ethereal

twenty three

Kylie's P.O.V.

I fluttered my eyes open at the sound of my phone going off. My hand reaches over to my nightstand and I grab my phone from its charger. I type in the password 'Luke' which is 5853 in numbers. I notice that the alarm was for a text. I open up my messages and notice that I just got a text from Ashton.

'kylie get up b4 I come over there and dump water on u babe xxx'

'im awake no need for that ash X'

'good xp I'll see u around 4? x'

'yeah see ya then xx'

I stood from my bed and looked in my mirror. After almost screaming in horror, I took a shower and dried my hair. I brush my hair and teeth and left the bathroom. I looked through my closet after putting on my robe. After deciding on wearing light wash high waisted cut up jean shorts, a flowly black crop top, and a pair of black vans. I waltzed into my bathroom, my favorite Green Day song pounding through the air. I sing along as I tie my hair up into a high ponytail and apply my makeup.

After finishing, I head over to my dresser. I look through my wallet and get out a fifty dollar bill. It was crumpled up and ripped slightly on the top but was still worth thirty buckets of popcorn and ten slushies from the movie theater. I bounded down the stairs and into the kitchen.

"Good afternoon, Kylie." My father addressed me.

"Um hey? Why aren't you guys at work?" I looked at both of my parents that were sitting around the bar in kitchen. They sat waiting for the chef to finish preparing their lunch.

"Honey, we have something to tell you. Please, sit down." My mother gave me a weak smile and gesturing towards the chair in front of them.

I sat down in the chair cautiously. What could they possibly want with me this time? They rarely speak to me and when they do it's either their monthly, 'How have you been doing' talk or something pretty serious.

My mother sighed and looked up at me. "There's no easy way to say this."

•

I walked slowly to Ashton's car and he opened the door for me from the inside.

"Hey!" He said excitedly.

"Hi. So uh, what movie are we seeing?" I gave him a small smile, knowing that I can't give him a bigger one than this.

"I was thinking... 50 Shades of Grey?" He smirked.

"How about the SpongeBob movie?" I teased.

"You know how different those two movies are?"

We both burst into laughter, and I temporarily forgot about the horrors of what my parents had just told me.

"There's really nothing good out, now that I think about it. Wanna do something else?" He asked.

I nodded as we drove around a bit.

"Hey, you wanna go say hi to Michael, I think he works somewhere around here." He laughed at the thought of Michael working.

I agreed and we headed off with the music turned up and the sunroof open.

•

After visiting Michael for a bit, Ashton and I left to get some pizza, which Mikey pouted about because he still had half a shift left.

We drove to the best pizzeria we could find and picked up a pizza to take to Ashton's. Once we had arrived at his house, which was a decent size, we headed down to his basement.

"Ashton!" A boy's voice called out.

"What do you want Harry?"

"Where are you?"

"The basement! But don't come dow-"

"Hey Ashton, you have a girl down here. I didn't think you knew what those were." A boy younger than us emerged from the stairs while shrugging.

I covered my mouth and laughed loudly. Tears pricked my eyes as I started to calm down and wipe them.

"I love your..." I started but didn't know who this boy was.

"He's my brother." Ashton told me.

"Oh, well I think I might actually like your brother more than you." I shrugged and watched as Ashton fake cried.

"B-But Kylie, I love you so much!" He wailed. "You have to be my best friend!"

He made exaggerated crying sounds before I hugged him. "You'll always be my best friend, Ashton."

Harry left us after a while, saying that we were boring and we turned on the tv.

After about ten minutes, I realized there was a drum set in the corner of the room.

"Hey, you play?" I stood and walked over to the instrument.

"A little bit. I can teach you if ya want."

I smirked and agreed.

He sat down on the drum seat and scooted to the back. He patted on the small space in front of him and I nervously sat down. I watched as he gripped the drumsticks in his hands before I realized that I was sitting in between his legs. My eyes widened but I soon relaxed when he wrapped his hands over mine. He played a simple beat, with his hands guiding mine. I looked up at him and noticed that he was looking down at me already. For the first time, I really noticed how cute Ashton was. My best friend is cute. I think my best friend is cute and I'm not ashamed of it.

I noticed our faces had gotten closer and I realized that we were about to kiss, and I didn't really mind that we were. I actually sort of want to kiss him. I turned around in my seat and wrapped my arms around his neck. I brought my face closer to his but waited to see if he wanted to kiss me too. When he pulled his lips forward, I took that as an okay and closed the space between us. His warm lips burned against my cold ones in a pleasurable kind of way. I pushed myself closer to him as he tried to do the same. We both wanted more of each other. He swiped his tongue across my lips and I immediately granted him access, not being able to wait by teasing him. His tongue explored my mouth as I tangled my fingers in his hair, triggering a moan to leave his mouth.

We both pulled away breathlessly after a few minutes. We looked at each other in surprise.

"Our own little secret?" I whispered.

"Yeah."

I yearned for more and glanced at his plump lips again. I couldn't help but think that he could be more than just my friend and that I kinda of wanted him to be.

Catching me off guard, he pushed his lips upon my once again. I smiled into the kiss, thinking that he might just feel the same way.

•

'Mom can I spend the night at a friends?'

'Sure honey.' She quickly texted back.

"The deed is done." I giggled.

I noticed Ashton sitting at the drum set again, the one we were just kissing on, no longer than ten minutes ago. I walked over to him gently took the drumsticks out of his hands. He gestured for me to sit on his lap and I did so. I played song that I had just learned a few weeks ago. I looked back at Ashton to see his mouth hanging open a tad.

"You learn fast." He chuckled, catching on.

"Maybe your just a great teacher." I planted my lips onto his.