Life After That (15 page)

She pulled back. She wanted to see inside Ashley, and in order to do that, she had to look him deeply in the eyes. She stared at his amazing blue eyes and could tell his feelings for her were for real. She then felt his index finger slowly trace her face. When it felt on her mouth, she kissed the tip of his finger gently. He leaned forward and gently pressed his lips to hers. Kirstin closed her eyes when their lips touched. She deepened the kiss. His hands slid over her back and her hair. Kirstin's hands were at Ashley's waist. She opened her mouth and moan when she felt his tongue sliding over her lips, and then entering her mouth. Ashley pulled her against him and Kirstin led them to bed. He was on top of her and he heard Kirstin moan as his mouth left hers and trailed kisses down to her neck, where he kissed and sucked her soft skin. Kirstin was going crazy as he unbutton her pink blouse. All she could feel was Ashley's hot mouth on her skin. She hadn't felt like that in a long time. She had had sex, yes, but this was new to her. She could hear both their hearts beating together. Kirstin smiled as Ashley continued to kiss her, now heading to her bellybutton. She wanted to feel his lips on hers again and his body, so she took his t-shirt off and captured his lips, kissing him passionately. Now that Kirstin had control, things started to heat up pretty quickly. Ashley pulled her to him and she gasped when she felt his arousal. 'Stop,' she thought. 'We can't do this.' Kirstin pulled away, breathing heavily, her heart beating rapidly in her chest. Ashley looked at her with half-closed, desire-filled eyes. Kirstin took a deep breath.

"I gotta go."

"What? Is something wrong?" he asked worried.

"No, nothing's wrong." she lied and glanced down.

"Then why don't you look at me when you say that?"

"It's nothing. Really Ashley, I'm fine."

"Kirstin. I know when you are lying. It's the second time today that this has happened. Please, don't think I'm pressuring you, I just wanna know if you have a problem with…"

"Ashley, what time is it?" she asked all of a sudden, trying to change the subject.

"It's 12:20."

"Shit! I gotta go!" she got up and went to search for her blouse.

"Why? Why can't you just stay here so we can talk?"

"I don't wanna talk. And I can't stay here. I don't know what time we're leaving tomorrow, but Andy said it would be in the morning, so I really should go."

"No, stay K!" he pleaded with a puppy dog face.

Ashley was sitting on the foot of the bed and Kirstin was up, buttoning up her blouse.

"I can't! I have to be in my room tomorrow morning so Andy will call me up when it's time to leave."

"Can't you call him?"

"I'm not gonna call my boss after midnight! Please Ash, this job is really important to me, I can't mess with things now. I haven't even started to work yet. I can't ruin this." seeing the despair in Kirstin's face, Ashley said:

"Ok. But I'm driving you to the hotel!"

"Ok, fine."

"Then just give me a minute." he said as he disappeared into the bathroom.

"Take your time." – she smirked when she realized he was still turned on.

Kirstin scanned the room once again. It wasn't a real spacious room, especially with a king size bed in it, but it was nice. It felt cozy, even with all those Superman symbols and the walls that color. She went to check out his desk in the corner of the room. She went through the stuff that was lying there, tour schedules, airline tickets, his wallet. She picked up the wallet and opened it. Inside there was some money and some pictures, 3 to be exact. A picture of Ashley with his mom and stepfather, he was probably 15 in the picture. The other picture was of Taylor, Justin, Emily and Anne, Ashley's siblings in front of a Christmas tree. Kirstin could tell it was a pretty recent picture 'cause she knew all Ashley's siblings and everyone has grown so much, especially Emily. She used to be close to Emily. And the third picture really made Kirstin smile. It was a picture of her and Ashley in front of her house at the prom night. Mrs. Addams didn't let them go to the prom before she'd taken the picture. They were both so happy in the picture. Ashley had his right arm around Kirstin's waist. She was wearing a baby blue long dress and the blue corsage and Ashley had a black tuxedo on with a baby-blue tie to match Kirstin's dress. Kirstin still had her smile on when she put the wallet back on the desk.

She then saw Ashley's portable CD player. "What's Mr. Angel listening to now a days?" she said out loud opening the CD Player. Inside there was the "You are not alone" single, by Michael Jackson. Kirstin frowned. That single was kinda old for him to be listening to. She just shrugged, closed the CD player and went through this pile of cds. She found Third Eye Blind, Goo Goo Dolls, Craig Davis, Boys II Men. She then picked up this cd-case that was opened. She closed it and found the cover of "You are not alone" single.

