Last Christmas

Story by CherryBlossom210

Chapter Two

She was always there with me, even if I was angry or upset. Somehow she turned from an annoying "little girl", to someone who was always by my side. I didn't know how she got so close, but she did anyway.

When we first met, she ran right into me, cussing me out and telling me to get out of her way. Of course being told off like that pissed me off, but that little spunk made her, I couldn't say attractive, but interesting. I'd never seen a girl like her before. She could stand up for herself and even take a joke. Then she told me she liked to listen to rock, she even recognized the name of the band from the shirt I was wearing. I was surprised, I had thought that every girl at school was one and the same.

Though I didn't admit at first, I was in to her. She amazed me.

Before I knew it, I was around her more, holding her hand more, and actually opening up to her.

I wasn't so sure what my feelings were. It was obvious I didn't hate her, but what was she to me...? And what was I to her?

I knew I liked her, but in what way did I like her? Did I love her?

My chest felt so unsure of what my heart was really beating for.

Then Christmas came. Not exactly my favorite holiday, even if it's suppose to be the "most wonderful time of the year". I could tell she loved Christmas. She was so cheery and joyous during this time of year. I didn't know why she liked it, but seeing her happy actually made me happy. What I really didn't expect was her giving me a gift, a Christmas gift. I was truly shocked in ways I couldn't explain. She knew I hated Christmas, but yet, she broke the rules and gave me a gift anyway.

What a spunky girl she is.

Without saying a word to me, she handed me the gift and urged me to read the note. As pushy as she was, I gave in and read the tag on top of the box.

It said,

Castiel, I hope you like this Christmas gift.

I worked up the courage to give it to you.

Anyways, Merry Christmas.

Love, Ashley.

My eyes grew wider after I read the same word over and over.

Love, Ashley?

LOVE?

She really loved me? I had never thought that anyone was capable of loving me. I had looked at her with sparks in my eyes. I knew this feeling was happiness, but I still couldn't figure out why I was so happy. Before I could even respond to her, she nervously said that she could wait for a reply. I wanted to respond now, but I still was so unsure.

The day after all this happened, there was a surprising knock on my door. I thought it was Ashley at first, but from what I remembered, I gave her a spare key just in case if anything happened. Before I could comprehend or recognize who was at my door, a blonde girl, kisses me under a mistletoe she held over my head. I was so confused, I was wondering the whole time how the hell Amber got my address and who she got it from.

This didn't feel right at all. My body was so stiff from shock that I couldn't push her away at that moment, but it took me a second to pry her off of me before I felt like throwing up.

There was a gasp and thump at the gate of my front lawn. I looked up to see who else was here to ruin my day, and I felt the color drain from my face faster than wind blowing through the strands of my hair.

It was Ashley, tears running down her face as if her heart was pulled apart. She had fallen backwards onto the ground in the heavy inches of snow.

Before I could reach out to her, she got up and ran. Seeing her run like that felt like I was punched in the gut. I wanted to run after her, but would she ever believe me even I tried to explain to her what happened? No she wouldn't, not the way she was at that moment.

Feeling as horrible as ever, I pushed Amber to the ground and yelled at her to "go to hell and never touch me again", before I slammed the door on her.

A week passed by and I never got a text or call from Ashley. I couldn't find her, not at home or at school. From what Lysander told me, she moved away to finish school somewhere else and she was trying to tell me this whole time. She had no choice but to go, she was practically forced to. I almost collapsed in front of my best friend and I spilled out everything that was on my mind.

She disappeared from me completely.

What the hell was going on? I didn't know anymore. I couldn't even comprehend how shitty I felt.

This was all last Christmas.

When I couldn't forget the girl who ran away.

...

The blinding lights overhung Castiel as he first opened his eyes in days after the accident. He couldn't help but groan when a wave of excruciating pain shot throughout his entire body. He felt so sore and his head hurt like hell.

He looked around the room, trying to familiarize himself to where he was at. A hospital room. It seemed that he was put in a private room. Castiel's head hurt so much, but he tried his best to remember the events that followed him here.

'Oh that's right, I saved Ashley from getting hit by a car... so I got hit instead.'

He felt something shift to his left side and a heavy weight was pinning his arm down. His gray eyes trailed to what was preventing him from moving his arm, and to his surprise, it was a sleeping girl sitting chair side to him, holding his hand tightly and using his arm as a pillow. The warmth of this girl's hand pulled him back to reality

Castiel could feel his heart skip a beat when he let the girl's name roll off of his tongue. "Ashley..?"

"Ohh you're finally awake, I'm Dr. Ramsey," a doctor came all of a sudden. "That was quite a scare you gave us, young man. You lost a lot of blood and your right tibia (leg) bone broke. There was no fracture to your skull, but your brain had very little bruising. You were lucky you only had a concussion. It could have been a lot worse."

Then Dr. Ramsey smiled when she noticed Ashley sleeping next to Castiel. "That's one heck of a girlfriend you have there."

"She's not my girlfriend," Castiel couldn't help but to correct her, not leaving his gaze from the sleeping girl.

"She's not? Anyone could've mistaken her as your girlfriend," Dr. Ramsey started, walking closer to Castiel's bed side. "The nurses tried to get her to leave, but she refused to leave your side. You've been unconscious for five days, and she hasn't left this hospital even once." Castiel still didn't look up once to his doctor, instead, he still continue to gaze at Ashley's soft features of her face.

"I don't mean to pry into anything personal, but if you're looking at her with hearts in your eyes, why isn't she your girlfriend yet?"

Castiel could feel the blood rush to his cheeks. She was right, because he just asked himself the exact same thing. Why wasn't Ashley his girlfriend by now? If his feelings weren't in such a mess, he would've figured it out by this point.

