Spencer

I peeked into Aiden's hospital room, just to see how things were going between him and Ash. I had my chance to come in and visit him; I was a little hesitant seeing as he still had feelings for my girlfriend. But it was time to put all that aside, for now. We didn't say much to each other, I just sat there staring at the bandage that was placed over his wound. I asked the obvious questions like… "How are you feeling?" "Does it hurt?" that type of stuff. He answered with the usual blank responses… "Fine." "Just a little." He was in surgery for about three hours until the doctors were able to remove the bullet from his rib-cage. All the hatred I had towards him had gone away in those 10 seconds of gun fire. He used his own body to cover me, to protect me from harm, not Ashley. And given the situation we were in seconds before, I was a little shocked. If it weren't for Aiden, I'd probably be on that hospital bed gazing up at Ashley, her tears of grief and relief dripping on my blankets.

I slowly cracked the door open to Aiden's room and peeked through.

"Thank you for protecting Spencer, you were there when I wasn't," I heard her say. You could here the sorrow in her voice; I could tell she was trying to hold back her tears.

"Don't mention it," Aiden's voice came. "It's only a little flesh wound." He and Ashley laughed.

"Yeah, I guess so." It was silent between the two for a moment, then Aiden began to stroke her cheek. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, this was all too familiar to the day I saw them in the quad together. He was stroking her hair gently, she was gazing deeply in his eyes; she had never looked at me that way.

Before I knew it, Ashley lowered her face to his and they kissed. A huge knot formed in my gut, my limbs became weak, I felt as if I could barely stand. I tried to hold back the sensation to cry but I just couldn't. I put a hand over my mouth to hold back the emerging whimper. I ran away sobbing like a little girl who had just broken her doll, or lost her puppy. I zoomed through the waiting room and skipped out of the automatic doors, onto the parking lot.

Ashley

I quickly pulled away from Aiden; I don't know what came over me. In the heat of the moment I had this sudden urge to kiss him. Was it because I felt sorry for him, or was it something else? Did I really love Aiden, the way he loved me? I jumped off the bed and began to pace the room. "I can't believe I just did that, I can't believe I just did that." I repeated, the tone in my voice escalating each time I said it. "Did we really do that?" I asked him.

"Yeah, yeah we did." Aiden muttered, sitting up in his bed. I walked towards him and pressed my fist in his patched up wound. "Damn it Ash. What the hell!" he shouted.

"You perv, I can't believe you kissed me." I shouted.

"Excuse me, you kissed me." Aiden said, rubbing his wound.

"That's ridiculous, I'm with Spencer." I say, going back to pacing the room and rubbing my aching skull.

"Right, well how about we just keep this between us. Know one has to know about it." Aiden said.

"Yeah good idea, it was just a silly kiss between friends. We just got caught up in the moment and we kissed, that's all." I denied. It was way more than just a silly kiss. I felt something in that kiss, something that I had never felt with Spencer.

"Silly? I wouldn't say that, I thought it was kinda nice." Aiden said. That stopped me in my tracks.

"What'd you say?"

"Nothing, forget I said anything." He looked down at his legs then back up at me. I walked closer to his bed.

"I… thought it was nice too." I say, taking my seat beside him once again.

"Since this stays between us, why don't we… try it again?" he says. At that moment, I lusted for him, I wanted to be with him, I wanted his lips on mine. I forced them onto his; he slowly brushed his hands through my hair as we passionately kissed.

To Be Continued…