The Right Girl

JOHN’S POV
I looked at Ashton, seeing the Ashton that I had seen before we had ever met: the partier. She had a tonic in one hand and a cigarette in the other, and I took the cigarette from her, stomping it out on the ground. She laughed and put a hand on my shoulder, asking me, “John, why must you be such a party-pooper?”

“Ash, what the hell happened to you? You were going on to do great things. You were going to graduate from Notre Dame and go to Johns Hopkins for postgrad. You were going to get married to the kid your parents loved,” I said, barely able to get the words out without a knife stabbing into my heart and turning horribly slow.

The drunken smile that had slipped onto Ashton’s face once she had seen me, slipped straight back off as she sobered up quickly. She blinked as if coming out of amnesia. She looked down and I knew she did that only when she admitted she was wrong or was uncomfortable with saying something-- which was hardly ever. So I took her hand to console her, and she whispered, “Just because my parents loved him, didn’t mean I did. The only reason my parents loved him is because our names look great when hyphenated in the business world.”

“So your marriage was a business deal?” I asked her, my heart breaking for her.

She nodded, and sat down on a stool. My hand still in hers, I took a seat on the stool in front of her, facing her as I moved both of my hands to her thighs, massaging them, knowing that calmed her down. We knew each other only too well, considering both of us hadn’t really changed since we had broken up. At least, I know I hadn’t, and it seemed that Ashton hadn’t gone through a complete revolution or anything.

“Or, at least it was, until I broke it off. I found the guy cheating on me, and I told him, I didn’t love you anyway, so this marriage is definitely off. I told my parents, and they were less than happy with me. I told them that they had been controlling my whole life so far, and then I told them my plans about going to Johns Hopkins. They actually liked the idea- they’ve always wanted a doctor in the family- and they let the whole breaking-off-my-arranged-marriage thing slide,” Ashton said, playing with her fingers. I heard one of them crack, and I had to bite back a smile. She always cracked her fingers when she was nervous- it was one of her several flaws that I loved more than her perfections.

She tipped her head, giving me a half-smile. “So, you must be the band performing here tonight. It makes sense; someone said it was a hometown band who had kinda hit the big time, and had been touring nationally.” She sighed, grinning. “I remember going to your guys’ local shows all the time.”

I laughed. “Oh, we were awkward kids.”

She laughed, too. “John, that was only four years ago.”

“But it feels like eons ago. Those were the good years, especially in comparison to now. Now, everything is so complicated and serious. Those days when we were seventeen and wished we were twenty-one... yeah, I wish I could go back in time and tell my teenage self to fuck up as much shit as possible before I hit eighteen,” I said as Ashton laughed.

“Oh, and like we didn’t fuck some shit up anyway,” she teased, grinning.

I laughed, meeting her eyes. “I missed you, Ash.”

She smiled, but I saw sadness in her eyes. “I missed you, too, John.”

I took in a deep breath before I began, spouting off the speech I had been practicing in front of my mirror ever since Ashton had left all those months ago. “I’m really sorry about everything that happened right before you left. I was a coward, and I was scared by just three words, three words that I knew I felt about you. But that’s what scared me-- how strongly I felt about you. I had all these plans to make our relationship work after you left. I’d come visit you, and tell off that prick who your parents wanted you to marry. And we would be kids again. You would forget about your classes and the rules, and be the Ashton that cliff-dove with me in California, be the Ashton that broke all the rules without going crazy, be the Ashton that I fell in love with.”

Ashton looked at me, and leant over slowly. I got closer to her, and she put her hands on my lap, pushing herself up so she could kiss my cheekbone. There were tears in her eyes, but she had a genuine smile on her face that made everything alright for the moment.

“That’s all I ever wanted, was for you to tell me that you loved me,” she whispered, shaking her head. “That could’ve saved our whole entire relationship.”

“Can we pick up where we left off?” I asked her gently. She nodded, her smile big.

“I’d love that,” she said, leaning up to kiss me. I pulled her onto my lap, as she leant down to kiss me, her arms around my neck. I heard someone clear their throat as we both turned to see Tim standing there. At first, he looked a little apprehensive, but he looked surprised when he saw that Ashton was the one I had been kissing.

“Ashton?” Tim asked, hugging her tightly. “Oh, wow, it’s great to see that you two are back together.”

Ashton grinned at me over her shoulder, the most beautiful sight I would never get over.

“John, we need you in the back, you said you wanted to finish up that song today and see if you could perform it,” Tim said. I nodded, looking at Ashton as I held both of her hands. Tim walked away to give us some privacy.

“Is it okay if I go get ready for my show?” I asked her. She laughed, nodding her head.

“Of course, have fun,” she said to me, leaning up to kiss me again. I smiled-- I could get used to this.

Feeling courageous, I told her, “Listen to our newest song when we play it, alright?”

She laughed, nodding again as I ran backstage. I grabbed the notebook from Jared and began scribbling down the words as they came to me. Ashton made songwriting all too easy. I showed the lyrics to my band, and they all nodded in agreement as we practiced it a few times. We had it down pat in no time at all, since the only part that was really new to them was the newest addition.

We jumped onstage to the screaming of the crowd, and I spotted Ashton out at the bar, talking to Cora. I smiled and went through the first couple of songs, then introduced the new one by saying, “We all make mistakes, and sometimes, we hurt the ones we love in the process. This song goes out to the one girl I’ve ever loved.”

The crowd AW’ed as we jumped into the first verse. The words were familiar until we came to the newest part, and I sang, looking directly at Ashton as I sang.

“She came back, thought she had it all planned out, went to go marry some guy she had talked about. A tear in her dress and a tear in here eye, and just like that, her whole flashed by. She said she won’t remember what you said last night, that if you ever needed someone to pick up the pieces in your life...”

“Oh, God, I did the wrong thing to the right girl. My mind was only in it for a minute. Had a bad fling, with a good girl. I was stupid and dumb, not giving a shit. The blank stare out the window. If I could just give up, I could just admit I did the wrong thing to the right girl. It was your world, baby, and I just lived in it,” I sang, finishing up the song as the crowd cheered louder than they ever had. I said goodbye and such and jumped off the stage, to where Ashton was standing.

“How’d you like it?” I asked her, breathless. She smiled, pulling me in by the collar on my shirt, placing a kiss on my lips.

“I loved it,” she said to me.

I grinned, my heart racing as I told the most truthful three words I had ever spoken.

“I love you.”

THE END.