Even Through the Storm

16. Pictures

"Ash," I say the next day, coming down the stairs to the basement. "We need to start packing. I move in two days. Ash?" He's asleep. I look at the time on my phone. It's one o'clock in the afternoon. "Ash!" He groans.

"What?"

"You've been asleep all day! We need to pack."

"What time is it?" He says, turning to look at me.

"It's one in the afternoon. When did you go to bed last night?" He sighs.

"About ten minutes after we got off the phone with my stepmom."

"That was three. You've been asleep for twenty-one hours! That's almost a whole day! Asher, get up!" I take a seat next to him on the air mattress. "Ash, I know you're going through a hard time right now, but you can't just sleep your life away. There are people in this world who love you. You have Peter, you have Dri, and most importantly, you have me. Please, Ash, it hurts to see you like this. I just want to see you smile. For me, please?"

"Babe, I just, I can't right now. I love you, you know that. It's like you said. I'm having a hard time." I smile.

"I love you too." I give him a kiss on the cheek. "Now let's go! Start packing."

***

Five hours later, Ash and I have packed both our rooms into boxes, except for our mattresses and a few necessities. Now we're putting away miscellaneous framed pictures. We find a small wallet photo sized frame on a bookshelf in the living room. "Is this your mom?" Ash asks. I look at it.

"Yeah." I forgot we had that picture of her. It's the picture that we used for her obituary. It's black and white, and of her on her wedding day, though she's in casual clothes. Her hair is down, and she doesn't have any makeup on. She's beautiful. "I didn't know that we still had a picture of her."

"Why wouldn't you?"

"Well, when my dad and Cassie started to get serious, we put most of them away. We must have missed this one." Asher hugs me from behind.

"She looks so much like you. Beautiful." He kisses me. I look up at him.

"If my Dad sees you."

"Then I would tell him the truth. That you're amazing."

"Aww, thanks. Now let's get this stuff into the truck."

***

Hours later, Ash and I are in the basement of my new house, unpacking the last of the boxes. "And done," I say closing a drawer full of Ash's t-shirts. Ash is sitting in his new bed, looking at a picture from his wallet. I walk over and sit next to him. The picture is of him and his parents when he was a baby. His parents are smiling and kissing.

"Lo?" He asks.

"Yeah?"

"I want to go back. I want to see my house today."

"Ash, are you sure?"

"Yeah. I want to see if anything is left. If there are any pictures left or something."

"Okay."