Driving from Bakersfield all the way to San Diego was worth it. Living in a small two bedroom apartment with my best girl friend was worth it. Working two jobs while trying to complete college courses was worth it. Staying up hours on end to facetime with him every night made sense. Calling someone who was hours away in case of emergency made sense. Every single thing I did was worth the moments spent with Ashton, my best friend since my freshman year of high school. I would never say I hate or regret the time I've invested and spent putting effort into our somewhat of a long-distance friendship.
I had driven hours, four hours and two minutes to be exact, to pick Ashton up from his parent's house. I left early in the morning, but still managed to get into a bit of a traffic jam. When I got there, we packed as much as we could into my little car. Not everything fit, but it was okay because Ash could always come back and get it later. His mother, oh so sweet, had let us borrow her car for the rest of the day to reconnect with a few of our friends, and get a bit of alone time too. Ashton and I had a small ritual going since I had moved down south, so that's what we did. We got ice cream and then hang with our close friends. When the evening came we'd go to the planetarium at the College and watch the stars. It used to end with spending the night and leaving in the morning, but this time of course, it was different.
On the way back to San Diego, Ash drove since I hated driving over the Grapevine at night. It was about 11pm and we were barely strolling through Pasadena since Ashton decided to take a different route to avoid traffic I started to laugh as I watched him sing along to The 1975. He pulled over to the side of the road and unbuckled his seatbelt. When I glanced over at him, he brushed his short bangs to the side and smiled widely.
"I want to feel the rain." he chirped.
"You want to feel the rain?" The radio was low, and the sounds of the raindrops hitting the car were harsh. "We're in the middle of a thunderstorm and you wanna stop and feel the rain?" I repeated, trying to coax some sort of answer from him.
"Yeah. Get out the car." He said, before getting out of the car himself and walking to my door, opening it.
I got out as well and frowned as Ashton threw his hoodie into the car before shutting the door. He climbed onto the hood of the car and I followed. "You're nuts." I mumbled, making no effort to try and avoid getting my hair and face wet.
"Nuts about you? Yes." He cooed, leaning in before placing a gentle kiss to my forehead.
He wrapped his arm around me and we started to talk about the future. Things were going to be different now. No more long distance. No more late night FaceTime sessions. No more calls from hours away, just minutes. More cuddles. More laughter. More coffee dates. More grocery shopping, but spending the entire budget on snacks. More love.
And with all the rain falling I had realized these things were a big step in our future. Everything was changing, and we were growing into a totally different dynamic It could make things stronger. It would make things stronger. All because Ashton wanted to stop and feel the rain.
