us ➳ jack gilinsky

xv. valentines evening

As Ashley was writing a letter to Jack about the encounter she had while on her walk with Jason earlier in the day, she was interrupted by a knocking at her front door. She sighed and got up from her bed, carefully placing her notebook and pen down before walking to her bedroom door. She opened it and slowly made her through the hallway and down the dark burgundy stairs that led her to the main hall. She made her way to the door, making sure to run her hand through her hair to smooth it out.

Without bothering to look through the peep hole, she undid the lock and slowly swung the door open. She didn't look up at first, but as soon as the door was completely open, the person had engulfed her in a hug. She gasped, being caught off guard. She was instantly surrounded by a very familiar and distinct smell, and her head started to spin.

It was Nash.

She shrieked, quickly coming to her senses and hungrily wrapping her arms around him firmly, making sure not to let go for a few minutes. She couldn't explain how she instantly began to feel at the moment. Happy? Excited? Blissful, perhaps? She wasn't sure. But she did know was she felt confused, and more so, overwhelmed, not sure as to if this was really happening or not. So she pulled away, and was instantly greeted by the familiar beautiful face of her best friend, the one and only, Nash Grier.

"Nash," she breathed, "You're here."

After what had happened earlier, Ashley realized that all of the boys must be in town. It was the only way that she could have seen Jack and Nash both in the same day.

She put her hands on her face to cover the tears that were slowly slipping from her eyes, being overwhelmed with happiness and joy of seeing one of her most cherished friends in front of her for the first time in months.

Nash was looking at her, feeling ecstatic that he was finally in her presence. He had missed her dearly, she was his best friend in fact. And he was also overjoyed to see her again.

"Yea," he let out slowly, "I'm here."

Ashley wiped under neath her eyes and then reached for Nash's wrist, pulling him into the house and slamming the door behind them. She lead him into the living room and sat him on the couch.

Her face was brimmed with tears for the second time today, but she wasn't crying out of sadness. No, this time she was crying out of joy.

"Nash, I can't believe you're here." She quietly sobbed.

He smiled, reaching his hand up to attempt wiping away the last bit of her tears, "I know, me too."

He stared at her for a few minutes before quietly speaking again, "Ashley, why are you still crying? Please don't cry. You know I hate seeing you upset."

She didn't know why, but she laughed at him. It was the first time she had really laughed in a long time, and it felt strange.

"I'm not upset. I'm happy! I've missed you so much. How have you been? How is everybody?" She asked so quickly that she fumbled her words and was almost incoherent.

He beamed at her, "I've been good, everybody's good. We all miss you." He said, looking straight into her eyes.

Ashley's heart skipped a beat, feeling happy and content that they had missed her. She no longer felt sad and stupid for thinking about everyone so often, because now she knows that they had missed her just as much as she had missed them. But when he had said all, she felt herself wondering if he meant that Jack missed her as well...

She doubted he did, and that hurt her quite a bit. But she decided to try the best she could to ignore the thoughts of Jack for once so she could really focus on Nash. It was the first time she'd seem him in months, and she was determined to spend as much time with him as she possibly could.
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