The truth hurts doesn't it?
I woke up in a cold sweat. Sitting up, I gasped for breath. Charlie's words echoed in my head over and over. If what she said ended up being the truth, it did hurt...a lot. It killed me thinking about all of the little things I thought was our little secret. Our paradise by the bay sitting under the willow tree. So many memories were held at that spot; our first date, he asked me to be his girlfriend, our first kiss, he said 'I love you' and knowing Charlie somehow managed to know about that place bothered me.
I glanced down at a sleeping Ashton. His arm wrapped loosely around my waist, a smug smile tugging at his lips. I laid back down on the bed releasing the blanket that I had apparently been gripping on to and turned to face my sleeping beauty. Lifting my hand up to his face, I brushed away a curly strand of hair falling over his eyes.
He looked so relaxed. There was no crease in his forehead, no furrowed eyebrows, just pure relaxation.
My fingers moved from his hair to his lips, tracing their defined lines where the pink met his tanned skin. His eyes fluttered open and he looked at me groggily, the smug smile getting wider.
"Hi," he said. His morning voice was attractive in a weird way. It was an octave deeper and had more of a raspier sound to it.
"Hi," I replied, feeling my lips curve upwards. I bit one side of them, hopefully hiding my attraction to this new, unheard voice of his.
"I think I could get used to this." He smirked, letting out a groan as he stretched his arms and legs out and arched his back to release of the sleepiness. My mouth went dry at the sound and I quickly swallowed.
"Get used to what?" I asked.
"Waking up next to you every morning."
"Don't think this is going to be a regular thing," I said half-jokingly. As much as I loved waking up to his face, I felt like it was too skanky to be having my boyfriend stay the night at my place when I was still only in high school. I also didn't want him thinking this was an open gate to get to do some...things with me. Thankfully he'd been respectful of my one rule to take things slow when we first started being labeled as 'boyfriend and girlfriend' since he was my first and only boyfriend.
"Why not?" He laid on his side, propping his head on his elbow and stared into my brown eyes as I stared into his brown-green ones.
"Won't your mom be bothered at the fact that her high school son is sleeping over his high school girlfriend's house?" I said like it was obvious that we were too young to do such a thing.
He laughed. "I'm not talking about right now. I'm talking like a few years from now when high school is over with and when we're in university." I smiled to myself at the thought he was thinking about the future, as if me going back to the states wasn't going to complicate us and our relationship. "Plus, I've done it before anyways." I saw him instantly regret it as he sucked in a deep breath. I automatically had a feeling he was talking about Charlie's sister, Casey.
"Oh," is all I managed to reply with.
"Babe," he sighed, reaching his hand out and rested it on mine which was laying in between our bodies, entwining them together. "That was over a year ago."
"How long did you guys date for?" I whispered, unable to keep eye contact with him as I spoke.
"Juliette, does it matter? She's nothing compared to you. You're amazing and quirky and beautiful. The list could really go on forever."
"I'm just curious to know what your past relationships were like considering we've never had the past girlfriends talk." I shrugged.
"I didn't think it was important," he shrugged back.
"It kind of is, Ashton." I huffed and rolled on my back to stare at the ceiling. Sometimes I looked at a ceiling like I was looking at a starry sky since some of them had that bumpy effect. I found it relaxing.
"Babe." He reached his arm on my stomach, his hand holding a soft grip to the side of my waist as he dragged me back to his chest. I didn't resist, I couldn't. I was putty in his hands when we touched. Even the lightest brush of our hands made me go wild.
"Casey and I were together for nine months."
"As long as it takes a baby to be born." I added. Why did I say that?
He gave me a look like I was weird to comparing it to that of all things. "Yeah..." Then his eyes widened. "Oh, God Jules! I didn't get her pregnant if that's what you're saying?"
"No! I didn't mean it like that! I was just...I don't know." Why are you so awkward? I thought to myself.
He gave me a nervous look before he proceeded. "Anyways," he chuckled out. "Nine months. She and I were closer than Charlie and I were and we just kind of thought 'hey why not?'. We practically knew everything about each other. We were best friends. We hung out all the time but that didn't faze us really since it was what we did anyways. The only thing that changed was that we kissed and..." I put my hand to his mouth quickly before he could go on.
I looked up at his eyes and saw them smile, along with the movement of his lips under my hand. I didn't know what he was laughing at because I didn't find any of this amusing. Imagining Ashton with another girl bothered me even though I should have expected it, him and his model-like looks and all. How could anyone resist?
"Are there any other girls?" I asked quietly, trying to hide my irritation. I removed my hand to allow him to speak.
"That I've dated or done stuff with?" I rolled my eyes and moved off the bed.
"I don't know, you chose. Whichever you've done more of with." I snapped, heading to the bathroom. I heard a thud as his feet hit floor and padded their way to me. I tried to speed walk faster but his long legs had an advantage and caught up to me in seconds.
His large hand grabbed my wrist and spun me around to face him. I was too focused on getting to the bathroom to notice my eyes were burning with tears. He released my wrist to wipe away a tear but I stepped back.
"Jules..." he groaned, stepping forward.
"Am I just another girl you want to do stuff with?" I snapped. Charlie's words came into my mind again. Caleb and Ashton are great in bed. "Did you sleep with Charlie?" I blurted out unaware he was even talking.
"What?" He said, taken aback. The confusion clear on his face.
"You heard me."
"Why the hell would you say something like that? We're friends but we were never anything more." Those words sounded all too familiar. He never believed me when I said them about Luke, so why should I believe him about Charlie?
