~Esther~
I was sitting in history class, my last class of the day and the only class I have with Ash other than fifth period, when a note slipped onto my desk. I looked up to see who had given it to me and saw Ash looking at me from the desk next to mine. I furrowed my eyebrows silently asking him if he was the one who gave it to me and he nodded gesturing to the note in front of me.
I picked it up and opened it, quickly reading it and trying not to get caught by our teacher. 'I'll come by your house to pick-' That's all I had time to read before Ava's voice filled the room and drew my attention away from the note.
"Excuse me, Mr Kraffert?" Our teacher turned around when he heard his name. "Esther is passing notes."
I mentally cussed out Ava, I didn't even get to read the full thing before Mr Kraffert walked over to me and grabbed the note out of my hand and walked over to the trash can beside his desk to throw it away. "There will be no note passing in my class, Ms Harlow. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Mr Kraffert, sorry." He nodded and then addressed Ava.
"Thank you for noticing, Ms Meaker."
I noticed how Ava didn't say anything about Ash even though he was the one who passed the note. Granted, I didn't want Ash getting in trouble too so I was a little grateful for that but if she was going to tell on one of us, why not tell on both of us?
Either she really has something against me or she's trying to get on Ash's good side, maybe both.
I glanced at Ash and saw him glaring at Ava while she gave a short smile to our teacher. Ash caught me looking at him and reached across the small aisle in between our desks to lay his hand on my thigh. Butterflies erupted in my stomach and my cheeks reddened at the sudden touch and I tried to hide it but as soon as Ash looked at my face his lip turned up into a smirk. I took my hair out of the loose braid it was in and let it cover my face as I looked down so no one else would see my face.
The bell for the end of class rang a few moments later and Ash moved his hand off my thigh so he could gather his things. I gathered my books and stood up but as I did Ash stood in front of me so I couldn't move anywhere. He pushed some of my hair behind my ear and kissed me. "I don't like it when you hide your face, darling."
Before he could say more, he was cut off by Mr Kraffert. "Quit making out in my classroom. This was your last class, you're free to go anywhere else to do that now."
"Sorry, Sir" Ash apologized and grabbed my hand, leading me out of the room and into the hallway where all of the students were trying to get their things and get out of this place.
"Hey girl, can I ride with you and Josie today? The battery in my car died when I got here." I spun around to see Indi standing behind Ash and I.
"You scared the crap out of me, Indi. I didn't realize you were there, but yeah of course."
"Sorry about that." She laughed. "I saw you guys come out of the history room and I had to run up behind you before I lost you in the crowd."
I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and checked the time. 3:15pm
Josie was probably waiting on me in the parking lot. "Josie's probably already in her car waiting so we might want to get going."
"Yeah, she's never really learned to be patient, she might leave without us." Indi joked.
She walked towards the door and I tried to follow her but Ash caught my hand and turned me back around. "Excuse me darling, you forgot something."
I laughed as I reached up and gave him a kiss. "Sorry, love. Is that better?"
He leaned down and gave me another kiss before letting me go. "Much better." I shook my head and walked away once again hoping Josie wouldn't be too mad at me for making her wait. It was for a good cause.
-------
I had been sitting in my room reading for around twenty minutes when I heard voices downstairs and someone walked in the front door. I heard footsteps coming up the stairs and walking down the hallway towards Josie and I's rooms.
"Be ready to go in ten minutes." Ash told me as he opened my door and popped his head into my room.
"What? Why? Where are we going?" That must've been what his note said earlier. The note that I didn't get to read because of Ava's fat mouth.
"Don't ask questions, darling. Just trust me."
"Okay, but how did you get in here? I didn't hear anyone knocking."
"Your dad let me in, now hurry up and get dressed." Ash turned around and walked out of my room, probably going back downstairs to wait for me.
Where in the world is this man taking me? How am I supposed to dress? Fancy or casual? What about both?
I decided to throw on some bell-bottom jeans with some boots and a cute tube-top I had in the back of my closet. It wasn't too fancy but it also wasn't too casual.
