us ➳ jack gilinsky

xxxiii. the boys. february 24

"Remind me again why I let you bring me here?" Ashley said lightly, rolling her eyes at Nash as he cheered every time one of his darts hit a balloon. They were at the carnival and he insisted on playing balloon darts so he could win her one of the big teddy bears after he noticed her gawking at them earlier in the day.

"Well you love the carnival," He answered back, throwing one of his remaining darts and hitting another balloon, causing it to pop. "Plus, I need to win you a bear, I know you want one." He smiled, putting strong emphasis on "know" as he said it.

"Alright, well I'm just glad you're actually good at this game, unlike me."

Ashley giggled, fidgeting with her phone as Nash threw his last dart, hitting another balloon. He cockily threw his hands up in the air in excitement and chanted. "Hell yea! I knew I could do it!" He chimed.

Ashley shook her head as she smiled, striding towards him and stopping by his side while the man behind the counter congratulated him and handed him the big bear. He thanked the man and turned to Ashley, placing the bear in her hands. "I hope Jason doesn't kill me for this, I know how much he hates these things." He chuckled.

"Thank-you Nash, and no, don't worry about it, Jason isn't like he was before he left for college. He's changed a lot." She smiled again, quickly reaching for his hand and pulling him towards the exit gate. "Now, not to rain on the parade or anything, I know we're having fun but it's getting late and I'm tired of being on my feet, can we go?"

Nash ran his hand through his hair and nodded. "Of course, I'm getting a little tired of walking around too. There's too many people here."

"No kidding."

Nash and Ashley walked through the gate and out onto the streets, stopping at a coffee shop to get some hot chocolate before making their way through town again.

The streets were oddly very empty, but it was peaceful. Neither of them said a single word to each other the entire time, they were busy being mesmerized by the setting sun and the silence of the town. They continued to walk side by side until they stopped in front of a familiar brown gate. Ashley turned to Nash with a worried look on her face and deeply sighed. "Are you sure I should be here? I mean, Jack could be in there." She said nervously, her anxiety quickly bounding through every inch of her aching body.

Nash nodded and took her hand, pulling her towards the gate. "You'll be fine, I promise. We'll just go to my room and hangout in there. Besides, Matt, Shawn, and Jack J want to see you anyway." He smiled, opening the gate and consciously guiding her towards the front door.

He heard yelling through the door and his eyebrows furrowed, not knowing whether someone was fighting or if they were just playing around. He motioned for her to wait and he slightly swung the door open to peep in, seeing Carter and Cameron arm wrestling while Jack J, Shawn, and Sammy cheered both of them on. He sighed in relief and pulled Ashley in. None of the boys noticed their entrance until Aaron came around the corner, accidentally bumping into Nash and dropping his bag of chips on the floor.

"Hey!" He smiled, ignoring the fact that he dropped his chips, reaching for Ashley so he could hug her. "It feels like haven't seen you in forever! Whats up? What are you up to?" He stammered excitedly.

"We're just going to hangout in my room, you guys can come hang if you want." Nash answered back, glancing at the rest of the boys in the room.

They all looked at each other in unison and shrugged. "Okay."

They all walked towards the stairs. As they made their towards Nash's room, Ashley noticed there was no sign of Jack. She knew she shouldn't be thinking about Jack so much when she was around her best friends that she hadn't seen very much throughout the past few months, and she tried her hardest not to think about him, but it was hard when she constantly found something that reminded her of him, like his clothes in her closet or the pictures of them in her room, or the fact that she was literally in the house that he resides in. She hated it most of the time, but sometimes it made her feel....alright. She liked to be reminded of all the good times they had together and that at one point of her life she was actually happy and he was happy and everything was okay. It gives her hope that maybe one day, even though everything will be different, everything will be okay again.

She is constantly reminded of the bad times as well though, and even though they still made her heart ache, it wasn't as bad as it used to be because she was around the people she cared for most and that made her feel better, content, happy even.

"Ashley." Shawn said, snapping her from her sad and perpetual thoughts. "Are you okay?"

Ashley took a deep breath and looked around, realizing that only her and Shawn were standing outside of Nash's bedroom door. "Yea, sorry I'm fine. There's just a lot on my mind."

Shawn sympathetically smiled at her and nodded, "I know, but just try to not think about it all too much right now. It's just me, you, Cameron, Jack J, Aaron, Nash, Sam, and Carter here. Taylor and Matt took Jack out somewhere so don't worry. Let's go join the other boys to get your mind off of things, please, I don't like seeing you like this." He admitted.

Ashley let out a sigh and smiled. "Alright."