The Right Girl

THREE YEARS LATER; ASHTON’S POV
I woke up that morning with no smile on my face. The things in my room were packed, and my engagement ring was gone.

Last night had been very eventful, to say the least. Sam and I had gone to a party together, like usual. Although we were engaged and were supposed to be perfect children considering our parents were practically famous and our drunken selves could be plastered on the Internet at any moment in time, therefore injuring our parents’ images, we still partied-- but always together.

Somewhere along the way, I guess I had conjured feelings for Sam to at least keep us somewhat happy. It was obvious that he liked me by the way his hands grabbed me, and his lips kissed me. But even though I hadn’t been home, back to Tempe or Phoenix, in over three years, John was still the only guy that I had ever felt truly in love with.

And I honestly didn’t think that would ever change.

But I pushed that aside last night, trying to enjoy myself. I had a few drinks and I loosened up, and found myself wanting to just be kissed and touched by Sam some more. This was how our relationship worked. I got tipsy, and more easy to swoon. That’s when we had our couple moments.

Sam and I made out on a couch for a bit, but then we separated as a group of my friends came in from my Genetics class and Sam went to go talk to one of his polo friends. Yeah, I wasn’t a huge fan of the fact that he played polo, especially because he was kind of harsh to his horses, but what are you going to do?

I had danced with some friends and was actually enjoying myself when I decided it was probably time to leave. Considering Sam drove me here, I went off to go find him so we could leave. I couldn’t find him and knew he had a tendency to be in the bathroom because of his small bladder. I looked through all the rooms, and found him alright. But not in a bathroom.

Instead, he was in a bedroom, on top of some topless girl who was moaning unnecessarily. He turned the moment I opened the door, and I saw his face sober up. He pulled away from the topless girl and looked at me, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.

“Ashton, I...” Sam said, unable to make a sentence. I cut him off anyway, slipping of my engagement ring and handing it back to him. It took all my willpower not to smile. He screwed it up. This couldn’t be blamed on me.

“I didn’t love you, Sam. The only reason I did this was to please my parents. So please, go on your merry way. But tell your parents the truth so they don’t get mad at my parents, alright?” I asked him. He nodded, knowing that was the least he could do. I left the room and was grinning uncontrollably now. You’d think, even if I didn’t love him, it’d still hurt to be cheated on. But this was my free pass to leave.

So that brought me here, to my dorm room, where I was ready to go. My room mate, Tory, said she would make sure that all my boxes made it into the moving fan perfectly and would be sent on its way. So I took a taxi up to the airport and got on a flight, which seemed to take five days to get to its location.

I practically ran out of the airport after gathering my luggage, and the sun hit my body. I breathed in the warm, clear air of Arizona, a wide smile spreading across my face.

It was so good to be home.

JOHN’S POV
“Okay guys,” our manager, Tim, a.k.a Pat’s brother, said to us as he looked at a clipboard in his hands, “we have soundcheck in a couple of minutes, then a meet and greet at 5. I ordered in some wings and pizza so you guys can munch on down. Our families should get here right before the meet and greet, so prepare yourselves for fussing from your mothers.”

I smiled from my position on the loveseat on our tour bus. I flipped my phone between my two hands, thinking about what my mom was going to think of my new appearance. I had cut off my long hair, up into the short hair-do most guys were rocking these days, and I had gotten some more tattoos. I figured she’d love the hair, but hate the tattoos-- she always did.

I had waited so long for this day, because I loved hometown shows. I got to see my family, my bandmates’ families, who were like my own, and my old friends. My heart broke a little bit every time I came back here and didn’t see her, though. I had seen her engagement announcement in the local newspaper, and had ripped it to shreds in anger. After everything, she turned around and did exactly what she told me she could never do: marry that douchebag her parents set her up with.

I shook my head and we clambered inside the venue. From there on it, it was a fast-moving day. Soundcheck, families came in-- my mom did hate my tattoos and love my hair, just as I predicted-- meet and greet, then our opening band went on to start the concert. Garrett appeared of nowhere and ran over to me, grabbing me by the arm and pulling me away from the conversation I had been having with Tim and Kennedy.

“Where have you been, bro?” I asked him. He looked worried.

“Cora’s here,” he said. I gave him a ‘so what?’ expression. Cora was his girlfriend, I wasn’t surprised that she was here although she was going to UCLA. “She’s with Ashton.”

My whole world slowed down, and the noises of the crowd quieted down to nothing. My heartbeat echoed in my ears as the words processed in my brain: Asthon was here. Ashton was within a mile radius of me. Ashton was home.

Before I really knew what I was doing, I was passing by Garrett and walking out to the bar. I was drawn to her like a magnet. I kept my head down to not be recognized by the crowd, but my legs took me right to where she was at the bar. She threw back her head, her beautiful brown hair glistening in the low lighting. I somehow managed to gather enough courage to croak out, “Ashton.”

And she turned around, making my heart stop altogether.