I walk down our street, doing my best to get home as fast as I can. It had been a long day of work and school, getting home and into bed was all I could think about.
"Hey, Kels." Nina smiles, walking out the front door as I approach the house.
"Hey, didn't your class start an hour ago?" I laugh, as she takes her time making her walk to the bus stop.
"Yeah! But fuck it, right? I'll make it for the class after." She giggles, looking back at me before she continues her walk.
I just shake my head at her, walking into the house. Kyle is sitting on the couch, getting some school work done on his laptop.
"Hey, Kels. I'm about to start a new show after I answer this last question. Should I watch That 70s Show because you and Michael are always talking about it, or do I rewatch The Office?"
"You can't watch That 70s Show yet because you're going to get ahead of me!" I whine, laughing as I sit next to him.
He playfully rolls his eyes, "I'll probably end up rewatching Parks and Rec for the millionth time anyways."
"You've rewatched that show, like, three times since I've met you." I laugh.
"It's so good!" He replies, trying to defend the fact he's watched the show too many times.
"Kelsey? Is that you?" Ashton yells from his room, and I laugh as I roll my eyes.
"Yeah!" I call back.
"Can you come talk to me please!"
I groan, jokingly roll my eyes as I lightly chuckle, pulling myself up off the couch. Ashton kept yelling my name until I show up in his bedroom doorway.
"Hey!" He smiles, "Come sit?"
I make my way over to his bed, sitting across from him, "What's up?"
"So, there's this girl-"
"This is why you were yelling at me?" I question, somewhat annoyed.
"Yes, but it's serious!"
"You say that every time. But it never is." I laugh.
"Yeah, okay, maybe it's not that serious. Like, I wanna have sex with her and yeah, maybe she's like, really hot-"
"Is this another wannabe Instagram model?" I question, wanting to know just a bit more about her.
"Obviously. I only fuck Instagram models. Who do you think I am?" He jokes, looking at me as if he's never been more offended.
"I beg to differ, that last girl that was here was so not!" Kyle calls as he walks by Ashton's room.
"She was hot, just not 'in a few months I'll be selling some weird tea for money on Instagram' hot!" Ashton yells back.
"Okay, you two, that's enough!" I interrupt this conversation, because it's clearly not that nice.
"Sorry, I got carried away. But yeah, she's hot. What do I do tonight?"
"You should know what to do by now!"
"But I actually like her!"
"Oh..." I smirk, "I see."
"Fuck!" He complains, almost immediately regretting saying anything.
"Aw, Ashton, tell me!" I tell him, moving closer to him.
"She's so pretty, Kelsey, and she came to our party a few days ago and she was flirting with me and yeah like, we made out but like-"
"Ash!" I interrupt.
"Yeah?" He questions.
"Hey, be yourself, Ashton. You're adorable, how could she say no to you?" I giggle, leaning over and pinching his cheeks.
Ashton swats my hands away, leaning back as he groans, "Kels!"
"Sorry, sorry. But seriously, you rarely take my advice when you ask. You're clearly off to a good start with the girl, you'll be okay."
He sighs, "I guess. But I will be coming to you with this again, I hope you know that."
I nod, "I know."
"So, enough about my love life. How's yours?"
"Michael and I are the same, I'd come to you if anything were to change." I chuckle.
"We never talked about you spending the night there."
"What about it? Nothing really happened, Ash. You know how I feel about... that." I tell him, looking down in embarrassment.
"Not just that! You just rarely spend the night there in general, and you've been together for six months."
"I- I know. You know that I had to start this relationship off slow. I just- I've had a hard time progressing." I tell him, a small frown on my lips. It's not that I don't want to make progress with Michael, I do. I just feel like I can't. It's hard to.
"It's because of... you know who, right?"
"No. Well, I don't know."
"It's okay if you're still not over him completely. You were married."
"It's been so long..." I trail off, unable to look at him.
"That's fine. As long as you aren't still completely in love with him. If you are, what you're doing to Michael fucking sucks."
"No! No, oh my god, I'm not in love with Luke anymore." I quietly exclaim, not sure why he'd even suggest that at this point. It's been over two years since I found he cheated.
Ashton raises his hands in surrender, "I'm sorry! I was just asking. We haven't talked about him in a while."
"Yeah, because I'm happy with Michael and if I talk too much about Luke I begin to overthink everything and it's just not good for me."
"Come here. I know you don't want to because Michael, but, come here." He weakly smiles, waiting for me to crawl across the bed so I can curl up in his arms.
"It's just hard sometimes, you know? I just wish he'd sign the papers." I sigh, cuddling into him.
"We'll figure it out, okay? We'll make sure you're divorced before you graduate at the end of this school year."
I nod, trying to not think much about the fact I'm going to do my best to get divorced. Every time I thought about divorcing Luke it made me feel so ridiculous. Also, completely embarrassed.
"Thanks, Ashton. I'm just going to do my best to not think about Luke or any of that for a while." I tell him.
He nods, "Good. He's not important."
I don't reply, I just try to get more comfortable, just wanting to sleep.
Ashton quietly giggles, "Take a nap, Kels. Get it off your mind."
I quietly hum, already half asleep.
-
"Kelsey! Come here!" Ashton calls from the couch as I walk out of the kitchen.
I give him a confused look, but go sit next to him anyways, "What?"
"I don't know. I just want you to hang out."
Groaning, I roll my eyes, "I have homework to get done."
"I'm more important."
"I think passing so I can graduate is."
My phone beeps in my hand, signalling I got a text. When I read Kiana's name a small smile appears on my face. It's been a little since we last talked.
"Fuck." I mutter under my breath, after reading the text.
"What?" Ashton questions, looking up at me.
"Huh? Oh, nothing. Kiana sent me a text that her and Calum are coming to LA. I'll probably end up seeing them."
"Oh, nice! It's been a while, right?" Ashton smiles,
"Yeah... nice." I mumble, letting out a deep breath.
It's nice catching up with her. I love her, she's great. But I haven't seen her in person in a while. And I haven't seen Calum since the first Christmas break away at college, it's been almost three years. He's still friends with Luke, I'm sure. Seeing them is going to be hard on me.
"When are they coming?" He asks.
"Uh, she says next week. Oh my god, that's not enough time for me to prep." I mumble, not sure what I'm supposed to do.
"Nice! I'd love to meet Calum. Kiana too, but I've met her on FaceTime a couple times." He laughs, looking over at me.
"Oh. I don't know if I want to bring them here. I'm worried about seeing them." I reply.
"I get it." He nods.
I sigh, "I'll figure it out. I do need to see them. I'll deal with it later."
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hey!!! I hope this is like, going well. also, I put a playlist in the first part lil blurb thing of the book, but I'm gonna post it in a separate part along w the cast of who I picture each person as and some info on them!!! should be up shortly so u can go back and check that out soon ok thanks!!!!