~*~ Chapter 18 ~*~
REDDING, CA - Dec. 26TH, 2001 - Wednesday
Kirstin got out of her car and holding the piece of paper Ashley had given her the night before, she walked to the Angel's front door. She still felt her stomach ache a bit because she didn't get too much sleep the night before thinking about her meeting with Ashley. Tom was ok with her going by herself to his house. Now, would Hailey be ok with Kirstin talking in private with Ashley?
The Angel's, despite Ashley's success with O-Town, still lived at the same nice house they used to when Kirstin and Ashley were going through high school. Before going up the steps that led to the front door, Kirstin just looked at those steps. She smiled. She had great memories of great conversations she and Ashley had while they were in high school, but she was thinking of a particular one at the moment.
*Flashback*
"I just don't know what to do. Jared just won't leave me alone. He's constantly trying to kiss me. I hate that!" Kirstin, at her 17 years old, was talking to her best friend, sitting on the steps in front of his house's front door.
"Well, can you blame him? You're always all over him."
"Am not!" she playfully punched his side. He pretended it hurt.
"Ouch! That hurt!"
"Oh, shut up!" she just shook her head "I just don't want him to keep doing that."
"Then talk to him."
"I already did! He just doesn't get! How stupid can that guy be?"
"Pretty stupid. But you're always touching him, and kissing him on the cheek. Of course the guy will think you are into him."
"But I'm not."
"Ok, K. I got that. Now Jared has to get that."
"But… Argh! I hate men! All of them! Period."
"Hey! I'm a man."
"No, you're… different."
"You mean I'm not a man?"
"No, it's not that. It's just… oh, you know what I mean."
"No, I don't!" Ashley pretended to be offended.
"You're a friend."
"Jared too! We are practically the only guys you talk to at school."
"Well, that's because I hate high school boys. And you two are different. Well, now, only you are different."
"But different how?"
"You don't just assume things, like, that I have a major crush on you because I said 'Hello' to you in the hall."
"Yeah, well, I am one of a kind." Ashley was bragging about himself.
"You really are." Kirstin smiled into his great blue eyes. He was so amazing. She couldn't believe her luck finding such a nice guy after all she went through with her former boyfriends. They smiled at each other and stayed like that for a while. Then Ashley proposed something.
"Ok. As I'm apparently the only guy you know that is not a pig, let's make a pact."
"What do you mean?"
"I saw it in a movie once and I think we should do it."
"What? Are you talking about 'My Girl'? Because if you are, I'm not gonna cut my finger so we could be blood buddies or something."
"No, I'm not talking about that! I don't remember the title of the movie right now, but the guy and the girl in this movie were best friends and they were never lucky with their love lives, so they made this pact that, when they both turned 30, if neither of them were married, they would marry each other."
"And…?" Kirstin frowned.
"I think we should do it."
"Do what?"
"Do the same. Do this pact."
"You're insane." Kirstin just shook her head.
"No, I'm not. Seriously, Kirstin, why shouldn't we? We like each other's company. And you said it yourself that I'm different from all the other guys you've known. So why can't we do this?"
"Because this is crazy. That's why."
"Why is this crazy?"
"I don't know why. It just is."
"If you can't think of a good reason right now for us not to make this pact, we're doing it."
"Ashley, we can't do this! Because… I don't know! It would never work. We're probably not gonna be seeing each other after high school. You wanna go to UCLA and try your singing career and I wanna go to NYU. We'd be miles away from each other. There's your reason."
"That's not strong enough."
"What? How come it isn't? Of course it is!"
"No, it isn't. Because if we make this pact, we're gonna have to make it work. We are gonna have to meet each other again after 13 years. We are gonna have to. And if the rules apply, we are gonna have to get married."
"No. That's just ridiculous. I'm not doing it."
"But, you have to! You didn't give me a good reason not to."
"I…" Kirstin looked up at Ashley. He had a huge smile on. She shook her head down "Ok, ok. Let's do this stupid pact already."
"Great!"
"How does it work, anyway? What does it say in the movie?"
"I can't really recall, but we can make our own rules."
"Ok. So… Let me go first. I'm not marring you if you turn out to be this bald, hairy and fat guy by the time you're 30. Because I know I can get much better than a bald and fat guy by the time I'm 30."
"Oh, come on! That can't be part of the rules!"
"Why not?"
"Because we are not gonna be marrying each other because of our looks. We are marrying because we know each other very well and love each other as friends. It doesn't have anything to do with looks."
"Oh, fine!" Kirstin wasn't happy with the terms already "So, at least, try to keep your hair in your head."
"I'll try." they laughed. Ashley continued "And you, stop growing! Or else you'll be taller than me."
"Oh, shut up! I know you like that!"
"Yeah, well… You know me too well." Kirstin giggled.
"Beside, if we are getting married, I am gonna wear high heels and there's no way out, I am gonna be taller than you."
"Hm… I'm liking this already." Kirstin playfully hit him on the arm.
"Stop it. Ok. So, the rules. You name the rules, then."
"They are plain and simple. If we hit 30 and we are not married nor in a serious relationship…"
"Define serious relationship."
"Hm… when you're with someone for more than 6 month or engaged. That's serious relationship."
"Ok." Kirstin nodded "Go on."
"So, if we hit 30 and we are not married nor in a serious relationship, we meet up, make the necessary arrangements and get married!"
