A Summer Musical

🎶 Chapter 21 - Catching Up 🎶

Miss Jenn's POV

Benjamin and I were meeting up for dinner, because we hadn't seen each other much recently. I was busy with our not exactly top notch musical, and he was busy with things likely much more logical.

We had each driven ourselves, because the restaurant was nearby for both of us and he had just finished up with a family related thing. We met outside the restaurant. "Hey." I smiled.

"Hi." He smiled in return. "How have you been?" He asked, opening the door for me. I walked in closely followed by himself.

"I've been good, busy." I replied, taking a seat. He sat across from me. "You?"

"Good, I haven't been doing much." He paused. "So what have you been busy with?"

"You know, rehearsals."

"Oh, yeah, of course. How are those going?"

"They're rocky. Sometimes they're good, but there just seems to be a lot of personal stuff going on. I don't want to get into the way of it this time. Obviously our first semester had a few major personal things that we tried to avoid happening again, so I don't wanna let them dwell too much. But they came up with the idea, and as much as we want a finished project it's really just for fun. It's summer, they need time to talk and to relax. Figure things out." I explained.

"That's really great, Jenn." Benjamin smiled softly.

"You are really not the same person I met."

"No, and you aren't either."

"I've grown." I smiled, gazing in his eyes.

"So have I."

"I love you." I leaned in to kiss him, before realizing I couldn't reach. We laughed it off.

"I love you too." He held out his hand, interlocking our fingers. I gave it a small squeeze instead of our failed kiss.

Big Red's POV

Ashlyn laid beside me, eyes closed. I was curious as to if she was asleep, because we hadn't talked in about ten minutes. Ashlyn didn't nap much, but she seemed comfortable. And definitely exhausted.

I got the answer when she moved over to cuddle into me, kissing my cheek. It made me feel amazing, as we only resolved our issues the before. We had both resolved to fix everything within our relationship, but were currently enjoying our time together.

"Love you." She whispered, setting her head on my chest.

"I love you too." I gave her forehead a quick kiss.

"I'm sorry." She closed her eyes.

"For what?" I furrowed my eyebrows.

"The past weeks."

"We've got this, Ash."

"No, I mean, I know that... because I love you. But, I'm just... sorry." She said. As good of an actor as she was, it was clear as day she was being genuine. She couldn't possibly fake the guilt in her voice if she had tried.

"I know. You're forgiven, Ashlyn. I promise. Sure, we have to work on communication a bit. We've been so good at it up until now, and every relationship has it's struggle. But we're in this together, because bad communication once isn't gonna get us down." I hugged her closer to me, sighing. A felt a few tears fall onto me from her eyes, making me frown.

"I just never wanna loose you. And I pushed you away." She whispered.

"Hey, love, look at me." I adjusted, her following suit, so we were now sitting up. I looked her in the eyes. "I am upset about what happened."

"I know, I—" she looked down.

"I'm upset some dude came between us."

"Me too, I—"

"I'm upset you didn't talk to me."

"I'm sorry, I swear—"

"Because I'm upset you couldn't." I finished. "Ash, you were scared. And that formed some setbacks. But you got through them. We got through them. And now it shouldn't happen again. I just want you to tell me anything you want, and anything you need."

"I will." She looked up at me, resuming our eye contact. "I promise." She smiled lightly.

"And I want you to know that you don't need to be scared to tell me something. I get it. I do. When we first got together, I was so scared to do something wrong. And we got comfortable, but then the stakes got higher— point is, I totally get it. But I know you're sorry, and you genuinely are. You know it was wrong. This is not me saying it was right, but I know you will make up for it. Please don't worry about it. Because being comfortable to tell me anything means being comfortable with me, and just because we have to work on things doesn't mean they have to be uncomfortable."

"I love you so much." She threw her arms around me, wrapping me in a hug I returned. "I... I guess I get that."

"Good."

"But I just feel guilty. I don't want it to happen again, anything like that—"

"Ash, baby, breathe. This is what I was just saying. It won't happen again, because we both are really, really trying. Now more than ever."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." I nodded. "I love you, Ashlyn Moon Caswell." I held her in my arms, letting her let out the tears she had held back. "Babe—"

"I'm fine." She insisted.

"But—"

"No, I mean it. I just... I'm happy. I'm guilty. I'm... everything. And the talking let it out, but..."

"Oh, right, I get it. Yeah, I'm here." I adjusted, cradling her head. She let out tears that kept coming for minutes on end. It had been around 30 minutes before she sat up, wiping the tears off her face.

"Thank you." She gave my lips a light peck. I made a note of how soft her lips were— after how long we had barely talked I could only appreciate her more. I kissed back.

"Of course. I'm always, always, always here. Crying just... feels good sometimes."

"I'm here too." She smiled lightly, putting her arm around me. "This was good."

"Today?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah. It was." I agreed, leaning onto her shoulder. "I missed this."

"I did too." She kissed my forehead. "How about the next time we miss each other it's because you're in college?"

"That sounds good." I let out a laugh, glad to be with her, and finally past the weeks prior.