L
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Crystal's POV***
"I mean seriously. I leave for 5 minutes and he goes and gets himself arrested," I heard Kevin say when Eli opened the door. Ashton and I were in the living room, and he chuckled to himself.
When Kevin came into the room, I got up to give him a hug, and he lifted me in the air for a second before looking at Ashton and laughing, putting me back down. Ashton rolled his eyes.
"Nice face," Kevin laughed again and pointed at his scraped-up appearance. Ashton narrowed his eyes at him.
"Wanna match?" He threatened, but all Kevin did was plop down on the couch next to him and go to pinch his cheek- but Ashton obviously pushed his hand away before he could even get close.
"My little angsty-ash," Kevin joked, and I squished myself in between them on the couch- partially to keep Ashton from shoving Kevin and partially because I simply wanted to. Kevin naturally slung his arm over my shoulders and I giggled as he pulled me into him.
I've always loved Ashton and Kevin's relationship. Usually Ash couldn't stand people who acted like Kevin, but for some reason he had such a soft spot for him. It made me smile to think about.
"Hey hey hey, not your turn," Kevin said over to Ashton when he tried to take Kevin's arm off of me to bring me into his side instead. I laughed as Ashton shot him an incredulous look.
"She's my girlfriend," he told him.
"Yeah, thanks to me," Kevin replied smugly, and I looked at Ashton as if to say 'he's got you there'. I leaned more into Kevin and Ashton raised an eyebrow at me, making me chuckle again. "You hated her," Kevin reminded him.
"Hate's a strong word-"
"He was just awed beyond his wits when he first saw me, he didn't know what to do with himself," I said up to Kevin, and he went with it, nodding in agreement. Ashton sighed again.
"You two are the worst together," Ashton mumbled. I brought up my legs and laid them across his lap since it was comfortable. He naturally rested his arms on them.
"Thank you, we try," I grinned up at him, and then Layla came in with Jake.
"What's up little man?" Kevin greeted Jake, who's eyes lit up as he jogged over and did their little handshake with him.
When Layla walked over to the chair Eli was sitting on and sat down on his lap, Kevin looked over at Ashton to see his reaction, and I did too. Expectedly, he grunted and rolled his eyes.
"Can you guys not?" He asked them, but Layla raised her eyebrows, amusedly challenged. She was too much like Ashton to grant that request.
"Not what?" She mused, keeping eye contact with Ashton while moving closer to Eli and wrapping her arms around his neck, but he quickly took them off of him with an awkward smile- not particularly wanting to get on Ashton's nerves at the moment.
"Okay so what's the game plan?" Kevin chimed back in.
"You guys just say how great of a dad I am, and I keep my kids," Ashton replied, and Layla tsked at being called his kid.
"You're only one of our daddy's, though," Kevin joked back, ruffling Jake's hair.
"Layla, too," Ashton corrected. "What's up with my friends forgetting that she's not 18 yet?" He mused and shot a little look at Eli, who smiled awkwardly in response.
"I was talk about Crys," Kevin explained, and I choked on air- Ashton sighing as Eli laughed and Layla let out an 'ew'.
"You're a ridiculous human," Ashton told him.
"I take that as a compliment," Kevin smiled and then took his arm off of me to stand up. "Okay, here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna play judge and you answer my questions," he told Ashton.
"That's such a stupid idea."
"What's your favorite color?"
"What?"
"Are you refusing to answer the question?"
"Wh- Kevin what the fu-"
"Guilty!!" Kevin proclaimed, and Ashton looked up at him dumbfounded.
"Next try. Why did you do it, sir?" Kevin started again, and Ashton reluctantly decided to go with it. "Why did you hospitalize that guy?"
"Because he's a piece of shit," Ashton replied, and Kevin gave him the 'mom' look. Ashton sighed, "because he threatened me?" He made up, and Kevin switched his expression to a 'proud mom' look.
"That's it. Fake it till ya make it," Kevin replied, and I decided to get us all some water.
Ashton went to say something to me as I stood up, but Kevin yelled at him, demanding his attention back as the 'judge'. I chuckled to myself and went to the kitchen.
Only Ashton and Layla knew about what George did to me. The rest just thought that Ashton beat him up again from the first time George had tried to have his way with me. Maybe I'd tell them one day, but not now. All I wanted now was at least some form of normalcy.
As I was getting our drinks, I heard Kevin and Layla randomly start to argue about whether or not The Lion King was the best Disney movie. Arguments between them two were always funny, and pretty unconventional, as I'm sure you could probably imagine.
