~*~ Chapter 19 ~*~
REDDING, CA - The Angel's House - Dec. 26TH, 2001 - Wednesday
Ashley led Kirstin to his room. He opened the door and motioned for her to go inside first. She did and while Ashley was closing the door, she looked around the whole room. She smiled big, remembering all the mornings, afternoons and evenings they had spent in that room, either talking, either watching TV or just laying on Ashley's double bed, staring at the ceiling. She then stopped her gaze at this particular spot on the wall.
"I can't believe you still have your mural!" she went in the direction of this mural right beside Ashley's bed. It had pictures from Ashley's teenage years.
"Well, yeah." Ashley followed her around the room "My mom hasn't changed a thing in this room since I moved out. And every time I'm here I don't have the time to move things around, so it's practically the same as it was during high school."
"Oh, Amy!" Kirstin pointed to a picture of Ashley, Kirstin, this jock from Ashley's football team and this funny looking girl with curly hair and messed up clothes "Oh, I miss her!"
"Yeah, she was great. Do you know what she's doing now?" Ashley was right behind her while she stared at the mural.
"She is a pre med student somewhere. I can't remember where, though. I never would have guessed she wanted to be doctor! I feel bad, though, because I really liked her. I never talked to her again after I went to New York."
"It's weird how you loose touch with so many people after high school, huh?"
"Yeah…" she was still staring at the mural with a huge smile on "I don't remember taking this picture." she frowned at this picture of her and Ashley dancing at some ball. A slow song was probably on, because Kirstin had her arms around Ashley's neck and Ashley had his on her waist. They were both laughing.
"I got that from this boy, remember Roy, from the yearbook
committee?" Kirstin nodded "So, a while after prom, I think it was
like, November, I went to his house to do something, I don't remember what
now, but I saw this picture there that they didn't use in the yearbook so
I asked for it."
"It's a nice picture."
"Yes. It was homecoming."
"Oh, yeah! I remember now!" Kirstin was still staring at the picture "That party was nice."
"Yeah, I remember you made fun of me the entire night."
"Of course! You won Homecoming King! Come on! I couldn't just not make fun of you. I couldn't let that go." she giggled.
"Well, I wouldn't have made fun of you if I knew back then you were once a cheerleader." Kirstin turned around to look at him "And you were captain!" Ashley pointed at her as he was on to something. Kirstin stood still "You were a cheerleader and head of the cheerleading squad." Ashley acted shocked "You were Homecoming Queen once!"
"No, I wasn't." Kirstin turned her gaze and sat on Ashley's bed.
"You so were!" Ashley was still pointing at her "Admit it! You were Homecoming Queen!" Kirstin knew she couldn't get away from that.
"Yeah, yeah! Ok, ok! You know my biggest secret now. I was Homecoming Queen. But in my defense, my friends signed me up." Kirstin was a bit embarrassed. She didn't like to be seen as that type of girl anymore.
"It doesn't matter. You were Homecoming Queen. You were Homecoming Queen!" Ashley was hopping happily, just like a child at Christmas. Kirstin just shook her head.
"Oh, shut up!" Kirstin hit him hard on the arm.
"Ouch." he rubbed his arm, but had a smile on.
"I hope it hurt."
"It did. But it was worth it." he did a devilish smile.
Kirstin got up and went to check the mural once more, but didn't say anything this time. Ashley sat on his bed. Kirstin had a big smile on going through all those pictures at the mural. Most of them had her in it.
Pictures of them at high school, pictures of them at Ashley's house, at Kirstin's house, on school trips… After a while, she took a breath, smiled and turned around. Ashley was just staring at her.
"What are you doing?" she asked him.
"Watching you."
"Well, stop it." she was all serious. She hated when people would star at her.
"Ok. But I love it when you get all serious."
"Ashley… don't." Kirstin warned. She knew what he was up to.
"Don't what?" Ashley played innocent.
"You know what." Kirstin knew he was trying to seduce her by being nice to her. And she didn't know if she would be able to resist him, so she just asked him to stop it.
"Ok." Ashley decided to let that go "So…" he patted the mattress so she would sit beside him. It took a while for her to accept the offer.
Ashley wanted to know what she thought about the piece of paper. It wasn't only Kirstin that was interested on having that talk.
"What did you think?" Ashley pointed to the paper Kirstin still held in her hand.
"Well… to be honest… I didn't quite get it."
"What didn't you get?"
"What is this? Like… Is this a poem or something?"
"Oh. Well… see… we are starting to work on our new album now."
"Oh, that's nice." Kirstin grinned.