"Is that all?"
"Yes."
"But… aren't you going to propose to me? I wanna get proposed to! I really like that whole the groom getting on his knees and the bride crying thingy."
"Ok. When we meet, I'll propose to you."
"But it's gotta be beautiful and you gotta mean it."
"I promise you all that." Kirstin stared at him for a while and then laughed "What?" he asked her.
"Look at us! Could we be more pathetic? Making the arrangement for a wedding that is almost certain to never happen."
"Oh, come on! It's fun!"
"Yeah, well… at least it's something other than pathetic."
"Shut up!" and they stayed there, laughing at their pact.
*End of Flashback*
"Kirstin? Kirstin?" Kirstin heard her name being called out and woke up from her thoughts. When she looked at the front door, she saw Ashley was standing there.
"Oh, hi." she greeted, kind of embarrassed.
"What are you doing?" he asked going to her direction.
"I wanted to talk to you."
"Then why were you standing there, looking at the ground for a while now?"
"How do you know?"
"I was going pass by the living room and I saw you through the window. You were just standing there, looking at the steps."
"Oh, I was just thinking." she ran her fingers through her hair to try to look more relaxed. It wasn't helping.
"About what?"
"Oh, nothing much. Just stuff."
"Thinking of stuff and staring directly at the steps? That's weird."
"Well, yeah. I don't know." she smiled weakly and didn't know if she wanted to say her thoughts to Ashley. She didn't even know if he still meant or remembered their pact "I was just thinking when… we… that pact… that…" she stuttered.
"Oh!"
"Yeah…" 'So, he does remember!' Kirstin thought with a smile on her face.
"Well, that's not gonna happen." he said pretty serious and shoved his hands down his pockets. Kirstin's smile faded. 'Why is that not happening? He was the one who wanted it in the first place. Don't look hurt, Kirstin! And say something!'
"Yeah, of course it's not gonna happen. I mean… we were kids… we… didn't know what we were… saying… and we…" she stuttered once more.
"That's not it." 'So, he just doesn't wanna marry me, that's all there is to it.' Kirstin bit her bottom lip "You are getting married to Tom now. The rules don't apply anymore." he smiled weakly and pointed to her finger.
"Oh, yeah!" she twisted her engagement ring "Of course. I knew that." she grinned, but didn't make eye contact with Ashley. He felt the weird vibe and decided to say something to break the ice.
"So, I see you read the paper I gave you."
"Oh, yeah. Well, that's actually why I came here to talk to you about."
"And where's the hubby?" Ashley had no expression on his face.
"Who?" Kirstin didn't get it right away "Oh, Tom! Of course! Well, he's home."
"He let you come here all by yourself? Wow! Things have changed!"
"Ash, don't do that. You know it's nothing like that with the two of us. I don't order him around and he doesn't order me around. And it was actually him that asked me to come here today."
"Yeah, right."
"For real. We had a… ahn… little fight last night and then we made up and he said that I should come and talk to you to straight things up, because he felt I was sad because of all that happened and us not being friends anymore and…"
"You're sad because we are not friends anymore?"
"Of course I am, Ash! How couldn't I be? What kind of question is that?" Kirstin felt offended.
"I don't know. I'm sorry. So… he asked you to come?"
"Yeah, and I wanted to. I was gonna talk to you last night, but you just disappeared."
"Hailey had an emergency call." Ashley looked down and sounded upset.
"Oh, yeah? But, is she ok?"
"Yeah. She just had to go to Chicago last night for a photo shoot. She was really hoping to get that job, so she went. It's for a perfume or something. So she got the call at the party last night and we had to come back for her to make her bags and go to the airport, because her ticket was already bought for the 11:30 pm flight."
"That sucks. A photo shoot during the holidays?"
"Yeah. I didn't like that either, but she really wanted to be on that campaign and when they called, she didn't even think twice. So we rushed off and I couldn't find you to say goodbye. I felt bad leaving like that." Kirstin could see he meant that.
"Don't worry. I was a bit angry at you too, mister, but now I understand it." she smirked and so did he "But is she gonna be gone long?"
"Oh, no. She's getting the flight back tonight."
"Oh, that's nice. You still have sometime to spend together. When do you leave?"
"On the 2nd. And you?"
"Wow! You got a big break! I'm leaving the day after tomorrow."
"So soon?"
"Yeah, well, Tom has to work."
"Oh, I see. We were talking about that last night."
"Yeah, I know. He told me about it. I'm really glad you guys are at least standing each other now."
"Yeah, well..."
"And your eye seems a bit better."
"Oh." Ashley pressured his fingers softly over it "It doesn't hurt that much anymore. Thank Kelly for the peas for me."
"Ok, I will." Kirstin looked down and played with the piece of paper on her hand. She didn't know exactly when to bring that subject up. Ashley sensed she was nervous. He smiled at the sight. Whenever she would be nervous, she would play with whatever was at her reach and she would crinkle her nose from time to time. He always felt that was cute. He then spoke up.
"So, about the paper…"
"Yeah…" Kirstin abruptly looked at him.
"Well, I think we better go inside for this."
"Yes."
"Let's go then."
And they went inside the Angel's house.
* Thanx Taryn and Stacie for reviewing and correcting the grammar errors *
~*~ Chapter 17 ~*~
~*~ Chapter 19 ~*~
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