Ashton:
“I’m going to miss this.” With only honesty in the low hum of his voice, Ashton told you with a croak. He was perched right behind you, legs open with you in the middle, and resting all of his weight on his forearms as his hands were sinking into the dry and cool sand you two were sitting in. It had been a little while since you two took a late night stroll along the beach together. He had been so busy with the band taking off and you were generally drained when he came by to pick you up from your shift at the grocery store, sometimes it was a struggle not to doze off in the front seat of his car right after.
He could taste the sea breeze blowing through your hair, the smell of salt mixing into your shampoo that he had already stolen a small tester bottle of in order to carry a piece of you around the world with him. He had become so accustom to that scent, waking up to your mane right in his face, as well as a handful of messy nights in the backseat of his car, your hair sticking to him with your combined sweat as strong as Krazy Glue.
You were going to miss this, but for a completely different reason. Ashton’s mind had him convinced that he would come home to this when there was a break during tour legs. He thought that when you came to see him in Los Angeles or Spain or anywhere near a coast, you two could close your eyes and pretend to be back home together while lying over the sand. You knew better though. In front of him, your eyes were closed as you breathed in the perfume of the ocean, listening to the waves rise just to fall, and took in the feeling of Ashton’s warm skin brushing up behind your back. This was the last time you two would be like this. This was the last time you two would be. It wasn’t an easy decision to make, you had already cried about it in bed, at the kitchen table, and in the shower, but it felt like what was best and you were coming around to accept that fact. Right now, you and Ashton had lives as different as a rock star’s and a check out girl’s. It couldn’t be denied even though he always acted as if it was no big deal.
“Two days…” He giggled in a whisper right behind your head, his fingers tapping into the sand as he was truly unable to hide his excitement. Ashton knew he was going to miss you and his family poorly, but he had been dreaming, actually lying in bed and having vibrant dreams, of performing in an awesome band since before he had hair anywhere beyond his head. He couldn’t wait to be keeping the beat for three of his best friends, seeing what all the other places in the world had to offer.
“You’re going to do so great.” You spoke to the ocean, facing it as you smiled. While many people poked fun at Ashton and bombastically shot down his dream, you had felt it from the moment you met him in the corner of a billiard hall, hundreds of Saturday nights ago, that he was going to be somebody, he was going to make his mark on the planet. While you wished, selfishly, that he would stay, you knew that even party balloons couldn’t be tied down. He had to go. “I’m so excited to watch you blow up.” Laughing lightly, you turned your head to watch him over your shoulder for a second, his smile right on yours. You lifted up your knees to your chest and Ashton took your gaze as an invitation to lean in and kiss you, savoring the peppermint taste that was painted in layers over your lips due to the lip balm you had been using since the hot weather returned. He held your lips against his, sipping you back like a hard lemonade under summer heat, and you almost cried at the mouth massage. You didn’t want to pull away. You wondered if you reached around and held him to you if he could possibly stick to your bottom lip and stay put.
Without asking for your consent, a few brave tears dripped down your cheeks, burning into them, and tickling Ashton’s face. He sat back abruptly, smiling and wiping at the residue on his cheeks with his wrist before he realized you were crying.
“Awh, doll, come on…” Playfully, he jetted out his bottom lip and reached around your neck with one arm to pull you close into the crevice between his chin and chest. It was a small divet in his body that you seemed to fit into perfectly like a handmade puzzle piece. He slid down deeper into the sand, his elbows buried, as he held you against him. “Don’t be sad. You’re going to visit in a month.” You two hadn’t actually spent a month apart before. There were the two weeks where he and his family went away to New Zealand, but that was all. Even then, you two texted like you would die without communication.
