Shit happens.
Meow.
Chris cracked his eyes open slightly, sleepy blue orbs staring into the green eyes of the cat that was sitting on his chest. Jade's soft pink nose lightly nuzzled his own, the grey fur around the textured snout mixing with the pink. With his glasses on his nitestand, he couldn't exactly see the edges where it switched from soft nose to fluffy fur. Then again, she was so fluffy with her long soft fur that he couldn't tell normally where her nose ended and her fluff started. He let out a small yawn, watching the blurry cat shuffle closer to him, her soft paws sitting on his chest. She began shifting her paws in a manner that Ashley would call 'making biscuits'; a loud purr rumbled from her throat while she closed her grassy eyes in content.
Chris was confused as he lifted his hand and rubbed on one of her ears lightly between his fingers, the fur cozy against his skin.
She had done this before of course, but only to her 'mother', Ashley. Who at the current moment of three fifteen in the morning, as his clock stated, was not here as she and Sam had plans that nite. The blond let out a small breath, as to not startle the cat. He'd rather not get claw marks on his chest and then have Ashley ask about them the next time they saw each other.
Or not.
He hadn't exactly been shirtless in front of her. In fact, the only time that she had seen a lot of his skin, and that he had seen a lot of hers, was when they would go swimming in the summertime over at Josh's house. A flush spread quickly over Chris' cheeks as he thought about her smooth skin.
"No." He grunted to himself, his voice deeper as it hadn't been in use while he had been sleeping. "No, stop it Chris, go back to sleep."
The purring grew louder from Jade as she attempted to shuffle even closer to the slightly rustled boy, then leaning in to give his nose a rough lick from her papilled tongue.
"Cat." The blond called out quietly, retracting his hand and putting it at his side.
Meow.
Chris sighed loudly this time in hopes that the cat, not his cat but Ashley's cat, would remove herself from the premises that was his chest. He wanted to turn onto his side and go back to bed, but Jade was relentless in giving in.
Meow.
"How did you even get into my room cat?" He stared at her green eyes that were now opened slightly while her throat rumbled louder.
Jade leaned down and rested her forehead on Chris' chin before setting her paws underneath her chest and deciding that was the best spot to completely fall asleep in. A small snort sounded from the boy, and he remembered seeing her do this to Ashley when they would lay down on his couch while Chris was doing homework.
Without speaking, Chris closed his eyes and let Jade win tonite. After all, he never got to spend time or feel liked at all by this cat. It felt nice.
"Chris!" Ashley yelled out, running up and latching herself around the blonds body while he hugged her back. Without missing a beat, she moved her soft locks out of her beautiful face and leaned up to press a kiss against Chris' chapped lips. "You won't believe how fun last nite was!"
Ashley's grin was radiant as she pulled Chris over to a table that was outside of the coffee shop, in which he had just gotten his morning caffeine from. Though they had been dating for quite a while now, he still felt himself flush as he watched her scoot her chair right next to his, wrapping her arms around his left arm while he sipped at his beverage.
"What did you guys even do?" He questioned, glancing over to see her staring at his drink. He smiled at her. "It's black coffee." Ashley's nose crinkled cutely at that before she took a small sip anyways.
As she set the cup back into her partners hands, she connected her gaze to his ocean blue eyes, her own peridot ones were shining. "Last nite we went to see Spring Awakening! It was magnificent!"
Ashley's smile was beaming as she began recalling the musical that she and Sam had went to see, explaining that it was about many teens with different problems; some were in love with the same gender, some were in love with each other and hadn't known, one of them was pregnant and there was even suicide in it. Chris couldn't help but feel his own smile tug onto his lips as he watched her eagerly telling him all the key points in it. He found it cute how excited she got over small things that seemed to thrill her so.
Without any hesitation, Chris leaned down and kissed her softly while she was staring up at him, talking about the songs that they had been singing and that her favorite one was called 'The Mirror Blue Nite'. Ashley flushed deeply when the blond pulled away, a smirk on his face while he looked into her eyes of gorgeous green.
"Does that mean you don't want to hear anymore?" She prodded jokingly, a small giggle finding its way out of her mouth and floating up her rosy cheeks all the way to Chris' ears. He shook his head at her, relishing in her sweet laughter.
