Ashley's scrapbook

a short story inspired by Terminal by Echosmith

Ashley laid on her bed in the girls dorm at a boarding school in London, looking through the scrapbook of her childhood art work. The first few pages were filled with childish drawings and next to each one her mothers had written what Ashley had told her the drawing was. A yellow circle with a red triangle in the background was the farm her kindergarten class had visited on a field trip. But there was only one finger painting it was a copy of the of the original with the words 'to dad' written next to it and the date the original had been made. Ashely remembered that day, her kindergarten calss hand been making pictures for Father's day which was that weekend she had spent the whole time trying to make her painting of a rainbow perfect. And on Father's day Ashley had woken up a lot earlier then she usually did wanting to surprise her dad with the painting.

Ashley tried to hold in her tears as she remembered that day.

"Dad!" Ashley had cried out a little louder than she needed to after knocking on her parents' door holding her gift in her other hand. She hadn't seen her dad in a while since he had been on a buisness trip for a month, but he'd promised to be home on Father's day.

Ashley remembered her mother brushing her tears away after explaining that plane's couldn't fly with all the snow. But her five year old self didn't care, she just wanted her dad to come home.

Ashley flipped to the next section of the scrapbook. It was filled with drawings of horses because the summer before fourth grade she had taken riding lessons and had fallen in love with horses. At the end of summer vacation Ashley had gone with her mom to the train station to pick up her dad who still went on buisness trips a lot. She had ran to her dad when she saw hime get off ther train and he held her close when she reached him.

Ashley flipped through the pages of the scrapbook to the sixth grade section when she had stopped trying to draw horses and had begun drawing anime after she had discovered the Poke'mon manga at the library. One drawing showed a black silhouette in the background with a girl in the center of the page crying and on the ground next to the girl's feet is a ring. The summer before sixth grade her parents' told her they were getting divorced. A few months later during the first school break, Ashley was visiting her dad and he told her that he had a girlfriend. Soon after her dad started spending more time with his new girlfriend than with her. Ashley had drawin this picture trying to deal with her feelings she remembered thinking, if he really loved me he wouldn't choose her over me.

During seventh grade she stopped trying to convince herself that her parents' will get back together someday.

Ashley started attending boarding school the next year. There wasn't an eighth grade section of the scrapbook because she started writing poetry instead of drawing. Ashley closes the scrapbook and puts it in her suitcase. She was spending winter break at her aunts house.

On the last day of winter break Ashley walked to King's Cross station thankful that her aunt lived nearby. Once at King's Cross Ashley takes out her cell phone from her coat pocket, she knows now that sometimes love doesn't last forever but she will always love her parents. Ashley took off one of her mittens and types out a text and hits send.

I'm waiting here cause I wanted to so meet me here at a terminal.

A minute later she gets a reply, at a terminal. In one hour.

An hour later Ashley runs into her dad's arms and he holds her close and she whispers, "You've been gone for quite a while, why don't we see where we go."

Her dad hugs her tighter and whisperss back, "Where we go."

From that moment on Ashley was closer to her dad then she has ever been.