Chapter 49-
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The look on Ashton's face was priceless as Kevin screamed out the words to 'All I Want For Christmas is You' in the back seat. I usually would be covering my ears from the noise, but I couldn't help but laugh at his expression.
Ashton reached over and turned the music off, to which I immediately turned it back on. He looked over at me and I sent him a challenging look, smirking as he sighed. He reached one more time to turn it off, but I took his hand in mine and laced my fingers through his as I brought it down.
"Let the man sing," I told him, holding back a laugh. He chuckled and shook his head.
"You really know how to get on my nerves, Summers," he said, and I responded with a proud smile.
The whole time this was happening, Kevin was screeching the high notes at the end. I winced at the horrid sound.
When we rolled into the parking lot, we found two open spots next to each other. Looking over into their car, I noticed Savannah and Justin in the back seat laughing together. I mean, I ship it.
"Thank god," Ashton muttered, referring to Kevin finally shutting up now that we were here. He really was like a five year old, wasn't he?
Kevin hopped out of the car, and I turned to look at Ashton.
"Remember what I said.. promise you won't start anything" I said, referring to our conversation earlier about Justin.
"I don't make promises I can't keep," he replied, slightly smiling as he opened his door. This was going to be an interesting day.
* * *
"Water isn't wet, end of discussion." I said firmly.
The group was waiting for Savannah and Scarlett to get out of the bathroom. I would've gone too but I was in the middle of a serious debate.
"Agree to disagree," Ashton retorted.
"Are you literally dense?! Water makes things wet but it isn't wet within itself-"
"Nope, it's wet," he cut me off. My eyes narrowed into slits. Just as I was about to come back at him, Justin interrupted.
"Oh, hey, about yesterday," he started. The playful look in Ashton's eyes immediately disappeared as he looked over at Justin.
"We're cool, right?" He asked, smiling.
"Why wouldn't we be?" Ashton replied with a clenched jaw and a fake smile.
"Well that's a relief.. thanks for understanding dude," He added, giving him a light 'bro' punch on the shoulder.
"Of course, dude," Ashton responded, punching him back on his shoulder a little too hard. Justin was a slightly caught off guard, but just smiled and walked away.
I sent him a warning look and he responded with a clueless, innocent shrug. Rolling my eyes, I slung my arm through his and started walking with the group now that they were out.
It was pretty cold, but I could feel Ashton's body heat radiating through me. I couldn't help but smile as our steps crunched in the snow.
We spent a few hours just walking and talking and eating food from various venders set up. My personal favorite was the caramel apples that we all shared.
By the time it had gotten dark out, we decided we were finally ready to go. As I was walking behind the rest of the group, I felt Ashton wrap his arms around my waist and hug me from behind. I let out a startled giggle as he kissed my cheek.
I spun around and gave him a short, sweet kiss before taking both his hands in mine and pulling him along, letting a wide grin spread on my face.
He looked genuinely happy, and as I remembered the hard, cold Ashton I had met at the start of the year, I felt my heart grow warmer. We really did fix each other, didn't we?
Or maybe we just learned to embrace how broken we both were.
Either way, my life was definitely much better with him in it.
Tired of walking, I went around him and hopped on his back. Like I said- free piggy back rides were part of the boyfriend contract..
I kissed the back of his neck and behind his ear as he walked, letting myself tease him. I mean, he hadn't pulled anything with Justin.. I figured I could reward him a little.
"Ashton, bro, you've gotten so soft," Kevin chuckled as we all arrived at the cars. He put me down and I walked around to the passenger side.
"You wanna find out how soft my fist is?" Ashton threatened, deadpanning him.
"Appealing offer but I'll have to pass," Kevin responded, getting in the car.
"Sing like that on the way back and I swear to god Kevin-" Ashton started.
"So you admit it was singing," Kevin pointed out smugly I looked at Ashton with a look that said 'he's got a point'. He sighed.
"Whatever the hell it was, if you do it again I'll pound you when we get back," he threatened.
"Nah, I'll leave that to Crys," Kevin said and I choked on air. He immediately broke into laughter and Ashton shook his head as he let out a small laugh.
The car ride back consisted of slightly less singing from Kevin, but still enough to annoy Ashton.
"How come I always get stuck driving with you?" Ashton asked him when we got out at the house. Kevin slung his arm over Ashton's shoulder, smiling at him.
"Love ya too, pal," he said and I chuckled to myself as we walked to the door.
We spent the rest of the night laughing and playing various drinking games. None of us were drunk but we were certainly buzzed.
We decided to take a break around midnight, getting into pajamas and whatnot. I hadn't changed yet when I saw Ashton out sitting on the porch.
When I walked outside, he looked up at me and smiled from the chair.
"It's so pretty out here at night," I said, leaning on the railing.
"Yeah," his eyes scanned over my face. "It really is." My heart fluttered.
"Real smooth," I told him, waking over to the chair and standing in between his legs. "Maybe Kev was right, you are getting soft," I teased and ruffled his hair, turning to walk back over to the railing.
"Hey," he grabbed me by my belt loops on my jeans and pulled me back towards him unexpectedly, causing me to fall onto him while letting out a shocked giggle. "Don't try me, Summers," he threatened with his eyes, smirking down at me.
"Or what?" I smirked back, reaching up with my right hand and traced along the side of his face. I was lying across his lap sideways, one of his hands on the bottom of my head and the other gripping my waist.
He leaned down and planted a soft kiss on my neck as I sat up a little taller, taking in a sharp breath. I bit my lip as he continued, making me feel immobile.