"I just really wanted to kiss you right then." He stated, watching as the red head looked away, hiding some of her face behind the green sleeve of her sweater. Wait... "When did you take my sweater again?"
Ashley shrugged as she scooted closer to Chris, though she couldn't scoot any closer as the chairs legs wouldn't allow it. "The other day when I came over and you were in the shower." She mumbled softly. "I saw that it was on your dresser with the other clothes you were going to wear, so I took it and put it in my bag when you were washing up." She giggled again as Chris gave her an incredulous look.
"I was wondering where it went!" He snorted at her, giving her a grumpy face as she leaned up to kiss his 'upsetness' away. "And I just got it back..." He mumbled out as he leaned into the kiss, setting his right hand against her velvet skin.
He moved his lips slowly against hers, a tentative motion as they still couldn't fully grasp that they both wanted to kiss each other with great fervor. Ashley pressed into it, her body leaning against Chris' side more while she tightened her grip around his left arm. Emotion was washing over the both of them as Chris cupped her cheek more, brushing his thumb across it. Ashley let out a soft sigh that sent a wave of heat throughout Chris' body.
A loud cough sounded out beside the two, and they nearly fell out of their chairs as they pushed away from each other out of embarrassment at being caught kissing in public.
"I hope I'm not interrupting anything."
Chris and Ashley glanced up at a slightly flustered Mike, his brown eyes looking away from the two young adults who had just been indulging in...well, themselves.
"Uh, no, uh," Chris took a moment to think about his words while Ashley hid her face against Chris' jacket sleeve. "Sorry, we don't normally-"
"Make out in public?"
Chris and Ashley flushed deeper, and the two of them averted their gazes from Mike, and instead at the ground. Ashley nodded mutely, her cheeks ablaze with heat. Chris glanced as Ashley before finally bringing his gaze back up to Mike, who was pulling out one of the chairs and seating himself across from the couple.
"So, how's everything going?" He asked curtly, brown eyes gazing at Chris with curiosity as the blonds girlfriend attempted to fuse into his arm.
The tech geek gave a small shrug. "Asides from school and working most of the time, pretty good. Just working to make money and pay for my apartment plus schooling." He took another sip of his coffee. "I heard from Ash here that you're in the Air Force?"
Mike nodded and gave a small smile. "Yeah. It's something that my pops and I always talked about when I was back at home. I wanted to make him and my mother proud." He took a moment to breath in heavily before looking over to Ashley. "That, and I wanted to make Jess proud." He smiled warmly.
Chris raised his eyebrow. "How is she doing? I wasn't sure considering we haven't heard from you guys since graduation."
Mike smirked at this, raising his left hand while Ashley's eyes popped from her sockets.
"You guys are married?" She exclaimed incredulously. "Why didn't you say anything?"
Mike shrugged. "It was a real small gathering, only super close family. Not that we don't love you guys or anything, but it was right before I went into the Air Force. With everything that was going on right then, I didn't want to put any stress on Jess." Mike motioned to Ashley as he leaned forward. "Anyways, how's that one guy from the other day? He still fucking with you?"
It took a moment for Chris to register what Mike had said. Fucking with her? He turned his confused look to Ashley, who seemed to be frantically mouthing 'shut up' and 'he doesn't know'. A feeling of dread rose up inside of Chris as every worry of her leaving him or cheating on him flooded into his heart. Grabbing harshly onto his coffee cup, he stood quickly, surprising both of the persons who he had been chatting with.
"I need to go." He said shortly, his eyes seeming to blaze with a short fuse as he promptly stormed off.
"Wait, Chris! It's not what you might think!" Ashley called out, standing quickly to run after him, but Mike grabbed onto her wrist and held her back with a firm grip.
He shook his head, saying that he needed a minute. The green eyes of the red head burned with anger while Mike frowned deeply.
"I'm sorry." He barked sarcastically. "I figured since you two are dating that he should know about something like this." The dark haired male stated simply. Ashley gave him a small glare that he matched. "Listen, it shouldn't be a surprise that he walked off."
"He should have let me explain first!" Ashley challenged back, ripping her wrist from his grip.
