"Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses." -Ann Landers
I wake up the next day to the smell of bacon being cooked. My stomach growls loudly while I check the time on my phone. The bright light hits my face, making me squint my eyes to see the screen more clearly. It's a few minutes past eight, and I groan, wanting to eat bacon but not wanting to get up. I lie in my warm bed for a few minutes, but then I remember what all happened last night at Roadside.
Grimacing, I get out of bed and walk out of my bed room to head to the kitchen. Amy is in the kitchen, humming a song under her breath as she cooks strips of bacon.
"Should I be wondering why you're cooking breakfast?" I ask.
Amy squeals and snaps the kitchen tongs in my direction. "Don't scare me like that, Mackenzie!"
I chuckle. "Were you planning on killing me with greased tongs?" Amy rolls her eyes dramatically before going back the skillet.
"I'm making breakfast because I want to." She says simply, shrugging her shoulders and turning the back to the stove again.
Her voice sounds off, as if she's keeping a secret. I step into the kitchen. Crossing my arms over my t-shirt covered chest, I watch Amy closely.
She's not humming in more, but keeps on repeatedly turning the bacon, not giving it enough time to fully cook. Oh, she's definitely not telling me something. After being roommates with her for all these months, I'm now able to pick up on things. Her keeping a secret is one of the things.
"You're not telling me something." Amy cringes. "Is Tyson in your bed or something?" I ask.
Amy turns off the stove and picks up the pieces of bacon to place them on a paper towel. She glances at me quickly.
"You should get ready. I'm taking you somewhere after breakfast." She ignores my question.
Not in the mood to decline her plans, I walk back inside my room and change out of my pajamas. Now wearing skinny jeans, a cream sweater, and some socks, I head to my bath room to brush my hair out. I finish quickly and head back into the kitchen.
Amy has two plates filled with eggs, bacon, and strawberry jammed toast in her hands. She sets them on our small dining room table.
"Breakfast is served!" She exclaims.
I cautiously sit down in a seat, not knowing if I should be preparing myself for a surprise. Amy walks into the kitchen to grab the carton box of orange juice. She sits down across from me and digs into her food. Sighing softly, I lift my fork and stab the pieces of scrambled eggs.
"Now tell me what happened last night." Amy commands.
Knew this was coming. Lifting the fork to my mouth, I take a bite out of the eggs and chew slowly, just bug her. I pour some orange juice into my cup and take a sip of it.
"Any time would be nice!"
Internally laughing, I set the cup down beside my plate.
"It was awkward, Amy. I'm not kidding. It was strange not being, us. You know?"
Amy shakes her head. "No, not really, but continue." She says with a quick gesture of her hands.
Eye roll. "I served him dinner, and he waited for me outside. We talked inside my car, and turns out he left UCLA for University of Arkansas, Amy. Can you believe that?"
Amy swallows her bite of breakfast. I take a few bites out mine.
"It doesn't really surprise me. You two are, like, made for each other. All couples have bumps down the road. Some are worse than others. I wouldn't give up on him so soon, Mackenzie."
With that left hanging in the air, Amy and I finish the breakfast. I offer to wash the dishes since Amy cooked breakfast. While Amy gets dressed in her bed room, I pour dish soap on the green sponge before cleaning the plates. Rinsing my plate with the warm water, I hear the front door being knocked on. I shut the water off and wonder who would be at the door this early in the morning. Maybe it's Tyson?
Wiping my wet hands on my jean covered thighs; I then unlock the door and open it. Ashton stands before me, wearing a red t-shirt and jeans. He gives me a half-smile. I wipe the surprised look on my face.
"What are you doing here?" I rudely ask.
My cheeks flame at how rude I was to him. Ashton shrugs it off.
"I still want to talk to you." He says.
I tighten my hold on the doorknob, ready for any moment to close the door. I hear Amy gasp from behind me. Looking over my shoulder, I see she has changed out of her pajamas and is now walking over to me with jeans and a sweater on.
"Ashton!" She exclaims over dramatically. "I did not know you were coming here today!"
Another thing I have learned about Amy is when she's lying. Whenever Amy lies, she starts to talk over dramatically as if it's completely normal. I give a glare to my friend. She smiles warmly at me. Ashton widens his eyes when he realizes I didn't know he was coming over. He then rubs the back of his neck while also looking down at his boot covered feet.
"Why don't you come on in inside. We weren't going anywhere." Amy says.
Grinding my teeth, I step aside and allow Ashton to walk into the apartment. He scans his eyes over the place briefly before looking back at me. He gives me a genuine smile. There's the dimples.
"The place looks nice." He compliments.
"Thanks." I mumble back. "I'll be right back."
I rush to the bathroom and slam the door closed. My hand reaches for my tooth brush and tooth paste. I quickly put some of the minty paste on the bristles before putting it in my mouth and scrubbing. Oh, my god. Amy set me up. When I finishing brushing my teeth, I look at my reflection to see if I look presentable.
