Alaska

Chapter Twenty-Six

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

That night, Lexi and Ashton slept in each others arms.  It was a beautiful feeling and Lexi felt like she was protected from everything.  Ashton meant the world to her and she was falling for him more and more each day...

A blissful dream of worry free families and ferris-wheel kisses was cut short, when Lexi rolled over on her bed the next morning, to feel the side next to her completely empty.  Her eyes snapped open and she sat up, scoping her room for any sign of Ashton.  There was none.  She craned her neck to see if the bathroom door was shut, but it was open and the lights were off.  Confusion flooded through her mind and she swung her legs over her bed and stood up slowly, her back arching from the load on her belly.

She carefully opened her bedroom door quietly and popped her head out into the hallway.  Voices could be heard from downstairs as they drifted up, sounding muffled.  Lexi tip-toed across the landing and stopped at the top of the stairs, straining her ears to hear what the voices were saying.

"...And it is absolutely ridiculous that she declined.  I had quite a long time of making up a cover story for why she ran from him, and the Lee's were also quite furious!"  It was Patricia, talking in a hurried and stern voice.

Lexi rolled her eyes and crept down the stairs slowly and quietly, listening.

"I understand where you're coming from Mrs.  Withmore," Ashton's voice drifted out from the living room and Lexi widened her eyes.  "But think about your daughter.  Think about what she might be going through.  Alexia loves you very much and she knows she's done wrong.  She's avoided you these past few days because she knows the sight of her sickens you."

"It doesn't sicken us," Bill's voice drifed out from the room.  "But she knows what a hard time we had accepting her pregnancy at the mere age of sixteen and how preposterous it is.  The least she could have done was accepted the proposal from the father of her baby.  I mean- a marriage at sixteen is also ridiculous, but we actually allow it!"

"But think about how she's feeling!" Ashton pressed on, his voice sounding strained.

"I very well hope she's feeling ashamed!" Patricia snapped.

There was a pause, which sounded like Ashton drew in a sharp breath. 

"Your daughter wants your love and affection," he said.  "Look, I know you don't like me very much, I can tell, but I need to tell you a little something about myself.  My parents were complete jerks to me.  They didn't care about my intense feeling for this girl I was in love with.  They just cared about my college life.  I guess they just wanted to see me do well in life, but I couldn't handle their urging so I snapped at them and fought with them and told them off and pushed them away.  I'm not as strong as Alexia is with this stuff.  She could easily do the same and I doubt you'd like it if she moved away without another word to this family.  Your daughter is so beautiful, inside and out and she bottles everything up.  She doesn't deserve this."

There was silence.  Lexi was now sitting on the wooden steps, her head stuck in between the banister, her heart beating fast in her ribcage.  Ashton was actually standing up to her parents.  He was doing what he said he'd do on the ferris-wheel, yesterday.

"So your parents are not in your life?" Patricia broke the silence in a small voice.

"No, they're not.  I rebelled so much that they walked out on me," he said.  "It's both our fault."

"How did you meet my daughter if I may ask?" Bill questioned, in an accusing voice that Lexi always got a bite of, every time she used to go out to a place he thought was fishy.