"I see you found our song."

"Oh my God Ashley! You scared the hell out of me!" she said placing her hand over her chest.

"Sorry…" he apologized getting near her.

"But what do you mean our song?"

"I listen to this song all the time, ever since our prom night. I feel like the lyric is about us. Especially the part that says 'You are not here with me / You never said goodbye / Someone tell me why / Did you have to go / And leave my world so cold'."

Kirstin looked down. She had hurt Ashley. She felt ashamed.

"Ashley, I'm sorry I hurt you. I never meant to. I never thought you actually had feelings for me, so I thought that me leaving wouldn't…"

"Sh!" Ashley placed his index finger over her mouth. "That's alright, K. It's over now. We are together now and that's what counts."

"But I really am sorry and…" she was silenced once again, but this time by Ashley's tender kiss. He backed away and said:

"Forget that."

She put the CD case back on the desk and told him:

"You are gonna have to find us another song."

"I definitely will" Ashley grinned, taking Kirstin's hand and headed out of the house.

They got inside Ashley's Ford Explorer. Ashley started the car and asked:

"What hotel are you staying in?"

"Hyatt."

"Ok. So… Kirstin, how's your family doing?"

"Well, my dad is fine, still working at the factory. My mom quit her job at the bank. She was getting tired of working. And Kelly, she's going to U.C.L.A probably."

"Really? Your sister is going to UCLA? That's cool! That's where I would go, if you know, this didn't happen."

"Yeah, but I'd say your doing better this way." she grinned "But what about you? What about your family?" she didn't want to mention the fact that she went through his wallet. She didn't know if he would be cool with that nosy act of hers.

"Everyone's fine really. My dad was not really happy that I joined the band though."

"Really? Why?"

"He has his motives I guess. But it was bad at first, now it's ok. It was even in an episode of Making the Band. Didn't you watch our show?"

"I tried not to, you know? Because of the whole… but what about the rest of your family?" she asked changing the subject.

"Just fine. Nothing new."

"When was the last time you saw them?"

"It's January now. It wasn't s long ago. We got the holidays off so I spent it at Redding."

"Oh, nice!"

"Did you go home for the holidays?"

"No, stayed in NY."

"Yeah, I know…" 'Oh, ow' Ashley thought.

"What do you mean you know?"

"It's, uh… you see, I…"

"Yes…?"

"I drove to your house?"

"My parents house?"

"Yes. I always do that."

"What do you mean you always do that?"

"I always drive to your house, every holiday since you left, to see if you're ever there."

"You are joking."

"I wish I was."

"Why would you do that for?"

"'Cause I never heard from you Kirstin. And I wouldn't stop by your parents' house and ask them for your number. So I'd always drive by the house to see if there was any sign of you there, but there never was."

"Yeah, well… I haven't been back there since that day."

"What day? You mean the prom?"

"Yes."

"You have never been back there since our prom? Really? Never?"

"Nope."

"You haven't seen your family since then?"

"Oh no! They come to my place for Thanksgiving. But I don't go to Redding."

"Why is that?"

"Because. I don't like it there. That's all there is Ash. Now, we're here." she thanked God they have arrived at the hotel, so they could stop talking about that. Ashley pulled over.

"K, we haven't talked yet about how things are gonna be with you in NY and me here or traveling all the time."

"Yeah…"

"Well?"

"I don't know Ashley. I'm not good at this."

"Ok… here's how I see it. First of all, you are gonna have to give me your phone number."

"Oh yeah! Right! That would help!" Kirstin smirked and went through her purse to get 2 pieces of paper and a pen. While doing that, Ashley continued:

"I don't know when we're touring again, but I'll try to call you everyday alright?"

Kirstin stopped writing and looked inside Ashley's eyes:

"Promise? 'Cause I really want this to work Ash."

"I promise. I want this to work just as much as you do Kirstin. Maybe even more." he said, and then got the piece of paper and pen out of Kirstin hand, wrote his numbers down and handed it back to Kirstin. "And it will. You'll see. And whenever I'm in NY, we are going to see each other. Nothing will stop me from doing that. And don't worry, we're in NY all the time." he grinned.