"You're pathetic." I turned on my heel and walked into the bathroom, locking it as I closed it shut Leaning against it, I went through the conversation again. Was I too harsh? I didn't really give him a chance to explain himself but hearing that he's fooled around with other girls didn't help this situation at all. Was Charlie one of those girls?
Why the hell would he say it like that? That I've dated or done stuff with? Were there girls he had little flings with but never made anything official between them? How many girls were there?
I was interrupted when I heard him knock a couple times. "Juliette, open the door." I was too annoyed to answer. He sighed. "Juliette, babe. Just tell me who told you that. Was it Luke?" The way he said Luke sounded like he was talking about complete trash and human waste.
I stood up from the door and faced it, debating whether to open it or not. Deciding not to, I just replied, "Why does everything have to be Luke's fault!?" I was stunned he hadn't caught on to the fact that it was Charlie who told me this and everything else I was about to nag him about.
"Babe, open the door. This is ridiculous." The door twitched and I imagined him sprawling his hand against it, leaning on it for support. If I talked to him face to face, I would burst into tears or be too distracted by his face to stand my ground.
"No," I said.
"Who told you I slept with Charlie?" He asked again.
"Who do you think!"
"I don't..." He paused and I finally dawned on him. "Jesus Christ," he muttered under his breath. "Juliette, please believe me when I say that that never happened." All of the anger and annoyance that was in his voice a moment earlier suddenly vanished and it sounded somewhat like desperation.
Sighing, I opened the door causing him to step forward to keep from falling. "That's not all she told me, Ash." I said and walked past him back to the bed.
I sat on the edge of it and he joined me. Inching away, I kept my distance. The slight touch of our arms would easily cause me to lose my focus on this situation.
"What else did she tell you, babe?" His voice was soft, but I knew he was anxious.
"How does she know about the meadow?" How the hell did she know anything? I felt my eyes start to burn again.
"The one from our first date?"
I nodded. "She said she knew you would say that no one knew about that spot to make it more special. Same thing with the jet skis. Were those all lies?" My voice cracked. Why was I hurting so bad over something so small?
"Juliette, everything I said was true. The only people that know about that spot are me and the band. Charlie's only been there once." I was about to ask why but he started talking again. "Before my dad left us he...he would take me there. We would go fly some shit kite he had me make. That was before he started getting on the wrong track. Charlie went once when we were little, like year one little."
"But how would she know you would say that? That no one knew about it?"
He buried his face in his hands and leaned back against the bed whilst letting out a sigh. "Charlie and I were close this winter vacation, you know that. One day we were talking about relationships and special dates we would want to do and go on when we found the one. I told her where I would take someone I truly loved there and share that experience with them."
"Why didn't you take Casey?"
"Casey was different. She wasn't as emotional and heartfelt as you are. I knew she wouldn't feel that specialty it like how you feel towards it."
"How did Charlie know about the jet skis?"
"It was her parents Christmas gift to us a while ago and I also told her that was one date I wanted to take a girl on. I never thought they'd almost drown though." I glanced up and saw him smirking at the mention on how I flew into the water and practically almost died on our second date.
"How did you know I would be the one to do all of these things with?"
"That moment when I walked into Mrs. Elling's class and saw you gawking at me, I could just tell you were the girl. You were the one."
"Every girl gawks at you," I stated.
"You were innocent when you did it though. Well you still are." He chuckled.
Ashton actually explained himself. There was no doubt in my mind he was shying away from something but to be sure I asked, "So that's how Charlie knows everything?"
"Yeah but she shouldn't have said it that way and she definitely shouldn't have fucking said I slept with her."
"She said you and Caleb were good in bed," I murmured. He slid next to me to close the space between us and wrapped his arm around the small of my back. I laid my head on his broad shoulder and embraced his comforting gesture.
"Juliette, Charlie is the last person I would ever do anything with."
"She shouldn't even be on your list of people to do things with. Actually, no one should" I snapped kind of jokingly but I heard him laugh.
"What about Jennifer Lawrence?"
"Nope, not even her."
"Aw c'mon. A guy's gotta have his fantasies." I sat up from his shoulder and shot him a look which only added to his amusement. His bottom lip, caught in between his teeth trying to stop the grin that was tugging at his lips. Shaking his head, he laughed and the arm that was wrapped around my waist pulled me sideways onto his lap so I was now straddling him.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and stared down at him, getting lost in his eyes. His large hands reached up to cup my face and he tilted his chip up so our lips met. They were soft and tender against mine. His tongue slowly started to make its way in but I pulled away.
His already swollen lips pouted as he gave me a worried look to see if I was alright. "What happened?"
"We need to brush our teeth."
"What?"
I got off his lap and walked to the bathroom. "Jules, you can't be serious." He laughed but I was. The thought of making out with morning breath grossed me out.
I leaned against the door frame of the bathroom and gestured my hand for him to come. "Come on." I smiled.
He chucked to himself and pushed his body off the bed making his way over to the sink. I opened a spare toothbrush and handed it to him.
"You're so weird," he said when we finished and rinsed our brushes.
"I'm weird yes, but we can go back to where we were now that we're clean." I smiled and he returned it. His strong arms hugged around my waist as mine wrapped around his the nape of his neck. Our lips made contact again and the sparks were magical. Kissing Ashton always shot those firework feelings through me. His hands moved from my back, skimming my behind and made their way to the back of my thighs so he could lift me up. I automatically wrapped my legs around his lower waist as he guided us to my bed.
(yes I know Australia has winter when I have summer. so when he says winter vacation just try to go along and think it's summer vacation even though they don't have school in December...ugh ugh ugh. comment and vote please!:))