As I was finishing getting the last drink, I heard someone come in the kitchen with me, and a few moments later felt Ashton wrap his arms around my waist from behind and bring me into him. I smiled to myself and leaned into the embrace, always loving when he did that.
"You ready for tomorrow?" I asked him, softly caressing his arm as he held me, his chin resting on the top of my head.
"Nope," he replied, and I turned around, his arms still looped around me as I faced him. With a small smile, I went on my tip-toes and planted a sweet kiss on his lips.
"Yes, you are," I corrected, and he gave me a sad little smile.
If you hadn't caught on yet, tomorrow was his custody hearing. I tried to hide my underlying anxiety at the thought of a court room, but obviously knowing Ashton and his annoyingly-observant ass, he caught it.
"The last time you were in a court room was when you had to testify against your brother.. wasn't it?" He asked, and I looked up from the ground to give him a small nod. "Are you sure you should be going tomorrow?"
"What? Yes, of course," I replied, not planning on letting myself abandon him. "You need me there and I'll be there."
"I need you to be safe, and comfortable, and happy. That's what I need," he corrected, and I looked up at him again with a sigh. "Hey," he paused to interlock our fingers, "I need you to not put me before you this time," he told me reassuringly.
"I don't want to leave you stranded," I told him, and he shook his head.
"I'll have the others, and plus, this way I'll be able to look forward to seeing you once it's over," he added, and I frowned a little at him. I knew he was probably right. The last thing anyone would want was for me to have a panic attack in the middle of it all. I usually could hide them pretty well but who knows how bad it could be in there... my brother's trial still haunted me to the day.
"I'm sorry," I said honestly.
"Don't be," he spoke softly, leaning in and planting a gentle kiss on my forehead. A small smile worked its way into my lips at the feeling of his warm lips on my skin.
"I'm sorry about last night, too," my smile went away again as I admitted it. He furrowed his brows when he pulled back.
"What do you mean?"
"When you," I paused to gather my thoughts, "when we were kissing and I freaked out," I felt my face heat up a little. "I feel like I'm kind of a broken girlfriend now," I joked painfully, but he just shook his head and tucked some hair behind my ear that had fallen over my face and then moved his hand to cup my face.
"You're the strongest person I know, C. I always have been and always will be lucky to have you with me, kissing or not. Okay?" He told me plain and simple, and I smiled a little.
"Okay," I replied, and he gave me an impressed smile, both of us knowing that it was the closest I had ever gotten to feeling like what he said was actually true.
He leaned down and brought his lips to mine, and I brought my hands up to the sides of his face as he moved his to my back to pull me in a bit closer. I smiled into the slow kiss, but didn't break it. We went on for a few minutes, tuning out Kevin and Layla in the other room as we were engulfed in each other. When we finally pulled away, he had that twinkle in his eyes that I loved so much.
"You know, you make these moments when shit is hard just feel like the sad middle of a movie that has a happy ending," he told me when he pulled away, and his casual words flooded my heart with warmth. "Shit- was I just unintentionally cheesy?" He asked and cringed a little. I chuckled.
"Totally," I replied cheekily and returned my lips to his.
"Ewww," Jake said when he came into the kitchen and saw us. I pulled away to laugh as Ashton turned his head to look at him.
"Go back in the other room, Jake," Ashton told him with a smile.
"But Eli and Layla are doing the same thing," he complained, and Ashton's smile immediately fell. Jake only lasted a few seconds before he broke into laughter, "gotcha," he pointed at Ashton and continued to laugh his little butt off.
"You think you're funny, huh?" Ashton chuckled and let go of me to walk over and scoop up Jake, throwing him over his shoulder. Jake was laughing and shrieking as Ashton then play-wrestled with him on the ground.
"Crystal help!" Jake laughed as Ashton tickled him, and I went along with it, rushing over and kneeling down next to them to pull Ashton off of him, but my laughter left me vulnerable as Ashton turned around and pulled me tightly into him, basically restricting my movements completely.
The distraction let Jake scramble out from under him, though, and tackle him back down to the ground. I cheered Jake on as he kept trying to pin Ashton down, who was laughing hysterically under him. Somehow, though, Ashton found a way to bring us both back into a tight hold, and the both of us struggled to break away from his strong arms with all our laughter.