"Yes, it is." Ashley grinned too. He just stared at her beautiful face. It took a while for him to continue "So, we are gonna have some songs written by ourselves and every since we've moved to California, I've been doing a lot of writing. And… I don't know… ahn…" Ashley didn't know if he should say it or not "You… hm…"
"What, Ash?" Kirstin asked in a sweet tone, which encouraged him to tell her about it.
"You are what is inspiring me to write lately." Kirstin looked down and smiled kindly, looking at the unfolded piece of paper on her hands, reading it one more time "I haven't had a lot of experiences in my life. And the only one that actually stuck to me was our experience. Our relationship. As short as it may have been, I don't know about you, but for me, it was pretty intense."
"Yeah…"
"So, this particular song that I gave you, I wrote the day that I found that ring in my bag and I thought of you immediately, and words suddenly started to pop up my head."
"Really?" Kirstin looked at him tenderly.
"Yes." he had a sweet look on.
"Do you have a name for it?"
"The song is not finished yet, but I think I'm gonna call it Suddenly. Because that's how it came to be. Out of nowhere."
"I like it." Kirstin still had her smile on. She then got closer to Ashley's face. She looked him deeply in the eyes and kissed him on the cheek "Thank you." Ashley said nothing, just smiled "Can I keep it?" she asked him before folding the paper.
"Yes. I know it by heart."
They stared at each other's eyes for a long time. It was like the time had stopped. Kirstin missed him. Ashley missed her. They missed the way they felt every time they'd be around each other. They couldn't really tell what it was, love, friendship. They didn't know. They just knew it felt good.
All of a sudden, Kirstin got up off the bed.
"What happened?" Ashley asked her.
"I have to go." she walked to the door.
"What? Why? What happened?"
"I wanna go home. I'm tired. It's late already. See?" she looked at her wristwatch "It's 5:35. It's almost dinner time. I really have to go." she opened the door and headed downstairs. Ashley didn't say anything, just followed her down.
When they were outside and Kirstin was practically running and leaving without saying goodbye, Ashley grabbed her by her arm.
"Kirstin, just one more thing."
"Yes." Kirstin turned to look at him.
"We are ok, right?"
"Yes, of course!"
"So… are we friends again? How is this gonna work now?" Ashley was really clueless.
"We're friends. Just as before." Kirstin smirked.
"So… if I feel like talking to you, I can just call you and Tom won't go by my house and punch me?" Ashley joked.
"No." Kirstin giggled "We're fine now. You can call me whenever you want to. You can even come visit me whenever you're in New York."
"Good. It really makes me happy to know that."
"Me too, Ash."
"I missed you." Ashley said in such a sweet tone. Kirstin almost lost control.
"I missed you, too." she hugged him real tight. When they pulled back, Ashley thought of something.
"Listen. Hailey is coming back tonight, but she's getting here pretty late." Kirstin didn't make a happy face. She had forgotten about Hailey for a while.
"Yes. And…?"
"And you said you're only staying in Redding until the day after tomorrow, right?"
"Yes." Kirstin didn't know where he was getting at.
"What do you say, tomorrow night, we go on a double date? You, Tom, me and Hailey?" Kirstin got taken off guard. She would have never expected that sort of invitation coming from Ashley. From Hailey, yeah, she would have. Even from Tom. But Ashley wanted to double date with her and Tom? Maybe he was taking that situation better than she was. She didn't want to give him the impression she was not ready for it, especially because it felt like he was.
"Yeah. Sure. Of course."
"Great. Then I'll talk to Hailey tonight and I'll call you tomorrow so we decide where to go, alright?"
"Ok."
"Oh, what about The Peach? I haven't gone there since that day you got drunk."
"Shut up! I did not get drunk that night!"
"You so did."
"Did not!"
"So you were just doing a heck of a job acting like it." he laughed. She laughed too.
"Ok. So lets go to The Peach."
"Ok. But I'll call you tomorrow anyway so we can set the time and all."
"Alright. So, I'm going. But do call me."
"Yeah, of course. Bye." he kissed her softly on the cheek. When he pulled back, they stared at each other's eyes for one more time and Kirstin headed to her car. Ashley waited by the door until he saw her car drive off.
In the car, Kirstin had a smile on. She was happy she and Ashley were back being friends. Just like the old times. It felt good being around him. But then, her smile suddenly faded. Would Tom be ok on going on that double date? What about Hailey? And most importantly, how would she feel about it?
* Thanx Taryn and Stacie for reviewing and correcting the grammar errors *
~*~ Chapter 18 ~*~
~*~ Chapter 20 ~*~
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