I broke away and made eye contact with him, temporarily getting lost in his eyes before I turned around to straddle him. Leaning back in, he let one of his hands wander down to the small of my back as the other went to the back of my neck.
The kiss had started out slow, but grew in intensity as it went on. I gently bit his ear and I felt him shutter under me, making me grin. He reached up the sides of my shirt and massaged my sides, making it feel like my insides were on fire- despite the cold night.
"I wish we were alone," his voice was deep as he spoke against my skin, and I bit my lip.
"Me too," I breathed out, subconsciously pressing my body further into his.
"I'll make up for it when we get back," he spoke again, and a tingly sensation went down my spine at it.
"You better," I flirted back, and he grinned as I returned my lips to his, softly bringing his bottom lip between my teeth.
I began hearing faint sounds of people kissing that weren't our own, and broke apart from him to look around us. Obviously not hearing them, he shot me a confused look.
We quietly got up from the chair and peered around the corner of the cabin, to find the silhouettes of two people making out against the side of the house.
It didn't take us long to realize that the silhouettes belonged to Scarlett and Eli.
We shot back around the corner and looked at each other surprised, holding back our laughter. We went inside and finally let it out, not quite grasping what we just saw.
"Well then, I'll be mentioning that to her tomorrow," I said, calming down my laughter.
We went into my room, considering Scarlett was preoccupied at the moment and my room was therefore empty.
"So we're leaving tomorrow," I said, plopping down on the bed.
"Yup," he said, not sounding disappointed in the slightest.
"So I take it you had a good time?" I joked sarcastically.
"I did," he said sincerely. "But I don't think I can hold back from Justin much longer.. I mean seriously. The guy admits to kissing my girlfriend and then thinks he can just shoot me a smile and everything's fine?" He said, making me chuckle.
"I doubt anyone's ever let him have it," he added.
"He's not a bad guy, Ash," I told him and rubbed his arm. For being so mature he was acting pretty damn immature. It was kinda cute tho..
"Well according to everyone I am a bad guy, so I don't really care," he said and I let out a laugh.
"I had you pegged as a hidden softy from day one, you might have been an ass but you never had me fooled," I told him, and he scoffed.
"Trust me, I haven't shown you how bad I can be," he said, sitting upright with a playfully threatening glance.
"Trust me, neither have I," I fired back, and he shot me a casually surprised and enticed grin.
Just as I started feeling the magnetic pull between us, I hear someone at the door. I looked up to see Scarlett looking at us with a slightly embarrassed smile, Eli right behind her.
Ashton kissed me on the cheek and hopped off the bed, strolling towards the door.
"Atta boy," Ashton said as he walked by Eli, ruffling his hair. He pushed Ashton's hand away and chuckled. Eli awkwardly said goodnight to Scarlett and followed Ashton to their room.
Scarlett shut the door and turned to face me, letting out a squeal and running over to me on the bed before plopping down next to me.
"Scarlett!" I said as she giggled.
"Oh my GOD he's such a good kisser!!!" She squeaked, sitting up and looking at me with an eager look- clearly about to spill everything.
"He's so nice and sweet and it doesn't feel like he's just tryna get in my pants- like I get he has that history with girls or whatever but it just feels so different this time.. He's just so.. UGH!" She word vomited, making me laugh.
"And Savanah with Justin!? What the hell?" She added. "She literally hasn't said anything to me about any of it."
"Seems like a Savanah thing to do," I chuckled and she agreed.
"She plays things wayy too chill sometimes," she chuckled lovingly and laid back down. A few moments passed before I broke the silence.
"He told me he loved me," I told her. She shot up and for a second I thought she fell off the bed.
"WHAT?!" She screamed. I laughed and shushed her.
"Ashton, he told me he loved me," I said with a small smile, feeling the cloud charm around my neck.
"And did you tell him you love him back?" She asked, urging the story forward.
"Yes," I said. A strange feeling struck in me. I felt off.
"Do you?" She asked, sensing my weird vibe.
"Yea, I really do," I replied sincerely.
"Then why does it sound like you don't?" She asked in a sincere tone.
"Because, I don't know," I shrugged, "I guess I'm just afraid to love someone.." I stuttered out. I felt weird being vulnerable.
"Why?" She asked. I could tell she was trying to comfort me, even though she didn't know what was wrong.
"I don't know I just, like, every time I've loved someone it's gone to shit, you know? It's almost like I'm cursed or something. Everyone I've loved is just, gone," my voice faded into a whisper at the end. I felt a single tear fall down my face as I stared over at my door.
I could tell she didn't quite know what to say. I've never shown this side of me to Scarlett. Or to anyone, really, besides Ashton that is.
She reached over and hugged me, tight. It was exactly what I needed in that moment. I cried into her hair.
"If it makes you feel any better, from what Eli's told me," she leaned away to look me in the eyes, "you've made Ashton's life worth living. No matter what your past is, you aren't a curse to him... Your a blessing."
• • •
Heyyy everyone!
Sorry this update took so long, this week was whack-shit crazy.. I have this next week off of classes though so expect some updates!
QOTD: Who's your favorite author?
>>> J.K. Rowling!!! She really created an entire universe with her mind and creativity.. she's magic
EDIT, JUNE 2020: just found out that J.K. Rowling is extremely and outwardly transphobic so I officially unstan... it was pretty unexpected news tbh :/ but so I guess my favorite author is Patrick Ness or Cassandra Clare.
I love you alllll so much!
Stay beautiful,
Briella <3