Right in the middle of a long, heated kiss, Ashton's phone begins to ring. "Ah, shit," he mumbles against my lips.
Standing up, he grabs his phone from the pocket of his jeans that are laying on the floor. He presses a button and holds it to his ear. Curiously, I sit up on my elbows and watch him.
"Hello?" Ashton says rudely. I hear someone talking on the other line but I'm too far away to make out who it is.
"Uh, no. I'm not interested in that. I'm kinda, er, off the market." He pauses, the stranger speaks more. "No, for the last time."
Ashton groans and face palms before replying to the person. "Fine, fuck." And then, in a low voice that I can just barely hear, making me think he intended me not to, he says, "don't tell anyone."
He hangs up and plops back into bed with me. "Who was that?" I ask calmly.
"Luke," he replies, relaxed.
"Oh."
"I have to do a quick errand," he tells me. "And you better get home, naughty girl. Your mother will be upset," he teases me.
I force a laugh, but something tells me whatever he's doing isn't just an errand. But I decide to trust him, I have no reason not to.
"I guess I better get home," I respond, standing up and slipping into my clothes. "If you're going on an errand, mind dropping me off?"
"Not at all," he smiles, and once he's fully clothed, we head outside.
Once he's seated on the motorcycle, I hop on behind him and lace my arms around his waist, comfortably resting my head on his back.
I give him a goodbye kiss, lingering a bit longer than I should, once we arrive at my driveway.
"Bye, baby girl." He waves, a cheeky grin playing on his lips.
"Bye, Ash."
-
Turns out, my mother wasn't mad, she just thought I had went back to Luke's house for a while after school. I went along with the assumption and turned in for the night.
And when I say "turned in for the night," I mean I actually laid in bed in my Scooby-Doo pajamas for two hours while watching Grey's Anatomy.
The way Meredith and Derek can't seem to stay apart reminds me of Ashton and I. If I were to ever try to pull away, or him to me, I'm not sure I'd be able to.
I end up falling asleep with my laptop on my stomach, the sound of Grey's streaming through my headphones.
- a few days later
"Aren't you excited for homecoming?" Paula squeals at me. It's Thursday, a week after spending part of the day after school with Ashton.
Mom allowed Paula and Maggie to stay over today, tomorrow (which is homecoming night!), Saturday and Sunday. I'm so excited to be able to finally have some quality time with my best friends.
"I am, Ashton agreed to come with me."
"Oh," Maggie mumbles and Paula sighs, rolling her eyes.
"I thought we were going together?" Paula says angrily, narrowing her eyes at me.
"Oh, God. I forgot, I'm so sorry. I'll still hang out with you guys, I swear! I just really like Ash, and he actually said he'd go with me, and-"
"Ella, calm yourself," Maggie giggles, looking up. "It's okay, but you have to tell us what happens! I went to middle school with Ashton and he was a jerk then, you've seemed to, well, change him."
"Middle school?" Paula asks. "What was he like?" I lean in, curious to hear her answer.
"Well, he hung out with Michael a lot so he was always over. He was a dick, really, not much else to say."
"What about a yearbook?" I ask her. "Did the middle school have a yearbook."
Maggie smiles and jumps to her feet, as we were all sitting on the ground. "Yes, and I still have it! Let's go to my house quick and look at it!"
Paula and I don't hesitate to join her and quickly, we sneak out of the house and go to Maggie's.
I greet Maggie's mother on the way in and upstairs, in the hallway, Michael runs into us.
"Hey, Paula, Ella. I thought you were at Ella's tonight, Maggie?" He asks.
"We were, but-" she's got off by the sound of a toilet flushing, and the door to the bathroom swings open behind me.
"Ella?" I hear Ashton's deep voice behind me. Then, behind Michael, Luke and Calum emerge from Mikey's bedroom.
Paula's eyes are wide, fixed on Luke's shirtless chest. "We've been boy-bombed," she whispers.
Her gaze shifts to Luke's, who stares at her
with a wary expression. "Ha-ha, sorry," she apologizes nervously.
"What are you doing here?" Ashton asks. I turn around to face him.
"We were having a sleepover at my house, and we came over to get something Maggie forgot," I lie.
"Oh," he says, shrugging nonchalantly.
"So, we're going to go now," Maggie says, dragging Paula away from Luke's gaze, into her bedroom, and I follow.
Once the door closes, Paula blurts out, "God, that was Luke?"
"Y-yeah," I giggle, covering my mouth to hide my laughs. "Do you like him?" I squeal. "I could totally hook you up."
"Really?" Paula asks, her curiosity peaked. Then her hopeful smile fades and she crosses her arms over her chest defensively. "He's probably got the hots for another girl."
