Hello everybody. Things around here for me have gone from stressful, to completely overwhelming. Everything I seem to wish wouldn't happen does happen. Hopefully everything from here out gets better, because I'm not too sure it can get much worse. Anyways, thank you all so much for the reviews. As soon as I have more time, I promise I will start replying to them. On with the new chapter :]

Stolen Hearts

(Ashley's P.O.V.)

Here I am, at Spencer's door, stomach in my throat, and here's Spencer. Drop dead gorgeous in her pajamas. Her blue eyes possibly the deepest shade of blue imaginable. I remember now exactly why I'm here, I know everything I need to stay, and even though all that's happened so far is her standing here staring at me, I'm okay with it. Because it's more then I deserve, and I know that.

"Long time no see huh?"

I'm the amazingly bright with greetings in stressful situations as you might be able to tell. But she kind of smiles, I can tell she was fighting it, but I know she wanted to smile so badly.

"Um yeah… oh, you should come in? Maybe? Yea…"

Garsh I've left the girl speechless. There's a first time for everything right? Normally, you don't get Spencer to shut up, and I kind of wish she'd start the talking. But considering I am the one who after breaking her over a month ago am at her house, I should be the one to talk first.

"So we should probably go sit down. I have a lot I need to say to you."

"Yeah, um the living room is this way"

I swear this house is like a clone of the one they had back home. The vibe, the homeliness, it's all perfect. It's all I wish I could have grown up in, but obviously didn't.

We go sit down on a couch that holds a lot of memories. Movie night with the Carlin's, a few pillow fights, oh and playing Scrabble with Glen. A lot of good memories happened here, hopefully, this will add onto them. She sits across from me, I kind of expected this, but part of me just wished she would have come sit next to me. She stars playing with her hands, her nervous habit.

"So, I would apologize, but that is well over do, and we both know that apologies aren't really my thing."

She just keeps looking at her hands. I hate how scared she looks, how broken she really is. I need her to just look up, give me something to know that there is still something here.

"But, you're probably wondering why I chose to come all the way over here, to your house. I want you to know that I'm not here to convince you I'm someone I'm not. I'm not going to sit here and try to tell you how much I regret everything, or how bad I feel for myself. You don't want to hear any of that anyway. All I want to do is to tell you how I feel. I get if you don't want to hear it, but please, I need just this much from you. After this, I'm gone."

Okay, so I don't want to be gone after this. But it seems completely obvious that I am so out of place here right now. She won't even look at me, gosh what did I do?

"So, tell me how you feel then Ash… I'm listening."

Ash. You have no idea how amazing it is to hear that. It sounds stupid, but it's more then I was getting out of her before. She still won't look at me, but at least I'm not being given the cold shoulder right?

"Um, this was all easier when I had everything planned out in my head. But that's gone now. So, I'll start off with the obvious that I really do love you, and I never stopped for one second. I know that I'm not the kind of person that shows it very often, but everything has always been you."

Look at me… please just look at me.

"Over the past month and however many days all I've been able to do is remember. It's not a bad thing, to remember. I remembered you meeting my Dad, how he took to you so quickly. How, even though I am an emotional roller coaster that you didn't run away. I remembered telling you that stupid story about how I told my Dad he'd be the only one I ever will be in love with. Gosh, and I remember how even though I tried to push you away, you were there for me through everything when he died."

She's still playing with her hands, looking at the floor; she's added shaking her leg a little bit to the mix too. Everything she does just makes me more nervous. More self conscious, makes me feel almost as if everything I'm saying, has no meaning to her anymore. Not that I blame her. Because I don't, not even the slightest bit.

"I remembered how messed up Aiden and I's friendship was before you came to LA. We wouldn't even look each other in the eyes, and you came and changed all of it. Not only did you become my everything, but you helped me get my best friend back. That's what it always was with him and me, best friends. Even when we were dating sophomore year, I was never in love. I honestly think I was just in love, with the idea of being in love with someone."

She stopped moving altogether when I mentioned Aiden's name. She still won't look at me, but I'm going to keep talking anyway.

"Prom was supposed to be our night. Everything was supposed to be perfect. I had everything planned out. For once I wasn't relying on spur of the moment excitement, I had everything planned. In the end it was going to be you and me, and everyone else wasn't going to matter. Then again, things never really go as planned right? Gosh, I just noticed how much I suck at this explaining myself thing…"

She finally looks me dead in the eyes.

"No, you don't suck. Just keep going okay? Don't stop, you owe me that."

Yeah, I owe you the world actually. I owe you my life.

"Aiden asked me to dance, and of course I wasn't going to say no. I asked him how he and Kyla were, and that's when everything went wrong. He told me she got a room, told me that he couldn't do anything with her. Then he just dead blank tells me he's in love with me. Like, what do you say when someone says that? Someone who isn't the person you're with? And the only thought going through my mind the whole time after he said that was, no matter what I say, I was losing either you or him"

She's still looking at me. Never once breaking our eye contact. No more nervous habits.

"So I didn't say anything, and then you came over and you obviously get what happened after that."

She stops looking at me to go back to the interesting floor. I don't even notice what I'm saying anymore, it just keep pouring out of me.

"So here I am, on your couch, in freaking nowhere land Ohio. Rambling on and on about things that probably don't even matter to you right now. But what does matter, is that when you told me to decide, there was never a choice to be made Spence. Never once did I think for a second that it wasn't going to be you. Because as stupid and cliché as it is, this is fate baby, you and me, we're meant to be together. "

That's all I have left in me, everything I just gave to her, is everything I have to give. And if everything I have to give is everything she can't take, then at least I know I didn't hold back. For once in my life, I didn't run, I faced everything head on.

"So that's why I came here to Ohio to your house. Like I promised, this was all I needed, so I'll see you Spence…"

I stand up to leave and she grabs my arm. She made the move to keep me here; obviously I must have said something right.

"Don't. This isn't just one sided Ash. I have a lot of things to say too. So sit back down, this might take a while…"

This is all I needed. For her to reach out to me. Maybe there is still is something here. Maybe there was all along, and I was always just too blind to notice how much all of this really meant to me.