"And you should have told him in the first place!" Mike shook his head while he stood up. "You know what, you can say whatever you want, but when you're getting bullied by someone who is putting his hands on you that create bruises," He motioned to Ashley's arms, where he remembered seeing to growing bruise. "And calling you terrible names, your partner should know. I get that Chris isn't the toughest guy we know, but for fucks sake Jes-" Mike cut himself off, and Ashley realized that Mike must've had this same talk with his wife. "God dammit, Ash. Next time just fucking tell him before he goes off in a fit like this. It's going to take him a minute to not be pissed about this."
A grumble came from the shorter girl as she stared at the ground in irritation, but she knew that Mike was correct.
Sighing, she turned to where Chris had strutted off in anger and she pulled his sweater closer to her. "I wish I wasn't so stupid..."
"You were being stubborn, not stupid. You thought you could handle it, right?" Mike said matter of factly. Green orbs glared into brown again. "Well? I'm right aren't I. Believe me, I've had this talk with Jess. I assume you've guessed that considering I yelled out her name first when scolding you. Like I said," He lifted his hand up and sat it on the slightly hostile girls shoulder. "Next time, just tell him. It'll save all this petty drama shit."
Rolling her eyes, Ashley grit her teeth. "And now I remember the reasons why I didn't ever talk with you much." She shrugged her shoulder, watching Mike's hand slide off.
"Yeah, you weren't exactly my cup of tea either," Mike retorted. "But it's still nice to chat with you every once in a while."
Nodding in response, she had to give it to him there. When they hadn't seen each other in a while it was quite nice to exchange how they've been doing, but now it just seemed to make things much worse.
Mike lifted his hand and waved to Ashley. "Alright, I'll see you later. Hopefully when everything is better than now." She watched him walk away before turning on her heel and promptly following where Chris had went, hoping to find him soon.
Matt had been bombarding Ashley's phone over what had happened between her and Chris. She had decided to confide in her best friend because she knew that she couldn't handle this alone. Her mind wouldn't let her just sit down and think on how to apologize. Rather, her mind flew off the handle.
"Matt," The ginger sobbed into the receiver, her right hand holding tightly onto her jaw while her phone sat cradled between her shoulder and ear. Ashley placed her left hand against her forehead and another cry racked itself through her. "Matt, I didn't mean to hurt him, but I didn't want him to know. I didn't want him to take matters into his own hands." She huffed out a breath of air in order to slow her breathing, but to no avail. "For god's sake, we both know that he isn't used to fighting, or even much physical activity. He can handle himself, sure, but not in a fight, Matt."
"Ash, it's okay, I need you to steady your breathing, though." The dark boy instructed to her. " I understand where you're coming from and surprisingly where Mike is coming from, too. But that doesn't mean you need to take everything he said to heart, okay?" Matt spoke evenly into the phone, giving Ashley a sense of calm as he talked her down from her emotional high.
"I'm sorry for always seeming to do this to you, Matty." Ashley's timid voice said quietly. "I know you're busy with Emily and the baby coming, plus your jobs and the fact that you have to make sure you have enough to pay for your new house." The girl stopped, feeling as if she was rambling on too much. "It's just that I trust you more than my other friends." The red head let out a melancholy laugh. "And if I could, I'd talk to Chris about this, but he won't answer my calls or texts."
Matt took a moment before he began to reply to Ashley, as he was slightly baffled at this. "He won't answer you? But he's always got his phone on him. I mean, damn, he barely every puts that thing down."
Making a noise in agreement to Matt, Ashley bit her bottom lip in order to keep from letting out any other sobs that were still hidden inside of her. "I know, that's what worries me even more. My calls just go to his voicemail and he hasn't been answering my texts." She took in a deep breath. "I'm so scared I messed up too bad this time."
"You messed up? Ashley. You were just trying to be a good girlfriend and not worry him because you can handle yourself, whether Mike believes you can or not." The dark brown eyed boy said, letting out a short chuckle, remembering what Ashley had told him about he encounter with Mike. "Look, if you messed up for trying to keep Chris out of something when you could, or believed you could handle it, then I've messed up my whole relationship since I've been with Em." Ashley gave a small giggle at that. "And I got her to laugh!" Matt excitedly said as Ashley gave out another giggle.
