Loving You Again

Ch. 2: Remember

PRESENT:

"Katie, where's the dog food?" I shouted as I opened the cabinet below the sink where we usually kept the food for the dogs. I huffed as I rummaged through the cabinet but didn't seem to find what I wanted. Luna sniffed around and tried looking for her food in the cabinet. "Luna, wait." I laughed.

Luna let out a whine as she backed away and nudged my shoulder. I turned to pet her head and kissed it. "I don't know where Katie left your food."

I slumped on the floor in front of the cabinet and wondered where the brown haired girl would've put the food. "She forgot to take it out of the car." I jumped at the voice which erupted a laugh from Luke.

"I didn't know you were in here." I looked up to meet his eyes.

"I'm quiet like a ninja." He smirked down at me. I rolled my eyes and lifted my hand to signal him to help me up. Luke took it as he pulled me up.

Katie walked out into the kitchen with a water bottle in hand. "Did you call?" Luna gave me a look as if saying, 'Hurry, I'm hungry!'.

"I need to get the dog food out of the car." I walked past her and towards the front door. We kept the keys in a bowl on a table next to it so we would always know where they were, yet somehow Luke always managed to lose his around the apartment.

I fished the keys that had cherries as the keychain and before opening the door, Ashton came out into the living room area. "Ash, can you help me with the dog food?"

Ashton nodded as Luna looked at him for a pet, her tail wagged and she stood on her hind legs. She adored him. Luna was a mixed pitbull and the sweetest thing that roamed the earth. Although Katie's pug, Lily, had passed three years ago, she decided to adopt another one, Mocha, the same day I adopted Luna. Mocha and Luna were very close but one Mocha the lazy one out of the two.

I opened the door and told Luna to stay as Ashton followed me out.

It had been five years since I had arrived in California. I had gotten used to life here and it felt like home now. After Katie and I graduated a year ago and got our Bachelor's, we decided as a group to move in together, because of how high rent was around where we wanted to live. Luke had gotten a job at a music studio as an intern, I was working to get into medical school, as well as Katie working to get her Master's in film, and Ashton was working for his Master's in math while working as a substitute teacher. We all wanted to live in the middle of where we commuted to make it easier for all of us.

Ashton was Luke's best friend, and I met him the day after meeting Katie and Luke. They had asked me to hang out with them and Ashton had been Luke's right hand for many years before they came to the U.S. When I first saw him I didn't think much of him, he was your average guy but very quiet and self kept. Being that I was dorming with Katie, we became close and it led the four of us to become a family.

I got to know Ashton well and there was something about him that made me want to be near him and a small tension had developed between us. Ashton being a quiet soul was very intelligent and we bonded over math that I needed in order to complete the classes to go to medical school. From then on we had this unspoken relationship I didn't quite understand, but it was something I wasn't ready to talk about with him.

Ashton shot me a warm smile as we got on the elevator. I gave him a questionable look, "What?"

He reached over to tug at my bun lightly. "I like your hair like this." I laughed as I saw my distorted reflection on the elevator walls. I shook my head lightly as my bun wobbled. Ashton laughed. His laugh was a contagious laugh, and no matter how I felt, it always made me smile or laugh along.