"You have a good point," Castiel said, not denying anything.

Dr. Ramsey shook her head and chuckled under her breath. "Well I'll be leaving now. See as that you are awake, you can go home today. I'll inform your parents and your friends that you're awake," Dr. Ramsey said as she left his room.

Wait... his parents? 'My parents are here?!'

A few minutes later, the door swung open with a worried mother flying to Castiel's side, hugging the life out of him.

"Mom, what are you and dad doing here?" Castiel struggled to get out of the hug without waking Ashley. "And dammit, can you please stop making so much racket. This is a hospital for fucking sake," Castiel cursed at his mother, who gave him a stern look about his choice of words towards her.

"Don't talk to your mother like that, Castiel," Castiel's dad stepped in, sighing out in a mixture of relief and annoyance. "This young lady next to you called us. I don't know how she got the number, but she was all frantic saying you were in a horrible accident."

"We were so worried and why didn't you tell us Ashley was your girlfriend," the woman pouted at her son. His parents had known about Ashley for a long time. The knew something was going to happen between them one day, and they quietly anticipated for it.. well mostly his mom.

Yet again, he had to correct someone else. "She's not my girlfriend, at least I don't know why she isn't," Castiel said softly hanging his head a little, he could feel this heat come to his face again, when he asked himself the same question over and over.

His parents looked at Castiel, kind of stunned. He was never the type to share his feelings with him, but yet now, his heart opened up a bit just because of one girl.

Castiel's parents glanced at each other, giving off an odd look of 'did you see that?' In the end, they both smiled for their son. The woman hugged her son gently before kissing his bandaged head. "We'll be in the lobby whenever you're ready to leave. Bring Ashley with you," Castiel's mom winked at him causing him to blush again from embarrassment.

Castiel looked back down to the sleeping girl, a little surprised that she didn't wake up yet. He was too quick for words as he saw the girl ruffling herself awake. Her brown eyes fluttered open and looked up to Castiel's gray eyes.

"Castiel!" Ashley flung herself to him and wrapped her arms behind his neck while she sobbed in relief that he finally came to. "I'm so happy you're okay! I thought you were going to die," she sniffed a little before she continued. "If you died, I would've never forgiven myself for the things I've said to you. I'm sorry that I didn't listen. I knew you weren't that kind of guy. I was just to scared in what to believe."

Castiel felt the warmth of Ashley's body envelope his cold skin. It felt so long to feel her like this, and it felt so right. He couldn't help it, he just had to hold her. So he wrapped his arms around her waist and held her back, being close to tears himself.

"Do you know how long I had it in my mind you were never coming back? I thought you left for good, and I didn't feel the same about anything anymore," Castiel pulled back to look at her.

"Ashley, I don't know if this feeling I'm feeling is love, but if you still love me, I'm willing to go the limits for you," he held her face, gently wiping her tears with his thumb.

Ashley squeezed her eyes, letting more rivers of tears triple down her face. She nodded very quickly before gaining the voice to reply to him. "Yes Castiel," she began as she held Castiel's hand on her face. "I do love you, I have never stopped loving you." Ashley tried to smile as her tears slowly came to a stop.

"Then I'll give the world for you," Castiel smiled back with his heart racing joyously.

They both became mesmerized by the warmth of the moment and found themselves leaning their heads in, anticipating for a long waited kiss... till the door flew open with six other people barging in, and they both froze in place.

"Hey Castiel! You know how worried we were, don't scare us like...," the silver haired girl paused, trying to understand why Castiel's face was so close to Ashley's.

"Were you two about to kiss?! Oh my God, oh my God mhmhmhm," Lysander covered her mouth before Rosalya could say anything unwanted. "Excuse us," Lysander smirked before dragging Rosalya back out of the room and closing the door.

The scene left Castiel and Ashley both silent and blushing profusely. "T-that was embarrassing," Ashley said as she covered her face with her hands, rubbing her cheeks to regain some of her lost control.

"T-those damn idiots.. Just when it was the right moment too," Castiel hit his face and shortly regretted it after he hissed in pain. "Hehehe," Ashley couldn't help but giggle.

"What's so funny," Castiel snarked, a little annoyed.

"I just thought you looked cute with a bandage wrapped around your head," Ashley said in a teasing manner.

"Hey, men are not cute. It's either, handsome, sexy or hot, not "cute"," Castiel smirked, giving off his signature smile.

"Well I just said you were cute, what are you gonna do about it?"

Castiel thought about it for a moment and an idea popped in his mind. He grabbed a hold of Ashley's arm and pulled her to where her lips came crashing down on his. Surprised at first, Ashley's steady heart started beating wildly out of control. Not only his lips felt good, but his taste was sensational. Wanting the kiss to go deeper, Ashley closed her eyes and leaned in more to Castiel's lips. He pulled her onto the bed with him, avoiding the cast of his broken leg. He wrapped his arms around Ashley's waist, enclosing every inch that was in between them. Ashley snaked her arms behind Castiel's neck once again, only to lead his lips deeper on to hers. Their lips synced perfectly against each other, grooving and moving against each other. Castiel wanted more than this, so he licked his tongue on the crease of Ashley's lips and she was happy enough to oblige. She slightly opened her lips and Castiel didn't waist any time by exploring her mouth in a deep french kiss.

When the two were finally out of breath, they both pulled apart with their chests heaving up and down, their lungs screaming for air.

Ashley giggled again and stole a quick kiss from Castiel. "I can tell you're feeling better already."

"What can I say, it's a miracle," he winked at her, pulling her into another passionate kiss.

FIN