"Yeah yeah," She could feel her whole body was much more relaxed throughout her short conversation with Matt. "Alright, I'll let you go for now, I need to go and find Chris. Thanks for letting me get everything out." She smiled into the phone as her friend told her that it was okay and he'd always be there for her. "Bye Matty."
Ashley clicked end call before pulling up Chris' phone contact and sending him another text.
What was this, the fortieth time that she had sent him a text to 'please for the love of god, answer your phone' message to Chris? She scrolled up her messages, counting each one before letting out a loud sigh while she sat outside of his apartment door. Her hand grasped hard onto her numb legs as she had been sitting there for a while, slowly pleading Chris to open the door.
"Fourty seventh..." She mumbled out, pulling her keys to her face that were hanging around her neck via lanyard.
She glanced them over she didn't know how many times. Of course she wanted to tuck Chris' key into his apartment door and walk in, facing Chris and attempting to explain to him the whole situation that was going on and that it had nothing to do with her cheating on him or anything. Well, at least that's what she figured he was thinking. With as happy as they were, she knew that Chris had low self esteem about that kind of thing, just like she did. They were both afraid that they other would leave for someone else; better, as they had both put it to each other one nite when they were having an emotional talk.
Pulling her phone up to her ear, she listened to the connecting sound before being taking straight to her boyfriends voicemail. She grit her teeth again, listing to his goofy message before hitting 'end call' and tossing her phone to the side. She really messed up, as Chris never turned his phone off, and barely ever let it die. The first five times she had called, he had simply ignored her by letting his phone ring until it went to voicemail; or at least that's what she thought. Had she hurt him so much and then annoyed him to the point of the boy turning off his phone?
She huffed out some air as her heart squeezed in her chest. Looking down as she saw Jade's tiny cat paw peek from under the apartment door and grab onto the back of her sweater. She stiffened, taking the sweater off. Chris' sweater. Not hers.
Ashley folded the soft material into a neat square before letting her fingers slide down and letting the grey cat paw grip onto her fingers.
Meow.
For a moment, Ashley nearly thought that Jade was asking if she was okay. And in that brief moment, tears finally cascaded down her cheeks, pouring from her eyes like the storm that she was holding inside.
The sobs burst from her closed mouth before she could stop it, and she found herself curled up with her back pressed against Chris' door in an attempt to calm herself down.
"Chris, please open the door..." She cried out, her sobs over taking her normal voice, and instead making it come out shaking and weak. "Please let me explain, please Chris, I'm sorry."
Ashley turned her head and began pounding on the door with her left fist. It failed quickly, though, as her hand soon feel limply to her side. She didn't want to upset Chris anymore than he was. She pulled her phone up to her eye level, clicking the power button. It read six seventeen. She had been sitting there for three hours. Three hours and she heard nothing from Chris inside. Her eyes darted down her screen. Tuesday. Why did she feel like she was missing something?
"Please answer your phone," She muttered out, dialing the blonds number and listening to it go to voicemail again. She sobbed harder at this, wishing that she would have just told Chris in the first place, that way this would've never happened. "I'm sorry."
Meow.
The ginger heard soft purring come from the other side of the door while Jade mewed a few more times, possibly attempting to get her to come inside. Uttering a low chuckle out, she curled up against the door in a more comfortable position with her side against the wood while she still held onto Jade's little paw.
She knew that it was futile to call Chris again, so instead she decided to stay and wait outside his apartment until he decided to open the door and hopefully let her explain herself.
A low growl came from the blue eyed boys throat as he looked once more at his shattered phone. Damn Josh. Why had he went and grabbed Chris' phone when he had a perfectly good one?
"Because you need more photos of us bro! I'm starting to feel like you love Ash more than you love me."
Josh had exclaimed and forcefully pulled Chris' phone out of his hand. Chris quickly tried to grab it back, as he had finally wanted to check and see if he had any missed calls or texts. He had put it on silent while he was fuming over his fight with Ashley earlier, but now he wanted to write her and apologize for storming off.
In one flash of a moment, Chris watched his phone slip from Josh's hand and onto the concrete as they walked to work. Even worse than the screen cracking in slow motion was that it fell into a puddle from the days previous rain. So he knew then that his phone was completely ruined.
"Thanks Josh." Chris snorted out as he finally walked up to the glass doors of his apartment complex.