"Who knows? I can ask him sometime," I respond, "but let's get down to business." Playfully, I crack my knuckles and kneel to the carpeted floor. "Where's the yearbook, Mags?"
Maggie walks to her closet and tugs open the door, revealing clothes, shoes, books. Then she drags out a small, cardboard box to where Paula and I are sitting, and sits down herself.
"Crap," I mumble as Maggie tears open the box. "How many yearbooks do you have?" Inside of the box is two stacks of them.
"Well, kindergarten, first grade, second grade third-"
"We get it," Paula laughs.
"All up to fifth grade, since that was the last year I went to school with him in elementary.
"You've known Ashton for all of those years?" I ask, a tint of jealously laced in my voice. I've only known him for not even a year.
"Yeah, he wasn't that bad back then."
"He's not bad now, either," I reply defensively, narrowing my eyes.
"Shut up, Ella. We aren't fighting, you know what I mean." Maggie rolls her eyes and I look down.
"Here," Maggie says in a happier tone, pointing to a small picture of a brown haired girl. "That's me."
"You were so cute," I gush, smiling down at all of the children's pictures. I wonder what happened to them?
"I know," Maggie giggles. "But," she says, flipping to another page, "Ash, there he is in third grade.
With widened eyes, I gaze down at the picture of my guy. His curly blonde locks are cut short, a cheeky grin plastered on his face, his hazel eyes fixed on the camera.
He looks fucking adorable. So innocent, like he'd never done a wrong in his life.
"Holy crap," I murmur. "What's the next one?"
"Well, I was in kindergarten then. I'd be in first grade in this one," she says, pulling out another yearbook. "So he's in fourth grade."
In this yearbook, he grew out his hair slightly and his smile isn't as strong. He was wearing a white collared shirt in the first book, now he's wearing a red muscle shirt. How that slid past the dress code, I'll never know.
Throughout the different yearbooks we look in, I can tell he got cockier and more troublesome as the years passed.
Finally, we reach Maggie's fifth grade book, Ashton's eighth.
In this one, his smile is more of a smirk, his dimples still popping through, of course. His eyes are narrowed slightly at the camera, and his blonde locks are only a bit shorter than they are now, tousled and curly.
"Well, now that you've had your dose of prepubescent-Irwin," Maggie teases me, "shall we go back home?"
"Yeah, I just have to use the bathroom first, you girls go ahead.
"And whatever you do, do not, under any circumstance, look in the third drawer down on the table beside my bed," I say, knowing they would do exactly that. It was the drawer I used to stock up on sweets and snacks, and I figured we could enjoy some tonight.
"Um, sure," Paula replies, smiling devishly as she and Maggie exit the room. Once I hear the front door open and slam, I follow their footsteps but head to the toilet instead.
In there, I do my business and wash my hands afterwards. Downstairs, just before I'm about to head out, a small door beneath the staircase catches my eye.
Curiously, I walk to it and, slowly, I open it. There are stairs leading down into darkness, and God, from all the horror movies I've watched, I know it isn't a good idea but I go down anyways.
I'm sure that at any moment, I'll trip and snap my ankle, or even worse, my neck. I cringe at the thought of being found dead the night before homecoming.
I push the worried, dark thoughts away and scan the wall with my hands for a light switch once I reach the bottom. At last, I find it, and flip it up.
The room brightens and I look around at my surroundings. It's just a basement.
There are couches and chairs, an old box TV, and another door but I decide it might not be best to go searching through more parts of Maggie's house without permission.
I shrug and turn to head back up the stairs, but I'm greeted by Ashton at the top, looking down at me from the doorway.
"What're you doing down here?"
"Um, I just was looking around," I admit, gazing down at my feet. When I look up Ashton closes the door behind me and walks down to meet me.
"It's fine, it's just the basement and an extra bedroom."
"Oh," I mumble, fiddling with my thumbs.
"You wanna hang out a while?" He asks, nodding towards the couch.
I think of Maggie and Paula, knowing they are too busy stuffing their faces with my candy to notice me being gone too long, so I smile and walk to the couch.
Ashton sits beside me and for a few moments we don't speak.
Dirty thoughts emerge into my mind and my cheeks instantly flush as Ashton's hand positions on my thigh.
"Ash?" I ask, my voice shaking slightly. He hums in response, urging me to continue. "When will we have sex?"
He cocks an eyebrow and looks up at me, obviously baffled by my question. "Whenever you're ready."
Without hesitating, I reply, "I'm ready."
"O-oh, you mean, like, right now?"
"Yeah, if you want to," I mumble the last part.
"Of course I do! I just thought girls wanted it to be romantic, you know?" He tells me.
