into the community center and stare from the roof.
An unconventional and illegal plan, but Simone isn’t going to pretend to be above acts like these when she knew how to lock pick (only because of YouTube tutorials). Plus, she’s did worse for better reasons.
The only possible problem in her way would be Nathalie, but she doubts the other girl is up this late.
Simone crouches in front of the backdoor and stuck a bobby pin inside. She yanked it around while messing with the door handle until the door clicks, unlocked.
A window would be easier, but she couldn’t go through a window with her telescope with her, else she risk breaking her equipment, and considering how much her model costs, she’s not exactly in a position to replace it. Especially since it’s a gift from her grandmother.
A deep cold empty feeling overtook her as she became invisible. She’s gotten used to it, the emptiness, but the cold that came along with it still made her shiver.
The community center was dark, except for the light above the mezzanine. Simone could make out Nathalie’s body lying on her side on top of her small mattress, facing her direction. As Simone walked further into the community center, she could see Nathalie’s face.
Simone stops.
Nathalie looked peaceful. Her face was relaxed, something rare for Simone, or anyone, to see. Her long eyelashes fanned her cheeks, occasionally fluttering from her face twitching. Her lips were parted. They were soft and tinted red, like Nathalie had poorly wiped off her lipstick. Which she probably did.
Her phone was in her pocket. Simone itched for it, to snap the moment in place. But she resisted. She learned her lesson from Sal, she wouldn’t do that again.
And Nathalie’s unpredictable, she’s taken Simone’s phone before once while Simone was recording, she wouldn’t put it pass the arsehole to look through her camera roll one day, too. If Nathalie saw a picture of herself sleeping in her phone, Simone would never hear the end of it.
Reluctantly, Simone continued to the roof.
Just as she quietly slips her equipment through the door, she lets go of it too early. It slams shut and Simone winces. Hopefully, Nathalie didn’t wake up.
She walks to the edge of the roof and sets her telescope up. Simone directs it toward the moon. She looks through the eyepiece and adjusts the focuser. The sky zooms in on her and suddenly the moon is in fine detail. Perfect.
Simone mumbles, “I wish I brought my camera.” More than anything does she want pictures of the sky, even if she has enough of the moon on her hard drive.
“Are you spying on people?”
Simone jolts back with a gasp. She whips her head around to see Nathalie standing behind her.
Her brown curls were pushed back from her face with the help of a scarf she took from the donation bins and she’s wearing a long loose tank top over a pair of shorts. Really short shorts. She had a cigarette between her lips and her green eyes were squinted, both from exhaustion and suspicion.
Simone cleared her throat. “I’m not spying on people,”
“Isn’t that what your telescope is for?” Nathalie grins, “I always imagined you using a pair of bins.”
Simone shook her head. “It’s to look at the stars. It’s not for spying,” She explains. “I’m trying to look at planet Venus.” She frowns, apologetic. “I didn’t know you were awake.”
“Kinda hard to sleep after that big racket. You’re lucky I noticed it was you, I was about to give the trespasser a good arse-kick,” Nathalie huffs. She pulls out a lighter and lights up her cigarette. “And why are you sneaking around anyways? Couldn’t you take this shit to a park or something? I know there’s no kids around at this time, but parks are still fun at night.”
Simone ignored the insinuation of her being a pedophile, as she usually did, and looked at her telescope. “I sometimes watch from my bedroom but I couldn’t get a good view of anything but stars. I figured I’d try here.” She replied.
“This is the shit you use your power for?” Nathalie curled her nose. “Invisibility is wasted on you. Criminals would kill for your power.”
Simone ignored her and looked through her telescope to positioned it carefully. She knew Venus was out tonight, Simone just needs to find her.
“So this is it? Just stare at the sky and look at the planets?” Nathalie asks,
Simone is honestly surprised Nathalie hadn’t gotten bored and fucked off yet. “Yes,” She answered. That was it for some people. Simone didn’t just stop at star-gazing, though. She would sketch it, too. Her notebook sat in the front pocket of her telescope bag.
Finally, her telescope focused on the planet she did all this for. Venus. Her lips quirked upwards into a small smile as she stared at the planet. An absolute beauty. It’s no wonder her mythology has to do with the Goddess of love and beauty.
“Move,” Nathalie nudged her. “I wanna see.”
Simone rolled her eyes but moved aside so Nathalie could look through the eyepiece. “I was expecting something better.” Nathalie comments.
“Have you never seen Venus?” Simone asks.
Nathalie steps back from the telescope. “I never paid attention in my astronomy class,” She shrugs. “I was too busy fucking with the microscopes they hid in the back.”
“Venus is the second planet from the sun. She’s our closest neighbor planet and is similar in size to Earth so sometimes she’s called Earth’s twin. She’s the third brightest object after the sun and moon and she spins in the opposite direction compared to the other planets.” Simone starts to rant.
Nathalie stares at her.
