Page 51 of Broken Beauty
I walk around the house while Ash just leans against the door and watches me admire it.
“What is this place?” I ask before moving my gaze to the view outside.
I walk towards the open window that showcases the beautiful lights of the city and then the acres of land in front of us.
“I found this tree house a few years ago when I came to visit California with my mom and dad.”
That’s the first time I've heard Ash mention his mom.
I can't help but wonder why he doesn't talk about her.
“How did you find it?”
Ash stands next to me with his hands resting on the window seat. “I needed some time away to clear my head from what was happening at home so I found his house and just slept here for a few days before going back to the hotel.”
My eyes don't move away from his hands. I want to take all of Ash's pain away and hold onto it so that he doesn't have to hurt anymore.
I reach over and touch Ash's knuckles with my finger. Ash looks down at our hands and watches how I trace every cut and every line.
The cuts he had from New York are almost healed. He didn't get a lot of damage from punching that guy but these cuts are different.
They look deeper and I just know that a lot of blood was coming out of Ash's hands.
“What happened Ash?”
He takes his hand away from my finger and turns around so that he can face me. “Ariella.” He says making me look at him instead of his hands. “You never leave my mind. All I think about is you and I can't help but not feel something for you.”
My heart beats hard against my chest.
How is he able to do it?
I take a step towards Ash and wrap my arms around his neck and pull him closer to me so I can hug him.
“Just don't hurt me, Ash. I need my heart to be intact.”
“I promise Ariella.”
Twenty-Three
Ariella
Present
The smell of weed fills the air of my kitchen as I mix the weed butter into the brownie batter.
Thankfully everyone is upstairs sleeping.
Bridgette is sleeping in my room while Jace and Ash are sleeping in the guest rooms upstairs.
I couldn't sleep and I ended up finding a stash of weed in my room so I just had the random idea to make weed brownies.
The others will enjoy them tomorrow and they can take them home with them.
Bridgette fell asleep on the floor so Jace took her upstairs to go to sleep. After the movie we all kind of just went into the rooms. I showed Jace and Ash where they could sleep and then I joined Bridgette in the room.
I was reading on my phone for a good hour before I got bored and decided to bake when I found the weed.
My mom taught me how to bake stuff with weed in it. It’s one of my golden memories with my mom. She always loved cooking and one time she found a small baggy in my backpack and then decided to use that to bake brownies with weed in them.