I got this. Opening the bathroom door, I walk out and head to the living room. Ashton is sitting on the couch, and Amy is nowhere to be seen. He's looking at the small coffee table.
About a month again, Amy went through this Pinterest craft faze. One of her projects was changing the living room's coffee table. The one craft she loved the most was the picture one. What you pretty much do is collage pictures on top of the table and then put a glass covering over it. The glass protects the pictures from spillage and food.
Ashton points to one of the pictures.
"That day was fun." He comments.
I look down at the picture he's pointing to. It's a class photo of our freshman class when we went to the city one time for some reason. I cringe at the freshman year old me when I notice how young and awkward I look. The group isn't big like a freshman class would normally be. I recognize Ashton's messy brown hair in the photo. Carter and his baseball buddies are huddled together with Ashton. Haze is standing beside me with her arm wrapped around my shoulders. Amy is then in front, bent down at an awkward angle.
"I don't even know why she has that photo." I grumble, cheeks flaming.
Ashton laughs. His laugh seems to be the ice breaker for us. I don't feel so nervous or jittery with him being around me.
"I think you look pretty cute." He says nonchalantly.
I gasp and cover the photo with my hand. "Not true!" I exclaim. "Now, what did you want to talk about?"
Ashton nods his head and pats the cushion beside him. I remove my hand from covering the photo and sit down on the couch, not being close to him at all.
"I'm still not going to back to UCLA if you were wondering." He starts.
I sigh loudly. "You have a better chance with your baseball career at UCLA than at Arkansas."
Ashton shrugs his shoulders. "Maybe, maybe not. Baseball is baseball, but I want to have both. You and baseball. The only way for me to have my cake with icing is to be back in Arkansas. And I'm okay with that."
I frown. "Ashton, you've dreamed of going to UCLA." I whisper.
He reaches for my hand, and I surprisingly let him hold it. He rubs small circles on my hand as he looks at me. Butterflies flutter in my stomach at the contact we're making. "Dreams change, Kenz." He then says.
Damn it, even I know that's true. A year ago I thought I would be helping Sill out at the Animal Care Shop in the future, but now look at me. I'm living on my own and working at a steakhouse restaurant.
I look at our connected hands. Ashton stops rubbing the circles on my hand to squeeze it gently. I look up at his green eyes. My heart warms at how much hope is filled in them at the moment.
"Please accept this, Mackenzie." He whispers.
I'd be a dimwit to pass this chance. Months ago I told him to come to me when he got his shit together, and he did. He came back to me. I believe I have changed over the time we've been apart, but I haven't completely changed. I remember the way he made me feel. I know he'll still make me feel that way.
A smile grows on my face. Maybe I'm forgiving him too easily. Eh, to hell with it. "Okay, you're forgiven for being a douche bag." I joke. Something seems to click between us after I say those words. The ice between us melts quickly. Ashton rolls his eyes and grabs my face. I pucker my lips, expecting him to kiss me, but he softly kisses my nose. He laughs after leaning back and seeing my surprised face.
"I think we should start back from square one." He says.
My jaw drops. "Are you kidding me? Do you remember how long it took for you to get the guts to kiss me?"
Ashton smiles happily at me while still holding my cheeks. "I think we'll live." He says.
~*~
When Ashton tells me that he has to leave, I say good bye to him, and he promises to come over tomorrow. Before I close the door, he blows me a kiss, and when the door is closed and locked, I stomp over to Amy's room that's across from mine.
I swing the door open, not caring about her privacy at the moment. Amy is sitting on her bed with her lap top on her lap. She jumps and covers her chest with her hand.
"Just don't barge in, Mackenzie. It's rude."
I take a step towards her bed. "I'm not sure if I should kill you or say thank you."
Amy slowly closes her lap top. "Thank you would probably be best." She squeaks.
I grab the pillow at the end of her bed and attack her by hitting her body. "Do you know how shocked I was when I opened that door?" I yell over her screams. "My teeth weren't even brushed!"
One last hit and I stop. Amy glares at me. "I was only one-third of the planning." She says.
I raise an eyebrow. "Okay, now tell me who did the rest of the planning."
Amy sighs and fixes her hair. "Ashton obviously knew the first person to talk to." She stops and waits for me to figure it out.
I gasp once I have it figured out. "She did not! Haze was behind all of this?" I ask.
"Yup, Ashton didn't have my number so he called Haze, and Haze then called me. Haze cussed him out a few times, though."
I smile. My best friend will always have my back. "I guess I should say thank you then. So, thank you, Amy."
My friend rolls her eyes and shoves me away. "Get out of my room so I can go back to sleep. Waking up early to get you back together with your boyfriend was rough." Amy lies down and rests her head on her pillow.
When I'm about to close the door, I say 'thank you' again. Amy opens her eyes and smiles.
"That's what friends are for."
Epilogue is left. . :'( It will be about the same length as the prologue.
-May
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