"Well that's one way to keep custody," Kevin joked when he walked in and saw Ashton practically strangling the two of us on the ground. He laughed and let us go as he stood up, only for Jake to then pounce on me to try and pin me down. I let out an unexpected shriek and laugh.
"Traitor!" I yelled, and Jake kept giggling as I tried to tickle him to get him off of me.
"Break it up you two rascals," Kevin chimed in and plucked Jake up off of me, holding him over his shoulder. I watched as he brought Jake back into the living room, and by what I could hear, dump him onto the couch and sit directly on top of him after.
"Hey," I started, standing up and bringing my hands back to Ashton's waist, "you're not gonna lose custody of him." I assured him, noticing the sad look that had spread on his face when Jake was out of the room.
"I hope you're right," he replied, looking over my sure features.
"I always am," I grinned, and he went to kiss me again, but my phone started ringing.
I saw it was my mom, and pulled out of his embrace to hold it up and show him, too. He gave me one last kiss on the forehead and walked away to go back in the living room.
"Hello," I picked up when I was alone again.
"Hi sweetie, I was just calling to check in and see if you needed me for anything before I go in with Connor- this is going to be sort of a long appointment they just told me and apparently they want me in there this time, so," she replied, and I took a sip of my water, feeling a little dehydrated.
"No I'm good," I replied, then realized that I didn't actually feel very good. Emotionally, I mean. It had been a while since I felt good. I didn't know what the hell made me say it, but something in me did- "actually, um... mom?"
"Yeah?" She responded, and I could hear Connor greeting someone on the other end- presumably the therapist. They were at his scheduled appointment.
"Do they, um, offer therapy to all ages or just kids?" I asked her, fiddling with my shirt to calm my nerves as I talked. I could tell that she seemed to know why I was asking, since she paused before answering.
"Not just kids," she told me, and I nodded even though she couldn't see me. "Why do you ask?" She asked, despite sounding like she already knew. I swallowed the lump in my throat. I was proud of myself for feeling strong enough to ask for help, but that wasn't making it any easier.
"Well, um, I was thinking about starting up therapy again," I tried to comment matter-of-factly, but a few moments of silence followed, and I knew that it was resonating strongly with my mom.
"I think that's a great idea, honey," she said, and I could tell it was through a smile. My lips upturned slightly, despite my nerves still being heightened.
"So, uh, do you think you could ask about setting something up for me? I can pay since you're tight on money and paying for Connor's-"
"Don't be silly, Crystal," she chuckled, "I can pay for it. I'd pay anything and sell my soul if it helped either of you two be happy," she added, and I smiled.
"Well that's a bit intense," I joked, and she laughed. "I love you, mom," I expressed my gratitude, meaning it one hundred times over.
"I love you honey, Connor wants to make cookies tonight so let's do that later," she began wrapping up the call.
"Hell yeah," I agreed and smiled again, "love you, bye."
When we hung up, the small smile stayed on my lips as I grabbed the remaining drinks that Ashton hadn't taken into the living room and made my way back to them all.
Kevin and Layla were aggressively "singing" songs from The Lion King at each other, presumably still arguing about it, and I laughed as I set the drinks down and plopped down next to an exhausted-looking Ashton.
My gaze shifted over to the beer in Eli's hand, and my heart rate picked up slightly. As per usual, though, Ashton must have noticed this, since he reached up to bring me down next to him and offered me the lemonade he had been drinking. I smiled slightly at him and took a sip of it.
He put his arm around me as I leaned into him on the couch, playing with his fingers casually as they rested on my stomach. I looked up at Ashton and smiled to myself before looking over at the rest of them.
It's not like I thought life would be totally easy going forward, or that just because I had these guys the hard times would go away or hurt less... but I did know that no matter how hard things got, we would at least be able to able to rely on the fact that we had each other to turn to.
And that ounce of golden hope had already proven to save me more than once.
I started laughing at the pure ridiculousness that Layla and Kevin always unlocked within each other and saw Ashton smile down at me out of the corner of my eye. He brought me in even closer to him and I gladly let it happen.
A few minutes later, Savanah and Scarlett arrived, and Savannah immediately jumped in on the Lion King argument with equal craziness as the other two.
Yeah.. they were definitely my happy place.
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Hey guys :)
Only a few more chapters left.. shit I don't wanna cry let's not talk about that right now ahhh
QOTD: What's something that you want to learn how to do??
>>> Skateboard!! I've always wanted to learn I just haven't actually committed to it lol
LOVE YOU ALLLLL
stay beautiful,
Briella<3