Simone pats down her bangs. She didn’t mean to let herself blurb like that, especially to Nathalie of all people, but she can’t deny her passion for astronomy. She always figured if becoming an editor never worked for her, she’d go into space. Not literally though. She could never be an astronaut.
Nervously, Simone continues, “She has a thick atmosphere that traps heat in what is called a runaway greenhouse effect, making her the hottest planet in our solar system. But Scientists are trying to find out if life can survive.”
“Why do you call the planet a ‘her’?” Nathalie asks.
Simone blinks. “Uh,” She stammered. “Well, Venus, in Roman mythology, is the Goddess of love, beauty, desire, fertility, and passion. The Romans named her after the planet.”
“Huh,” Nathalie hums, thoughtfully.
Simone bends down and reaches in her telescope bag to pull out her sketchbook and the pencil she tucked along with it. With it in her hands, she crouches down beside her telescope.
“What are you doing now?” Nathalie stepped closer and glanced over her shoulders.
Simone paid no mind to her as she opened her sketchbook and flipped it to a blank page.
“You know, you should consider drawing me,” Nathalie says. “If you sold a portrait of me, you’d make a lot of money. I’d be the next Mona Lisa.”
Simone paused. “Mona Lisa was painted.”
“So paint me, then,” Nathalie shrugs. “I could do nude, too. Give you some anatomy practice.”
Simone blushed furiously, “No, thank you.”
“Come on,” Nathalie nudged her shoulder, smirking. “Draw me like one of your french girls,” The revelation that Nathalie watched Titanic almost made Simone choke.
Simone lets out a snort instead, “I’m not going to do that.”
“Then what type of artist are you?” Nathalie scoffs. She hid it well by rolling her eyes, but Simone could sense the tiniest bit of genuine disappointment in her face. She didn’t know what to make of that.
Simone pats down her bangs again, “I just like to sketch out planets and landscapes,” She mumbled. She began sketching out the planet, the image still fresh on her mind.
“That’s boring,” Nathalie says. She crouches down and looks into the eyepiece again. “She kinda looks like a pearl.”
Simone smiles. “I thought so, too.” Excited, her mouth runs away from her. “I think it makes sense since Venus, the Goddess, was born from the foam of the sea fully grown on a scallop seashell. Which make pearls. There’s a—” She cuts herself off and clears her throat. “Sorry,”
“Nah, I already knew you were a big-headed nerd.”
Simone feels oddly comforted by those words. Still, she keeps silent. She doubts Nathalie is interested in hearing her rant on and on about astronomy. The silence hangs over them as Simone continues to sketch Venus.
After a moment, Nathalie breaks it. “What were you going to say?”
“What?” Simone looks up.
Nathalie was still looking in the eyepiece, “Before you stopped talking,” She clarified.
“I was going to say that there’s a painting depicting her birth,” Simone tells her. “It’s her rising from the sea fully grown. I have a copy in my laptop,”
Nathalie takes a drag from her cigarette. “If she’s being born, is she, like, fully naked? Tits out and everything?”
“Yes,” Simone answered.
Nathalie smirks. “And you have a copy on your laptop? Is that the type of shit you wank to?” At Simone’s flat stare, she raised her hands in surrender. “I’m not gonna judge you. Click your mouse to whatever gets you off, but I always figured you were into the more hardcore shit. The shit you see on the dark-web.”
“Please don’t say—”
“—Like child porn.”
“Oh my God.” Unwillingly, a laugh escapes past Simone’s lips. More out of the sheer absurdity that comes out of Nathalie’s mouth than anything. She does her best to keep her laugh in her throat, but it’s past midnight and she’s tired, so she’s helpless against her urge to laugh openly.
Just as her laughter died down, she noticed Nathalie staring at her like she did earlier. “What?” Simone asked, suddenly self-conscious. Instinctively, she began to curl in on herself.
“Nothing,” Nathalie looked away toward the sky, then back down at Simone. Her eyes strayed down to her sketchbook. “Let me see,” She reached her hand toward the book.
Simone clutched her book to her chest. “No!” She shouted. Nathalie jolted back. “Sorry,” Simone said, quieter. “I-I’m not done. I’ll show you when I’m done.” A moment later, she added, “I don’t like people touching my things,”
Years in secondary school when bullies would rip and deface her stuff taught her to keep things a bit more close guarded.
“Okay,” Nathalie said, backing off. “Maybe shout a bit louder next time. I’m just fucking dying to get caught, yeah?”
Simone gazed at her with another apology at the tip of her tongue. She swallowed it back.
A cold wind breezes past the two of them. She watches Nathalie shiver and hug herself, not exactly appropriately dressed for outside in her thin layers.
Simone stands up and takes off her sweater, revealing the long sleeve shirt she wore underneath. She outstretches her hand to Nathalie. “Here,” She offers.
“It’s a cardigan,” Nathalie grumbles.
Too cold to argue, she takes the sweater and tugs it over herself. It’s large over her thin frame. Simone isn’t exactly big, but she’s been working out and Nathalie’s only getting skinnier living off of the vending machine (with occasional dinners over Kyle’s house).