He was ready to get inside and go to sleep. Glancing at his watch, Chris figured that just going to sleep was the best plan considering that it was nearing ten at nite and he still had school in the morning.
The blond listened to his footsteps echo across the walls in the quiet hallway while he turned the corner to walk to his door. He stopped dead in his tracks as he saw something leaning outside of his door. No, not something.
Someone.
Chris couldn't say that he was surprised that his girlfriend was at his place, but honestly he figured she'd have gone inside if she was planning on sleeping. Walking around her quietly, he noticed her left hand was gripping onto her keys, holding out his between two fingers while her other hand was down beside the under of the door. A small smile lit on his features. Jade's paw was underneath the door, clutching onto Ashley's fingers.
"Jesus Ash." He reached his hand up and cupped her cheek like he had earlier that day. "What're you doing out here?"
Maneuvering himself so that she was leaning against him, Chris picked her up with some effort. He wasn't the most fit guy out there, he knew and he actually knew he could admit it. Unlocking his door was more complicated while he was holding her than he thought it would be, though he managed and as soon as he opened the door he walked in, shutting it with his foot. He walked over to his bedroom, glad that he kept the door open, and set his girlfriend onto his bed. Chris grabbed the comforter that was messy, as he didn't fix his bed all that often, and tucked the small girl into the covers.
The blond leaned in to give Ashley a gentle kiss on the temple while he heard the cat jump onto the bed. Swatting at Chris without claws, to simply threaten that she would do it, she crawled up to Ashley's neck and slept there as she had when she was a kitten.
Chris walked out of his room, deciding instead of falling asleep to check out what was on television before joining his girlfriend in his room.
"Are you that mad at me?"
Chris opened his eyes groggily as he tried remembering what he was doing. His lower back ached as he stretched his body knowing instantly that he was sitting on his couch and had fallen asleep on it.
"What?"
"Chris, you can't be that mad that you won't even sleep in the same place right?"
Powder blue eyes began to focus, and the blond noticed that his girlfriend was kneeling down in front of him, her peridot eyes brimming with tears. He felt confusion swell through his body as he waited for her to continue what she was talking about, until it flooded back onto him. He remembered the feud that they had, though he didn't want to bring it up again.
"Look Chris, I'm sorry I didn't tell you," Ashley began, a tear slipping down her cheek. "I just really didn't want you to get involved because I know that you don't like fighting with people, even if they're upsetting someone that is important to you." She bit her bottom lip for the umpteenth time that day. "And I know that you get extremely over protective when someone hurts an important person in your life, and I just really didn't want you to get into a fight you might not be able to handle," Chris gave her a curious look. "And I know now that I should've just told you from the beginning that Wade was still messing with me and that it's gotten worse, but I was scared of bringing you in-"
"Wait wait wait," Chris put his hands up as he stood onto his feet, his back cracking painfully as he leaned down and lifted Ashley to her feet as well. "This wasn't about you finding someone else that you were interested in?"
Ashley gave Chris a perplexed look before horror flickered across her eyes. "Oh god, no!" She pulled him tightly against her as she leaned up and kissed him frantically. "No, no, no Chris." She said between kisses.
Chris pulled away, cradling her face in his hands. He was smiling before pulling her in for another kiss. "I'm so glad that it wasn't what I thought." Chris stepped back as he took in a quite breath. "Ash, I get that you didn't want to get me involved with this because honestly, I know I probably couldn't handle it. But please, next time let me try to help, okay?" He kissed her again. "I don't want you to have to handle this kind of thing on your own again."
The red head smiled in agreement as she trailed her hands down his arms and began pulling him into his bedroom.
"I think it's time to go back to bed. This time in an actual bed." She leaned on her tiptoes as she kissed his again. She smiled before speaking softly. "I love you, Chris."
The blond was shocked into silence as Ashley said this to him, but he could feel his heart flutter with incredible speed. "I love you too, Ash."
Wow look at this! Super long chapter (not really that long at all haha). I truly hope that you guys enjoy this, I've been working on it for quite a bit, but I've been dealing with a lot of stuff lately as well. So anyways, no flames please. Constructive criticism welcome!
Also, the first time that Chris and Ash have said I love you! I wanted to wait until an emotional moment where they were making up for her to finally say it and for him to reply c:
Alrighty, thanks guys.