"As long as it's with you," I say, "it doesn't need to be super romantic."
"That was so cheesy," he chuckles, leaning down to press his lips to mine. "I need to grab a condom, so why don't you wait in the bedroom for me?"
"Sure." And I stand up, walk to the bedroom, and close the door behind me. I situate myself on the comfortable bed, waiting for Ashton to enter.
The extra bedroom is nice, the walls are decorated with a few paintings, the bedsheets are a deep red, along with the pillowcases.
Ashton comes in then, his expression I can't read and a condom pinched between his fingers.
Looking at me, he shimmies out of his black skinny jeans and pulls his T-shirt over his head, revealing his toned chest.
Hurriedly, I do the same, leaving me in underwear and a bra. Sadly, I'm not wearing my pretty Victoria's Secret set, only a plain white bra and panties.
He climbs onto the bed, leaning over my body. "I want this to be special," he tells me, peppering kisses all over my neck.
"Ash," I tell him, my voice weakening as I know he's leaving a hickey on my jawline, "it's going to be special."
He un-clasps my bra and begins rolling my left breast in his hand, using his mouth on the other.
I bite my lip to suppress my moans but a few slip accidentally. This only urges him on and moves his hand down to my panties, rubbing figure-eights on my clit over the thin cloth.
"Fuck," I moan, clenching the sheets as the familiar feeling of euphoria washes over me like a tidal wave.
When my orgasm passes Ashton removes his boxers, revealing his hard-on, and I think, "how in the world will that fit inside of me?"
I get rid of my panties as well, tossing them lazily to the floor. I watch Ashton carefully as he tears open the condom packet with his teeth, and slides the condom onto his cock with ease.
"Are you ready?" Ash asks, leaning over me, supporting his body with his arms over either side of me.
"Yeah, yes," I respond, waiting for the immediate pain to rip through my body.
And it does.
As soon as Ash slides into me, I let out a whimper and my eyes fill with tears.
"Fuck, Ella, baby, I can stop if you need me to?"
"No," I mutter, screwing my eyes shut to avoid the tears from falling. "Just move, please."
He obliges, pulling out, only to push back on. The pain isn't as bad but it's still there and it's all I can think about, other than the fact that I ditched my friends to lose my virginity.
Ashton lets out moans and grunts of pleasure and I run my hand through his long hair, tugging gently, as I know that turns him on as well.
After ten more minutes of a slow pace, I realize it isn't going to give Ashton his orgasm. Despite the pain, I ask him to go faster.
He doesn't hesitate, quickly thrusting in and out. "Fuck," he groans, leaning down to suckle on my neck. "You feel so amazing, baby."
He hits a spot, sending a shock of pleasure through my body. I moan, clasping my hands around his neck, pulling him closer to me, our bodies molding perfectly together.
Even though I don't have a second orgasm, Ashton has his first. He muffles his moans with his face pressed to my neck, mumbling profanities. His thrusts still, until he finally lifts himself from me.
After removing the condom, he walks to the bathroom connected to the bedroom and flushes it down the toilet.
"Ash," I croak, my throat dry.
"Baby?"
"Not sure you're supposed to do that," I chuckle.
He grins, walking over to the bed and begins to put his clothes on. I stand up and do the same.
I notice a small splotch of blood on the bedsheets and my face reddens. But I don't think Ashton notices because of the deep red sheets, so I don't say anything.
"Thank you, baby," Ashton says after we finish changing. He dips down to swiftly press a kiss to my burning cheeks.
"For what?" I ask.
"For letting me be your first," he says, smiling down at me. "It's cheesy, but I feel so honored."
"I'm glad you were my first," I reply, grinning.
"You don't regret it?" He wonders out loud.
"Nope, and I never will," I giggle, standing up on my tiptoes to kiss him on the lips. The movement causes a painful ache between my thighs but I ignore the temporary feeling.
"I better get over to the girls, I told them I was just using the restroom."
"I suppose you'd better go then. Luke and Mikey and Cal will think I died," he chuckles, rolling his eyes at the thought.
"I'll see you tomorrow then?" I ask, remembering that tomorrow is homecoming night, and Ashton agreed to spend it with me.
"Of course, baby girl."
I kiss him goodbye once more, lingering on his lips. Ash and I head upstairs together, but part ways at the front door.
The moon is full and out in the open, fog settling over the sky. Rocks crunch beneath my feet as I walk home and the air is calm, hardly any wind.
I can't believe what I've just done. I wasn't a virgin anymore, and if a year ago someone told me I would lose my virginity to a troublesome Australian boy, I would've laughed in their face and told them to go see a doctor. But did I regret having sex with Ashton? Not one bit.
-