~*~
Chapter 13 ~*~
ORLANDO, FL - O-Town House
Ashley couldn't believe he was feeling Kirstin's lips on his own. He had wanted
so badly to feel them again, every since their first and last kiss at the prom.
None of them wanted to break the kiss,
but Ashley did it, because he was getting breathless. He opened his eyes and
saw Kirstin licking her lips with her eyes shut. He smiled. He could see the
pleasure on her face. Just by that one kiss, she was that satisfied. She put
a huge smile on her face, ran her hand over her long hair and just then opened
her eyes to meet Ashley’s. They kept staring at each other until Ashley asked:
“Why did you do that? Not that I’m
complaining or anything.” he smirked.
“BeCause I felt like it.”
“You felt like it?”
“Yeah, it felt like the right thing
to do.” She frowned and continued “Why do I have to explain every single thing
to you, Ashley?”
“Because, Kirstin. You don’t talk to
me, you don’t call, nothing. And then you just appear here at my house and kiss
me.”
“You know why I did that Ashley?” he
just shook his head “I was thinking about this whole situation on my way here
to Florida. I ran away from you 2 years ago, almost 3 now, and then that day,
you found me in New York. That whole thing happened, we spent these months not
talking to each other. I thought what we had was all over. Once again. Then
I got this incredible job on the editing department and it happened to be your
show that I’d be editing. And not only that, but you guys called in a meeting
and I ended up here, in Florida, back to you again. This can’t just be coincidence.
I seriously think it’s fate doing its job.”
“Me too! The minute I saw you there,
sitting in that chair, I knew it couldn’t be just coincidence. Then I spent
the entire meeting not listening to a word people were saying at that table,
just looking at you. Making sure that was really you. Making sure you were back
into my life. Again. Because if you were, you would be back into my life for
good this time. I wouldn’t let you go.”
Kirstin smiled and gave him a peck
on the lips. Ashley didn’t wanna ruin things, but he had to ask this one question.
When he did, he had his head down.
“What about your boyfriend Tom?”
“He was never my boyfriend.”
“But…” Ashley was confused “You were
all over him at that bar and…”
“I know. But I just used him to get
you out of my head. I saw you when you got to Inferno, you passed right by me.
And I saw you with that Jen girl. So I used Tom to forget you. And when I noticed
you had seen me with him, I used him once again to make you feel bad, just like
I felt when I saw you with that girl. I thought that by making you feel bad,
I would make myself feel better, but it didn’t work. And poor Tom…” she held
her head down, she was embarrassed by the way she treated Tom “I treated him
like a doormat. I never talked to him again after that night at my place.”
“You took him to your place?”
Kirstin had said too much.
“Well… Yeah, but… nothing happened.
I mean… I didn’t let anything happen. I realized soon enough I was doing something
for all the wrong reasons, so I asked him to leave. Thank God he did.”
There was silence. She
could still tell Ashley was not happy with what she had informed him about.
Kirstin, not wanting to continue that
conversation, changed the subject by asking Ashley:
“Ash, why did you break up with Jen?”
“It just never felt right.” he told
her.
“Why?”
“Because I never loved her. Because
you were the one constantly on my mind. It never felt right. We were never meant
to be together.”
“And you think we are?” Kirstin asked
him seriously, while looking at him carefully.
“Yes, don’t you?” Ashley frowned.
“I don’t know…”
“What do you mean you don’t know? You
just gave that whole speech about fate and you don’t think we are suppose to
be together?” Ashley was mad.
“Don’t be mad at me, Ashley. It has
to do with things that happened to me before I even met you. You remember I
joined our high-school when I was a junior, right?”
“Yes…” Ashley answered confused, not
knowing where she was getting at.
“Well, I didn’t have a very good life
before that, when I was in this other high-school. I had to get away from that
school. Bad things happened there.”
“What kind of things?”
“I really don’t wanna talk about the
details now. I don’t think I’ll ever wanna talk about them…” she glanced down
and Ashley could see that there were tears forming in her eyes. Kirstin didn’t
let them fall though. She took a deep breath and continued “Anyway, things that
happened to me while I was there got me hurt pretty badly. I told you a little
bit about this that day at the coffee shop.” Ashley nodded. He wanted to help
her, but she wouldn’t open up to him, so how could he help her? “It had to do
with these 2 boyfriends I had and I never told anyone about this, but when I
broke up with Taylor, the last one, I promised myself that I would never let
another boy hurt me that much. That’s why I ran away after our first kiss. And
that’s why I never hooked up with the same guy more than once since I moved
to New York. I built this wall around me and no man would ever climb it more
than once. When you are with a person just one time, it’s always fun, it doesn’t
have feelings involved.”
“But until today, we had only kissed
one time. Does that mean that you didn’t have feelings for me back then?”
“No Ash! That was completely different.
We were friends first. We had a history together before that kiss. I don’t have
a history with any of those “Thursday Guys”!”
“Thursday Guys?"
“I’ll explain that some other time.
But of course I had feelings for you Ash! That is why I ran away! I couldn’t
get hurt again. And I swore that if I’d find someone in New York who I’d kiss
once and felt something like I did for you, I’d run away too. But that never
happened. No one ever came close to you.” she bit her bottom lip. She had opened
up too much. Ashley smiled after hearing that. She had just confessed she felt
something strong for him.
“So, what does that all mean?” Ashley
was about to ask her one question which the answer would change his life for
better. Or worst. He took her hands in his once again and looked her deeply
in the eyes “Are you gonna be my girlfriend?”
It
took a moment for Kirstin to answer.
“No,
I’m not.”
* Thanx Caitlin for editing and correcting the grammar on this chapter
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