Silence washes over them again. Simone fidgets awkwardly, unsure if she should be the one to break it this time. Luckily, Nathalie saves her the trouble. “So, what else do you look at?”
“Well,” Simone looks down at her sketchbook. “There’s a few constellations out tonight.”
Nathalie steps closer and blows smoke in Simone’s face, “Show me.”
“Wha—” Simone looks away to cough, waving the smoke out of her face.
Nathalie pokes her forehead. “Show me the constellations.”
“Oh,” Simone blinks. “Okay,” She tossed her sketchbook on her bag and stood up. “Cassiopeia is out. She’s bright enough that you don’t need a telescope for her.” She looks up at the sky and points. “Those five stars right there make up her constellation.”
Nathalie squints her eyes,“Uh-huh,” She looks at Simone. “So what’s her story?”
“It’s a Greek tale.” Simone says, “Cassiopeia was King Cepheus wife who famously boasted about being more beautiful than sea nymphs who went to Poseidon to make her pay. Poseidon sent out a monster called Cetus after her while the King and Queen were told to sacrifice their daughter, Andromeda, to the monster so that Cassiopeia can be forgiven for her vanity,”
Nathalie interrupts her. “Well, was she?”
“Was she what?”
Nathalie gestured with her hand, “Was she more pretty than the sea nymphs?”
“I don’t know,” Simone mumbles. “I’ve never seen a painting of her,” When Nathalie falls silent again, Simone continues, “They chained their daughter up but she was saved by a hero named Perseus who ended up marrying her. He was challenged by one of her earlier lovers—”
“What a slut bag,”
“—and defeated them with the head of Medusa. It turned the challenger and his army to stone, but it also turned the King and Queen. Poseidon put the rulers in the sky as neighboring constellations but Cassiopeia is upside down as punishment for her boastful comments.”
Nathalie finishes the last of her cigarette before tossing it aside and stomping out its last flame. “So basically, she was hot and they were all mad at her for it.” She summarized. “And then her son-in-law has this bright idea to use Medusa’s head but doesn’t know how to control it, killing his in-laws.”
“I guess,”
Nathalie looks at the sky. “He probably did it on purpose. Maybe they were right cunts.”
“Could be,” Simone doesn’t exactly know how to respond to that.
Nathalie looks at her. “So where’s Cepheus?” Before Simone could open her mouth, Nathalie looks at the sky again and points, “Is he those five stars right there?”
“Yeah,” Simone blinks back, surprised by the accuracy. “That is him.”
Nathalie tilts her head, “What shape is that supposed to be?”
Simone mumbles, “If you look at images online, it looks like a horizontal house.”
“That’s stupid, what the fuck does that have to do with King Cepheus?”
“Perhaps a metaphor for the fact that he’s a king?”
“’Perhaps’,” Nathalie mocks, laughing. “You sound so fucking old!”
Simone blushes. She pulls her phone out of the pocket of her trousers. “I should get home,” She says as she looks at the time.
“What? I was just joking,” Nathalie’s eyes widen in what almost looks like panic. “You can tell me more about the constellations, I won’t say anything.”
Simone furrowed her brows, “No, it’s not cause of that.” She’s much too used to Nathalie’s cruel words to feel any anger at her earlier comment. “My mom goes to work soon and if I stay out any longer, she’ll notice. She checks on me before she leaves.”
“Oh,”
Simone grabs her telescope and packs it up. She tucks her sketchbook and pencil in the front pocket and zips it up. With her bag in her hand, she turns back to Nathalie.“I’ll see you later,”
“Wait, don’t forget your stupid cardigan,” Nathalie huffs, she starts to take it off but Simone grabs her wrist. Nathalie stops and looks down at their hands.
Simone lets go of her wrist. “You can keep it in case you get cold and give it back to me later.” She starts to internally freak out and backs off. “Unless you—”
“Okay,” Nathalie cuts her off. She wraps the cardigan tighter around her. “I’m keeping it. Forever.”
Simone’s eyes widen, “I didn’t say—”
“Oh, so you would leave a cold helpless damsel in distress like me freezing out in the shivering night?” Nathalie gasps.
Simone gapes at her. “W-well, no.” She stuttered.
“Then I’m keeping it forever,” Nathalie announced. As if she didn’t have her own array of hoodies and jackets, ones that she find much more stylish than Simone’s cardigans.
Simone didn’t want to fight her on it. “Okay,” She smiles. “Goodnight, Nathalie.”
“Goodnight,” Nathalie returns.
Simone walks off and leaves Nathalie on the roof. Just as she leaves through the door, she peeks back at the roof.
Nathalie sat on one of the chairs lying around with her arms wrapped around herself, an uncharacteristic look of somber on her face. She leans her face down into her chest and sniffs the cardigan. When she straightens up, there’s a small smile on her face.
Simone leaves then, biting her lip to hide her own smile.