Fishnet legs carry her upward, over the winding staircase to the small apartment they call home. Wincing slightly, her small body half supported by his. Tired eyes rest themselves on the sight of him. Rouge lipstick brings his lips into a sloppy smile, looking down to her.

Attention turning back to the rickety stairs that go on forever; to the peeling wallpaper, the dirt, she heaves a quiet sigh. There was a time when she thought these stairs would bring her not only up to her home, but up, up and away. Up to the stars that glitter in the dank evening sky; heavy from being whished upon. She wanted to be a star once. She wanted to shine.

Finally at the top. She watches his calloused hand digs into jacket pocket for the key. Halloween ornaments jingle, swaying two and fro as the door opens. Yawning, eyelids brushed with color close briefly. Images of Rocky, Frank-N- Furter, Brad, Janet, and the rest of the gang from Rocky Horror flash. Boys in skirts, girls in suits, and enough glitter to fill a truck. How she felt like a star, mingling with the lovely androgynous boys, the dazzling girls in French maid's uniforms. A Halloween spent seeing the midnight showing of Rocky Horror can never disappoint. If only for a little while. She longed to stay in those moments, to live in one night for forever and a day.

"Tired?" he asks, arm snaking around her waist, pulling her close.

She smiles up at him for the second time that night, his eye liner smudged, lipstick trailing half way across his face. But those eyes, clean and pure; the eyes were the only part of his body unharmed and clean.

Eyes sweeping the darkened apartment, it wasn't much of a difference from the hallway. Even in the shadows she could make out the faint silhouettes of the nine-dollar sofa purchased at goodwill, the peeling wall-paper, the old, wobbly kitchen table his mother had sold to them for three dollars. It wasn't the house she imagined as a little girl, and sometimes she wondered if she could call it a house at all.

Attention turning back to him; she smiles. Leaning into the warmth of his body, petals from the flowers woven into her hair softly fall to the ground. In the dirty hallway and in dim light, mentally taking a picture of his smiling, overly glittered and makeup-ed face, she knows those stairs really did take her to the stars.