The Struggle

Sydney's POV.

I'm sprinting as fast as I can to get away from Luke's house. I have trillions of thoughts going through my head right now and I can't comprehend any of them. I come to a stop once I see a convince store ahead of me. What a weird place to have a little store like that in the middle of a neighborhood.
Ashton's POV.
It's now time to start my favorite task of the day: my shift at Lenny's Convenience Store. I hate this job but I need to make money some how. What I mainly hate about it so much is that people rarely come in hear and it's boring as fuck. Most of the people that do come in hear are just teenagers looking for a place to get cheap alcohol without being carded for parties or what ever they use the shit for. Although, I must admit, the place does have good music but that's probably because it's always my music playing form my phone. The store is located in the most peculiar of places. It's right in the middle of a striving little neighborhood full of young kids and successful adults. This run-down store sticks out like a sore thumb.
When I hear the bells on the door ring, I know that a customer has arrived. When I look over at the customer, I have to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming. I see the most beautiful girl ever. Every time I see this girl I think that about her. Even now, out of breath and a thin layer of sweat covering her face, she holds the top spot on the most beautiful girls ever list. But then again, no one can compete against her because she's that beautiful.
"Uh..Hi Sydney..Can I help you? Sorry the 'can I help you' part is mandatory to say if you're an employee here." I say. you fucking dipshit! She doesn't care what you have to say.
"Ashton, I didn't know you worked here! I mean, I never even knew of this store but I didn't know that you worked." she says laughing at the joke I said but she quickly covers her mouth with her hands. "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry that sounded so rude!" she states as her face turns tomato red. That's one of the cutest and one of my favorite things about her. Who am I kidding? I can't choose my favorite thing about her.
"Hahahah it's okay, no worries." I say and she seems slightly relieved. A silence fills the room after I say that. Not an awkward silence though. A silence that two friends can have together and enjoy.
"So, uhm..how long have you been working here?" she asks trying to make conversation.
"About three months." I say.
"Oh, Ash, is it okay if I call you that? I really like the sound to it," God do I love this girl. I just wish she felt the same way.
"Yeah, that's okay." I simply state, smiling at the way she has her eyebrows are slightly lifted up when waiting for my response while loving the way she glows with the tiny layer of sweat on her. She's just perfect in every single way. I don't know why Luke would cheat on her when he has a gem right in front of him.
"Okay hehe. I just wanted to apologize again for what Luke said to you after homecoming. I really am sorry." she says. I hate how she's always the one making up for his mistakes. I hate the way that he's constantly breaking her in to tiny pieces so small that it could be mistaken for powder.
"Sydney..you need to stop apologizing for the things that he does. I know how sorry you are for what he said to me but that isn't your fault. I know that Luke doesn't like me and I know that he hates it when we're together even more. But, him hating me isn't my point at the moment. My point is that I hate that you're always covering up for his fuck ups. I don't know if you've noticed it or if anyone else has noticed it but he's been slowly breaking you down into tiny fragments of what you used to be. I mean, I've never personally known you or anything but I've seen you and I know that you're not as happy as you could be...He's wearing you down." Finally, I have the words off my chest that I've been wanting to say since they started dating.
"Luke and I are over.." She announces.
"Sorry." I say, masking my excitement as best I can.
"You don't have to apologize. I know that you're not sorry that we broke up hah..I was actually on my way home from his house when I stopped in here."
"Do you want to talk about it?" I ask her, hoping the she'll oblige.
"Sure...You know, you're the first person to notice that anything was wrong..and that I wasn't okay." She says to me.
"I just want to be there for you." I inform her.
"Thank you. Okay so where should I start..Well, you know what went down at homecoming hahah. Then in the car ride home I was telling him how he can't talk to people like that and that it really hurt me since he was cheating on me. Then he told me that he wasn't doing anything wrong by cheating on me since we were bound to break up at some point-"
"Wait! He said that he wasn't doing anything wrong by cheating on you because he knew that you guys were bound to break up at some point?" she nods her head "What a dickhead!"
"Yeah hah..I called him that before I left" she says and we share the best laugh that I've ever had in my life. She then tells me about how he called her mom telling her that he was going to take her out today and how he said he was wicked sorry and how she called him a cheating dickhead.
"Then we were in the den and I started to walk away because I wanted to leave and he grabbed me by the waist and pushed me down on the couch and started felling me up and tried to get in my pants but then I said that he was hurting me and then he said, and I quote 'you deserve to feel pain. Feel the pain that I've felt for the past days.' That comment really pissed me off and then I got enough rage so I got my arms free and ran away. Then, I stumbled in here and here we are." I'm glad that she let that off her chest.
"Wow...I didn't know it was that bad."
"Yeah." she simply says. "well, I should probably get going. My mom is probably expecting some point soon." She informs me.
Fuck. I've got to make her stay.
"Okay then." I say back. Way to fucking go on making her stay!
"Okay then..Well, uhm, thank you for listening to me and my problems hah, it really means a lot to me." she says with a smile.
"Yeah anytime. I'm there for you."
"Thank you" she says with a smile and with that she heads for the door.
I can't just let her leave like this! This is the first time since I've laid eyes on this girl that we've been able to talk to each other with out having her dickhead boyfriend-ex boyfriend I have to correct myself- throwing names at me and pulling her away.
"Sydney, wait...I uhm..I get off really soon if you want to maybe hang out or something or go anywhere.." I offer her, hoping she'll agree. It seems like she takes a moment to think about my offer before she responds with,
"Yeah, I'd like that." paired with her perfectly straight, pearly white smile.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thirty minutes later once I'm off my shift, we're in my car and headed to the Ninety Nine.
"Hello there, welcome to Ninety Nine restaurant, I'm Greg and I'll be your server for today! Can I start you out with something to drink?" he asks. I keep a careful eye on him the whole time he's addressing us, hoping that he gets the message of not to look at Sydney.
"May I have a water please?" she says.
"Certainly!" the waiter responds way to happily.
"Can I have a coke please?" I tell him and I notice that he doesn't respond as happily to me as he responded to Sydney with. Hm, I wonder why?
Forty minutes later, we're both done with our meals and we're heading back to the car.
"Thank you for the food." she says with a smile to me. I could stare at her smile for the rest of my life and never get tired of it.
"Yeah, no problem. I'm glad you had a good time."
"Yeah, I did! Did you also?"
"Yes hah," I answer her question. How could I not have a good time with her? We could be having a huge argument and I'd still be having a good time with her.
On the car ride home, I learn a lot about her. I learn that she loves hockey yet can't skate to save her life. I learn that she hates pickles yet really likes cucumbers. No matter how hard I try to tell her that cucumbers and pickles are practically the same thing, she won't agree. She says that she loves the smell of pickles yet can't stand the taste. Go figure. I also am pleased to learn information about her other than little fun facts. I find out that she has multiple little sisters and that her parents aren't in the happiest marriage. She also tells me that she loves to read and write and that one of her favorite things to do is blast her favorite music while dancing like a maniac and singing completely off key.
"Oh! I also really like animals but we can't have any because my mom says that they'll 'ruin the house'. What about you?"
"What about me?"
"Tell me about yourself. I've told you about me. I want to know about you too!" she says very enthusiastically.
"Okay, uhm..let's see, where do I begin?" I say to myself but apparently she hears me.
"The beginning. I want to know about you from the very beginning up until right now!" This is going to take a while.
"Okay, this is going to be a long time." I inform her.
"Good. I've got nothing but time." she says. And with that, I start my story.
(Sorry it took me so long to update :( The song that I think really fits this story is Risk it All by the Vamps so you guys should listen to it:D)