Meet Me on Thames St.

Me and Tara sat on the couch as Eric made some coffee.

“So you know what we’ve been up to for the last two years. What about you? What have you been doing since we left?” Tara asked with a large smile

“We’ll I graduated a year early and I started writing for the Ohio news. I’m a journalist. I’m kind of bored with it. I’m hoping to be transferred to New York soon. My dad retired last year and moved to Florida. Charlie Paxx moved into my house as roommate to help with the bills. We have a nice order in the house, he cooks and I clean. He’s good company. He helped keep me sane, when you guys left me.” I smile

“So you became a writer, like you always wanted?” Eric said handing me a mug

“Well, not exactly. The things I write I’m not really interested in. I haven’t found what I want my articles to focus on, yet.”

“And what about Charlie? Anything happening there? He always had a crush on you. Plus, he’s cute.” Tara winks

“Charlie’s a good friends and that’s it. He helped me cope with a lot. He works at that farm down the road from us. And if I liked Charlie, I wouldn’t be her in California chasing some dick that hurt me two years ago.” I point out

“Sorry for reminding you.” Tara states awkwardly

“It’s fine. I came here for answers not the fairytale reunion. I blamed myself for a while and now I can go back home knowing that this wasn’t my fault.” I say calmly

“Don’t lie to me! I’ve known you since you were three. You wanted him to see you and admit his true feelings, but you know Chase. He can’t show his true feelings. He hasn’t seen you in over two years, of course he’s gonna be shocked at first. Just give him some time.” Tara says trying to comfort me

“Yeah, I agree with her. Chase is my best friend, but he is terrible with confronting shit. I know he loves you, but he needs some time.” Eric says joining us on the couch

“I’ll admit when I saw him, I wanted there to be some sweep me off my feet moment. That’s not Chase, though. I’m done waiting for a guy that doesn’t exist. I’m not that same little girl he left in Ohio. I was pathetic, back then. I thought he cared, but I realized he doesn’t. I came here, because I wanted to know why he still sends me letters. This boy made me cry enough to fill an entire ocean. I just wanted answers. And the truth is there is no point to him sending me letters. It’s just another reminder that he left and didn’t think twice.” I say rubbing my thumb on the side of my mug

“Oh, no it’s not like that. He cares, Ashley. He really does.” Tara says sympathetically

Eric began laughing “Face it, you both cause each other pain. Remember when you were fighting, so you got shit faced and made out with some random kid. And what about the time you drove his car into the lake behind Old Man Wheeler’s yard?”

“Hey! he was flirting with Jenna Marshall and I honestly didn’t mean to. I lost control of the car.” I defend

Tara and Eric started laughing.

“Oh yeah, like you don’t have any embarrassing stories. You ran naked through town, getting arrested for public indecency by my dad.” I point out

“I went skinny dipping on a dare and Chase stole my clothes!” Eric defends

Tara began laughing even harder.

“Hey sweetheart, stop laughing. Do you remember the time you got fucking wasted, went cow tipping, and somehow broke your leg?” Eric mocked

I burst out laughing and Tara hit me then turned to Eric “if you expect to still get action from me, shut up.”

“Alright, I’m done.” Eric said putting up his hands in defense

She kissed him lightly then turned to me “How long will you be staying here?”

“I think, I’m gonna try and get a plane back tomorrow. This was a stupid idea.”

“We lost you for two years. Stay for the week at least. We have to catch up.” Tara orders

I smile and nod.

“It’s getting late. So we should go to bed, but not you Ashley. Wait, until Chase comes home and talk to him. If you both say you matured, then it’s time to stop running away like scared little kids.” Eric orders

“Fine.” I mumble

I did as I was told. Chase came back around 1 am.

“Hey” I said scratching the back of his head

“Still angry?” I question

“Not at you.”

“Who are you mad at?” I ask nervously

“Richie, a little. More mad at myself, though.” He says looking at the wall

Silence fell in the room.

“Eric and Tara must have been happy to see you.” He says still looking at the wall
“Yeah. It was nice to see them.”

This awkward small talk was making me un comfortable.

“Do you hate me?” he asked

“I try to. I’m still a little mad, but no.”

“You deserve to hate me.” His eyes still on the wall

“Would it kill you to look at me?” I snap

He looks me dead in the eye “Better?”

“Yeah actually, makes me feel like you’re talking to me, not the wall.”

“So you wanna talk about everything?” he said

“Will it help?” I question

“I don’t know. It’s possible that it could make it work.”

I smiled “I thought you liked taking risks.”