I applied some mascara and threw my hair up in a cute messy bun with a couple hairs left out to frame my face and went to find Ash. As I walked downstairs I heard him talking to my dad but I couldn't hear what they were saying.
Conversation ceased as they saw me walking down the stairs. I watched Ash as he checked me out while my dad walked into the kitchen. "What were you guys talking about?" I asked as I looked between the kitchen and Ash.
"I was telling your dad about my plans for tonight." Ash stood up from the couch and walked over to me, putting his hands on my hips.
"Care to enlighten me too?" I asked even though I knew he would most likely wouldn't tell me.
"Nope, it's a surprise." I knew it.
I groaned in response and leaned down to kiss me. "You look pretty, darling." He mumbled against my lips.
I smiled up at him and he grabbed my hand, leading me towards the front door. "Are you sure you can't tell me?" I tried to convince him but it was no use.
"Shush, darling. You love surprises so don't act like you don't." He wasn't wrong, I'd give him that. I've loved surprises since I was a kid and somehow he knew that but I also liked to be informed.
-------
Ash parked in front of a small candle shop and walked over to my side of the car to open the door for me. He slipped one of his hands around my waist and guided me down the small street which was littered with stores. Somehow I'd never found this place even though I've been all over this town.
Ash stopped in front of a small bookstore and opened the door for me. How in the world have I never found this place? I love to find new bookstores and yet somehow I hadn't found the one that was ten minutes away from my house. "How did you find this place?" I rushed inside, wanting to see all of it.
It was beautiful. Tall shelves lined the walls and made rows throughout the shop. Fairy lights lined every shelf and window making the store look cozy. There was a window seat in the back corner as well as a large black bean bag in front of one of the shelves for customers to sit on while they read. "How have I never known this was here?" I stared at the whole shop before me. "This is gorgeous."
I glanced over at Ash, realizing he was only looking at me as he answered. "Yes, yes it is."
I laughed. "Ash, you're not even looking at it."
"No, but I'm looking at the prettiest thing in here."
I felt my face heat up as I turned back to the shelves. "I hope you know we're going to be here for the rest of the day."
He chuckled. "I sure hope not, we have something else planned in a couple hours, darling"
I spun around, not realizing how close he had gotten. We were now only a few inches apart. "There's more?"
He leaned down and pressed a kiss next to my ear. "Mhm." He mumbled.
I turned around before he could give me butterflies again and started looking through the shelves. After a few minutes I found one of the genres I was looking for; Fantasy. I searched through the books until I found a few that interested me while Ash leaned against one of the selves and waited patiently. I decided to look in the next row over, the only row I hadn't looked at yet, and I found my favorite genre; new adult romance, in other words, smut.
I held the books I had already picked out with one arm while I used the other to pull down books I thought were interesting. I had to switch arms every once in a while because they kept getting tired and as I was switching my pile to my right arm Ash walked up next to me and took the pile. "What-"
"Your arms are tired, darling, let me help you." He cut me off before I could finish my question.
I stood on my tip-toes and gave him a kiss as a thank you before turning my attention back to all of the books in front of me. I picked out a few more and turned back to Ash, adding them to my pile as I took the pile away from him so he didn't have to hold it any longer. "I think we should go before I grab anymore."
He chuckled as he picked up the book I had just set on the top of my pile. Punk 57. Oh no. "What's this one about?"
"Nothing." I answered almost too quickly. "Let's go before I spend more money."
He smiled as he put the book back on the stack and leaned down to my ear. "What do you say you read it for me later, darling?" He sure is acting like he already knows what it's about.
Suddenly I had a realization. Has he already read it? Does my boyfriend read smut? It's not like I have any room to talk but I never thought Ash would be the type to read stuff like that.
"I could tell by your face, darling." I looked up at Ash, shocked that he knew what I was thinking.
"How did you even know I was thinking about that?"
"I'm a mind reader, didn't you know that?" He joked.
"Wow I'm dating a mind reader and no one even told me. How could you keep that from me?" I played along as we walked towards the small register at the front of the store.
