Page 95 of Ashley & the A-Listers

She didn’t want this awkwardness between them, this imbalance of what they thought should be right considering the circumstances, and what they were used to.

What she wanted was late nights on the couch throwing popcorn at each other. She wanted sleepovers with her best friend and she wanted to smoke weed together and then make out on the couch and…. and spend the night together like they never had before.

She’d missed Dylan so much, the hole he’d left in her life beyond empty, that now he was filling it, she’d let him do just about anything he wanted as long as he stayed.

And that was a dangerous, terrifying game to play.

Especially when she was still in the dark.

“I’m not going to run this time, or ever again,” Dylan said softly, pulling her out of her revelation. “And I’ll spend forever trying to prove it to you.”

Ashley sucked in a deep breath. It was her birthday, and she was with the person she’d been missing for the last decade.

“Starting with a picnic?” she asked quietly, and reached for the bag.

It was already open, and before Dylan could stop her, she saw inside.

Once she registered the birthday wrapping paper, she glanced up and found thatsamefamiliar expression on his face.

The one from that night, when he’d said goodbye for the last time. If he was so scared, was he going to run? Could she really trust him this time?

Not while she still had questions.

What is he scared of?

Ashley lifted the present out of the bag. “A present?”

“Uhh. Yeah, yes. You don’t have to open it now, maybe it’s better—” He reached for it, and she moved her hand back, brow arched.

“I’d love to open it now,” she said.

“There’s, uhm,” Dylan said, and ran a hand over the back of his head. He was nervous. “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about. Regarding it. Maybe it should wait?”

Ashley didn’t want to wait any more. Ashley wanted to get to the bottom of this. She wanted to know what he wasn’t telling her. Just… something wasn’t adding up.

He’d left… but there was a deeper reason behind it. Ashley wanted to know if her gut was right.

This is anything but casual. They were anything but just-friends.

“I’m kind of tired of waiting, aren’t you?” she asked, leveling him with a look that suggested she wasn’t talking about the present, but all the other layers they were still unwrapping from each other.

“Okay,” he said, and Ashley slipped a finger under the wrapping paper. The box was light and small, and the paper was covered in black polka dots. She stuffed the paper into a loose ball in the bag before lifting the lid of the box.

An envelope. And inside it were?—

My Chemical Imbalance.A reunion tour. Physical concert tickets.

For the exact same band that had started all of this.

It hit her like a blow, the rush of emotions. Confusion, nostalgia, regret, and— and fear, and heartbreak and loneliness andanger.

“Whyare you here?” Ashley asked, frustrated. “Why are you doing allthis?” She waved the tickets.

Dylan’s brow furrowed. “Isn't it obvious? I'm trying to make up for what I did. Trying to show you that it will be different. That I’ll be different.”

She huffed. “So you're overcompensating. Trying to make yourself feel better by earning my forgiveness, instead of focusing onhowyou hurt me.”

His expression fell as he stared at her, the waterfall still splashing behind them. “I just… I wanted to make this birthday so special that it would write over the last one I was there for.”

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