~*~ Chapter 12 ~*~
REDDING, CA – The Addams’ House – Christmas Dinner
“Oh my God, Ashley! Are you ok?” Ashley just laid there, with his hand over his eye. Tom stood up, twisting his fist. He looked calmer now. Almost every guest was gathered around the scene. Kirstin was on her knees, trying to help Ashley.
“What’s going on here?” Mrs. Angel was walking through the small crowd that had formed “Ashley!” she exclaimed when she saw her son laying on the floor “Ashley, what happened son?” she knelt down next to Kirstin.
“Nothing.” Ashley sat up “I’m fine.” Kirstin held his hand.
“He hit him.” one of Mr. Johnson’s kids pointed out to Tom.
“What?” Kirstin’s mother questioned, looking over at Tom.
“Nothing. It was all my fault, really. I…”
“No, Ashley. It was not only your fault.” Kirstin looked up at Tom.
“Kirstin, you know that…” Tom tried to explain his side of the story.
“Just… go, Tom.”
“But, Kirstin…”
“I can’t look at you right now. Go. Get out of here.” Tom looked down and Kirstin let a tear fall down her cheek as she observed him going up the stairs “Mrs. Angel, I’m so sorry, I don’t know what came over Tom, he’s nothing like that, I swear. I’m so sorry, I…” Kirstin was crying desperately.
“Kirstin, you know it was mostly my fault, I was pushing it too far and…”
“Still, Ashley, he didn’t have the right to hit you and…”
“That’s ok.” he smiled slightly. She did too “Ouch.”
“Does it hurt?” she asked him worried.
“What do you think?” he smirked at her.
“Here, Ashley. Put this on.” Kelly had come from the kitchen with a pack of frozen peas and handed it to Ashley. He took the pack, but Kirstin took it from his hand.
“Here, let me help you.” she grinned at him and placed the frozen pack on his eyes.
“Ouch!”
“Sorry.” she placed it more gently.
“Thanks.” he stared into her big brown eyes and she stared back into his big blue ones. They both had a smile on their faces. They must have stood like that for a while, because when Kirstin got her senses back, she noticed no one was around them anymore.
“I think people don’t care about you too much. Everyone’s gone.” she said, grinning.
“The one I care about is still here.” he looked at her and she blushed. He could still do that to her.
“Come on. Let’s go outside.” Kirstin helped him getting up.
When they got out side, they sat on this double swing in the front yard. They stood there for a while, without saying a word to each other, just staring at the horizon.
“The sunset at this house doesn't look as nice as it did at your other house.”
“What do you mean? It’s all the same to me.”
“No, it’s not. I don’t like this new house. It doesn’t have our old swing.”
“Well, there are no kids in here anymore. So mom got this swing right here. It’s for grown ups, you know?” she smirked.
“It’s just not cool like the other one was.”
“Well, I’m sure that the people living in our old house now wouldn’t mind if Ashley Angel, famous singer from O-Town, went there and asked to play on their swing.”
“It would be the same.”
“Well, you’re not 16 anymore.”
“It’s not that, it’s because it’s no fun without you.” they glanced at each other again, but this time, it was interrupted by a high pitch voice.
“Oh my God, Ashley! What happened, baby?” Hailey approached him and took the frozen peas pack away from his eye, reveling a terrible black eye.
“Easy.” he said.
“What happened? Who did this to you?”
“Tom, but it…” he got interrupted by Hailey.
“Tom? Kirstin! How could you let something like this happen? That fiancée of yours is an ogre. Why would he do this to sweet Ashley? Why…”
“Hailey, come here…” Ashley interrupted her this time and pulled her aside.
Kirstin stayed on the swing and could only pick some of the words that Hailey was yelling. After a while, Ashley headed back to the swing and Hailey, clearly unhappy, trailed back to the house. When he sat beside Kirstin, she asked.
“Where is she going?”
“I told her we needed to talk and asked her to wait inside.”
“She didn’t seem to happy about it.”
“Oh, well, too bad.” Kirstin looked down and played with her fingers. She’d do that when she wouldn’t know what to say.
“So… what do you wanna talk about?”
“I think you know.”
“Yeah… Everything, right?”
“Yes.”
“Ok. So, where should I start?”
* Thanx Taryn for reviewing and correcting the grammar errors *
~*~ Chapter 11 ~*~
~*~ Chapter 13 ~*~
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