I set the stack of books on the counter for the woman behind it to scan while I pulled out my wallet. The girl looked to be a few years older than me with red hair and blue eyes. Her hair was pulled into a smooth ponytail with two strands out in the front to frame her face. Her body was thin but she also had some curves to her, basically what every guy wants.
Part of me felt self conscious standing near her with Ash since she was definitely prettier than me. It wasn't just her looks though, something about her told me she was really nice. She seemed perfect. That same part of me thought Ash would see he could do so much better but after one look up at him, I knew that's not what he was thinking. I looked at him to find him staring down at me, he wrapped his arms around my waist from behind and laid his forehead on my shoulder once he knew I caught him.
I reached back with one hand and ran my fingers through his hair with a small smile on my face as I waited for the girl to finish scanning my books. "Your total is going to be $56.86, ma'am" She smiled as she looked between me and the man behind me. "You two are a really cute couple, by the way."
I smiled back at her as I started getting my money out of my wallet and I felt Ash take one of his hands away from my waist. "Thank you." Before I could give her the cash in my hand Ash reached forward and gave her his credit card. "Ash," I started.
"What? I'm taking you on this date, darling. That means I get to pay." He kissed the top of my head as the girl in front of us bagged my books and handed them back to me after returning Ash's card to him.
"Have a good day, I hope your date goes well." The girl smiled once more as we started to walk away.
"Thank you, I hope you have a good day too." I called as I walked out of the door and towards Ash's car. He opened the passenger side door and moved the seat forward to put the book behind my seat since he didn't have an extended cab. He moved the seat back into it's spot and stepped aside, letting me get in before he closed the door and walked to his side. He laid his hand on my thigh as he pulled out of the parking spot and drove towards wherever he was taking me now.
------
After another ten minutes or so of driving Ash pulled into a small parking lot filled with a large number of other cars. "Ash, why are there so many other cars?"
"You'll see." He laced our fingers together and led us towards a hiking trail. It confused me why so many people would be hiking this late in the day, it was almost dark. How would anyone be able to find their way out of here in the dark?
"Where in the world are you taking me?" He didn't answer as he pushed some tree branches out of our way, revealing a giant field of grass with a beautiful view of the sunset. It was the prettiest one I've seen in a while, there were blue and purple colors gradually falling into orange, pink and yellow with the sun still peaking above the horizon.
I finally tore my eyes away from the sunset and looked at the crowd gathered a few feet in front of us. Every person had something in their hands but I couldn't tell what it was.
I looked back at Ash and realized he had the same thing in his hands. A floating lantern. Is he seriously recreating the scene from Tangled? I think I'm in love--I'm kidding--maybe. He really remembered this was my favorite scene though?
"You remembered?" There was no way, this had to be a coincidence. He probably just thought it was a cute date idea. I know it was only a couple days ago that we watched it but I didn't really think he was paying that much attention to me.
"Of course I did." He grabbed my hand and pulled me towards him. "There's no way I can forget how your eyes lit up when you watched that scene. I thought maybe you'd want to recreate it."
"Hell yes, I do." I laughed, taking the lantern from him, I ran towards the other side of the crowd. I didn't get far before two hands grabbed my waist and threw me over their shoulder. "Ash! Put me down!"
He chuckled as he walked further away from the crowd and finally set me down after I slapped his ass. "Fine, darling. Down you go."
As I looked back at the crowd they were already lifting their lanterns into the sky and watching them float away. "Ash, look you made us almost miss it. Hurry, we need to light it before the rest float away." He listened and took a small lighter out of his pocket as I unfolded the small paper lantern.
Ash took the lantern from me and quickly lit it. He moved his hand to one side of it as I put my hand under the other side and we both lifted it into the sky together, just like Rapunzle and Eugene do in the movie.
I looked at Ash as our lantern floated higher and higher into the sky. He looked back at me and pulled me in. I tilted my head up to watch our lantern but Ash lightly grabbed my chin and tilted my head back down to give me a romantically slow kiss, just like the ones you see at the end of movies when the guy wins over the girl and that's exactly how it felt. I was his and I don't think anything could change that.