1969 | a.u. a.i

5

Ashton's P.O.V

I'm closing up the shop when I hear a girl scream. My head snaps towards the noise. I see three white teenage boys surrounding a girl. I look closely and it's Grace. I shove the keys in my pocket and ran towards her. Half way there one of the boys hits her. I run faster and tackled him to the ground.

I get on top and start wailing on him. His buddies ran away from the scene. "Ashton get off of him!" Grace cries. I stop hitting the teenage boy and got off of him. "Don't let me catch you hitting any other females you prick." I spit at him backing towards Grace.

He gets up from the ground holding his nose as blood pours out, "You'll pay for this." He says, stumbling away from us. "Yeah, don't count on it." I shoo him away. He groans and runs away. I look at Grace and she has tears running down her face. I walk towards her wrapping my arms around her small frame.

She cries into my chest for a little bit and pushes away from me. I rest my hands on her shoulders as she wipes the tears off her cheeks. I look at her face seeing a hand print on her beautiful light skin. Bastards. She sniffs, "Thank you." She says, finally looking up at me with red eyes. "Your welcome. Come here." I say, placing my hand on her lower back.

I guide her to the shop. I unlock it and opened the door for her. "Wait here." I tell her, walking to the employee room. I grab a sandwich bag and put some ice in it. I grab a piece of paper towel so it won't be too cold on her skin.

I walk back to the front and went to Grace. She's looking out the glass door sitting in the waiting chair with her legs crossed. Trail of tears going down her cheeks. My heart goes out to her. I walk towards her and went on bended knee in front of her. I place the ice pack on her cheek.

She closes her eyes and places her cold hand on my warm one. She looks at me with her light brown eyes staring into my green ones. At this moment I take in her features. Her light complexion is beautiful. Her lips are full as she has a small nose and her eyes big. I'm in awe. She's honestly beautiful.

"You're staring." She smiles at me. I blink and cleared my throat. "Now you know how it feels." I smirk at her. She laughs. She takes the ice pack off her face her cool hand still on my hand. I look at our hands. Her hands are so small. I hold it and played with her knuckles. I look at her and she's staring at my thumb work.

"Has anybody ever told you how beautiful you are?" I ask. Her eyes snap to me pinkness rising to her cheeks. I smile at her reaction. "Does my mom count?" she asks, with a raised brow. I chuckle at her response. I shake my head no. "Then no. I'm sorry." She shrug her shoulders, looking away from my stare. I let go of her hand and sat next to her.

She puts the ice pack back to her cheek not looking at me. I take her free hand. She looks over at our hands. Then her eyes went up to my gaze. She looks away and let's go of my hand. She sighs and gets up from the chair. Confusion written on my face I ask, "What's wrong?" She hands me the ice pack and doesn't look at me, "I have to go. Bye Ashton." Just like that she walks out of the shop.