tongue-tied and heartbroken ||mashton||

Chapter 13

A few days later, Ashton dragged me from Luke's house to go on a date. He claimed he had the perfect day planned, and there was no time to waste. I dressed casually, because Ashton said we weren't going anywhere fancy. I got in his car and he drove a short distance to a nearby park.

Ashton grabbed a bag out of the backseat and grabbed my hand, leading me through the trees to a small clearing. He set down the bag and opened it, pulling out a blanket. "I made a picnic lunch for us," he grinned, laying down the blanket and sitting down. I sat beside him as he pulled out several containers of food. Sandwiches, chips, fruit, and cookies.  "It's not much, but I thought it'd be nice for us to be alone, where no one could find us."

"It's perfect," I smiled, looking over at my grinning boyfriend. He was so proud of himself for putting together a picnic lunch and planning a whole day for us to be together. I loved him so much.

After our picnic lunch, Ashton said he had even more planned. We would be together all day. And no one could stop us. Ashton didn't want to hide our love. He wanted everyone to know about us. Which was strange, considering he used to never know I even existed. We walked through a beautiful botanical garden, looking at all the pretty flowers. Ashton even got distracted while watching a blue butterfly flutter through the air and land on a flower. I smiled and took pictures of him acting like a little kid. It was the cutest thing.

Ashton would run ahead, laughing and smiling and dancing around. Then he would stop and look back, making sure I was still there and waiting for me to catch up. I loved watching him have fun and being whoever he wanted to be.

After the botanical garden, we walked through town and went into a few of the shops and stuff. Ashton wouldn't let go of my hand the entire time. When dinner time rolled around, he took me to our favorite place: a small, local, family-owned diner. We ordered our usuals: a cheese burger each, fries to split. Ashton got a strawberry milkshake, no cherry. I got vanilla, extra whipped cream. We ate, and laughed, and talked, and joked. It was just another great date with the love of my life.

Just when I'd thought that was the end of an amazing day, Ashton had one last surprise. The sun was setting. He drove us to the beach. We laid out the blanket from our picnic and sat there, watching the sun set on a quiet beach that he'd found. He grabbed my hand and leaned his head on my shoulder, smiling at the colorful sky as the waves lapped the shore in front of us.

"Come on, let's get in the water," Ashton grinned, jumping up.

"Ash, I don't know-"

"Oh come on!" He grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the water, splashing in. The water was cold.

"Ashton!" I squealed, jumping back from the cold ocean water.

"Let's go," he laughed, pulling me back in. We splashed around in the shallow water as the sun set in front of us. As it got darker, we curled up on the blanket. He pressed a hard kiss to my lips, tangling his hands in my hair and pulling me closer than I thought possible. We were so entangled in each other, enjoying the time we had alone. My life had never felt so right, and I knew I wanted to be with Ashton forever. He was the only person I could ever love.

As we laid on the blanket that night, stargazing, I grabbed his hand and squeezed it tight. I never wanted to let go of him. Everything felt so right with him next to me. I couldn't help but look at him, his eyes shining in the pale moonlight. He caught me staring at him, and looked deep into my eyes.

"I love you, Ashton. I really do. I've never loved someone in my entire life."

"I love you, too, Michael."

And then, everything changed.