Before You Came Back

Chapter 21

A/N

THE PICTURE ABOVE IS COLLINS DATE OUTFIT AND THEN ITS THE RING ALISON HID.
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C O L L I N S

Tomorrow afternoon came way faster than I had expected.

Luke told me he had to go out to make sure the place he was taking me was still set up for tonight (he didn't call since he was afraid I'd hear) and Dylan had visited, secretly of course, and brought me a surprise.

"Ashton?" I looked at her in utter shock.

"Hey." She replied weakly. We stood looking at each other for a moment, before I completely lost it.

I rushed up to her and wrapped my arms around her.

"I've missed you so, so much." I whispered in her ear, tears springing from my eyes.

"I'm sorry I was such a b*tch to you." She whispered back.

"Me too. It wasn't right of me to use your parents as a comeback at the party." I apologized.

Ashton and I come a long way. From happy moments and living our lives recklessly, to terrible days where we cried our eyes out.

But her and her parents were a completely different story. And it wasn't until the day after the party I remembered what I said and felt awful about it.

F L A S H B A C K

Ashton came to my house one day with tears in her eyes, and mascara running uncontrollably down her face.

"Ash, what's wrong? What happened?" I asked once I opened the door.

"Can I come in?" She barely could get out the words.

"Yeah of course." I brought her up to my room and shut the door.

"What happened?" I asked again.

"It's..." She gulped in breaths of air. "It's my parents."

My eyes widened and my heart started pounding.

"What about them, Ash?" I almost regretted asking.

"They..." She started crying harder as she tried to contain herself long enough to spit out the words.

"They both got let go from their jobs so now we are completely broke and we have to move...(more gulps of air) and move to some dump." She exhaled heavily after finishing.

"Oh...Ash." I sat closer beside her to embrace her and securely wrapped my arms around her, tight.

She cried into my shoulder for the rest of the evening, me allowing her to seep out all emotions through her tears that stained my shirt.

Long story short, Ashton and her parents live in a run down house, the only one her and her parents could afford. Even with the money that Ashton put in from work, they still didn't have enough to pay it off. Her fancy clothes and signature newly-bought snap backs were her parents way of apologizing for being what they thought of themselves as "horrible parents". So, basically the whole parents and living situation topics were off limits to our conversations.

P R E S E N T

"So now that we're all back to being friends again, how about we start getting you ready?" Dylan cut in.

"Sure! I'm just going to grab my lipgloss. I left it in my jacket pocket in the hall closet downstairs." I made my way to the bedroom door.

"Is it the one you wore every single day at school last year?" Ashton reminisced.