The Happiest Year of Our Lives

I sat there on the beach. Suddenly hands touched my shoulders gently and I looked up. "A-Ashley?" I asked staring up at his goregeous face. The sunshine casted light off his chocolate brown eyes and made them look warm and friendly. He sat down beside me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "Sandra told me about what happened before you two moved. I'm sorry, I didn't know..." he trailed off. The memories replayed in my head from that awful day. It was just after school and a group of football players jumped me. They broke some of my bones and put me in the hospital for over a month. Tears welled up in my eyes at the thought, but I quickly blinked them away. "It wasn't your fault. You couldn't have done anything to stop what those assholes did to me..." Ashley just stared at me and we sat in silence as the waves crashed against the shore. I kept twisting a corner of my notebook in my nervous hands. Ashley grabbed the notebook and he started flipping through it. "So what are these?" he asked looking at one of the pages that had a song written on it. "Song that I write. I can also sing pretty well," I said and he looked at me with shocked eyes. "Seriously?" I nodded my head and he said, "Well I'd love to hear you sing sometime. I bet it's amazing." My heart fluttered against my chest and I felt a blush rise up in my cheeks. Ashley smiled and his eyes went back to flipping through the notebook. Soon enough he had found the drawing that I did of him. "Did you draw this?" he asked running his fingers along the sketch. "Yeah," I said pointing out my signature in the corner of the drawing. "You can draw really well," he said and I smiled softly and rested my head on his shoulder. He kissed my head and started humming something softly. I felt safe here with him. I felt like there shouldn't be any secrets between me and him. I lifted my head and I looked at him. His eyes found mine and I leaned closer to him and kissed his lips softly. "I know this sounds crazy, but I fucking love you, Ashes," I whispered...