My Girl✖️Hemmings/Clifford

Chapter 25

"Ash?" She called as she entered the apartment, rubbing up and down her arms to try and create friction in an attempt to warm herself.

"Yeah, babe. I'm in the kitchen."

Jess walked slowly through their tiny apartment, trying to stall for as long as possible. She was really dreading doing this. It wasn't that she was scared of Ashton or anything, she knew he'd never hurt her, she just wasn't sure how he'd react....

"Hi...." She spoke timidly as she entered the kitchen. She had her hands behind her back, much resembling a child who had something in their hands and was trying to hid it from their parents.

She dropped her bag on the floor and walked over to Ashton, wrapping her arms around him from behind while he boiled something. All Ashton knew how to do was boil things so if he was cooking, they usually had boiled vegetables, or sometimes pasta if Jess was helping.

"Hey, hon." Ashton smiled, turning the stove off and turning to face the tiny girl holding him.

"I- I have to tell you something...." Jess said quietly.

"Yeah, okay. What is it?" Ashton asked with genuine interest in his voice.

"Um, well you know that meet up I had just a little while ago?" Jess asked, timidly looking up at Ashton.

"Yeah...." Ashton trailed off, telling her to continue.

"Well, it turns out that it was Luke." She said, a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

"Really? That's great! Yeah, he wrote me a letter a while back, remember? Around the same time he sent you one?"

"Mhm." Jess hummed.

"Do you know where he's been?" Ashton asked, concern evident in his voice.

"Y- yeah, actually, I do." Jess stammered

"Well... where was he?" Ashton giggled, telling her to go on.

"Actually, he was in rehab... for his drinking...." Jess trailed off, not sure when she would decide to mention everything about the letters he saved.

"What? Are you fo real? That's great!" Ashton exclaimed.

"Yeah... it is...." Jess spoke quietly, her voice small as she looked off to the side, not making eye contact with Ashton.

"Hey, what's up?" Ashton asked, tipping her head to face him again.

Jess let out a heavy sigh and unraveled from their tight embrace and walking to the other side of the kitchen, leaning up against the counter, not wanting to be near Ashton for this. Her hands start to tremble and she reaches inside her bag, pulling out the stack of letters. She goes for the one she already opened and pulls the letter out, another piece of paper she hadn't noticed before falling out as she does so. She hands them both to Ashton, as he quickly skims one of them.

"Wow... have you read this?"

"Well I've only read the letter, I didn't notice the other one before...." Jess trailed.

"Well, this right here," he started, gesturing to the paper he had just read, "is a song. A song he wrote for you."

"I- what? Can I- can I see it?"

Ashton just shrugged and handed it to her, continuing on with the letter Luke had written to confess his love, as Jess slowly read over the lyrics.

'I was numb from your kiss, while you were slipping through my fingertips' was the last line she read before pushing the paper onto the counter and away from her. She felt sick. Her stomach was flipping around and suddenly her heart was in her throat and her eyes were watering.