Chapter Forty-Three
Ashley
I no longer had a phone, or a car, since both of those things belonged to my father. I was sure that I would have to worry about how to pay for school, but there were plenty of options for students in my good standing.
I might be paying them off forever, but I would at least be able to have the life I wanted, without relying on my stupid father.
I had certainly said a lot to him and I had meant every word of it. I wasn’t trying to be cruel or hurtful, but I wanted him to know that he had hurt me with all of the awful things he said.
I wanted him to know that life didn’t always work the way he thought it did. I had tried to forgive him for what he did, but I hadn’t forgotten. I would have never forgotten; he made it so hard to get past it, because he was acting guilt-ridden over something that he did not allow me to try to understand.
For all he knew, I spent all of those years having no idea what was going on. He might have wanted forgiveness for it, but he had certainly never asked. In fact, he hadn’t even explained anything to me, so how could he expect true and honest forgiveness if he wasn’t able to own up to what he had done?
Hell, he isn’t even willing to accept that he did anything wrong! I thought, rolling my eyes and laying back on the sand.
After leaving my car and basically everything that belonged to my father at the house, I realized that probably wasn’t the best idea. I didn’t know where I was going to go, since I didn’t want to pay for housing at school for the rest of the summer and I didn’t want anything from my father. I knew I had to figure it out, but I certainly wasn’t going to try to get back in his good graces just so I had a place to stay.
If I got desperate enough, I was sure that I could have crashed at a friend’s house close to school.
However, right now, I was just enjoying the ease of having all of that pent-up anger and anxiety off of my chest. I felt as though I could breathe easy for the first time in years.
Even when I was in school, my past life plagued my mind, but since there were no reminders I could ignore them. Here, they were so daunting that ignoring them was almost impossible.
Therefore, after they had built up for three months, it was really nice to have a breath of true fresh air.
I still didn’t want to leave Tyler and I hoped he was all right, seeing as how I didn’t tell him anything about what had happened, but I figured he would make do. I certainly wasn’t worried about him leaving if he felt like he had to. In all honesty, I was surprised that he stuck around for as long as he did.
For me? I thought, but then reconsidered. Don’t kid yourself. He’s probably just as happy that you’re gone. You took care of the headache that was your relationship with him basically for them. Now they can really be one big, happy family of three. No questions asked, just what my father had always wanted.
That’s when I heard a familiar voice calling my name.
I stopped to listen and turned my head toward the sound.
The voice certainly didn’t sound like my father. In fact, it actually sounded a lot like… “Tyler?” I asked, squinting my eyes in the darkness. I was able to pick out his muscular shape coming toward me.
“Ashley?” he asked, in a far more hopeful voice then I had expected. He quickened his pace toward me, slid next to me on the sand and wrapped his massive arms around me.
The two of us stayed like that for a moment and when we pulled away, I leaned in to kiss him.
The familiar taste of him was luscious. After the day that I had, I wasn’t sure if I would ever get to feel his lips against mine or drag his sweet nectar from himself unto me.
Once our lips touched, my hands came up to grasp his face before I pulled him forward and deepened the kiss.
Our tongues entwined with one another, while our lips locked and after a moment, his arms came to encase me once again.
We continued to make out for a little while, as I ran my hands up and down the length of his massive shoulders until I could make out his magnificent form. I felt extremely pleased to have him in my arms again and I knew that I could not risk losing him.
However, I had many questions and so, eventually and slightly begrudgingly, I pulled away from him.
He tilted his head and stared at me with a question on his mind, but he didn’t say anything. He just stared at me in the darkness.
I smiled back at him and asked, “You didn’t get kicked out or anything did you?”
He laughed. “Are you kidding? They couldn’t fucking kick me out if they tried.”
I giggled at his confidence. “Then what are you doing here?”
“Looking for you,” he answered in a soft way, but had a twinge of attitude, as though the explanation was obvious and I was an idiot for not realizing that.
I couldn’t help but beam. “That’s really sweet, Tyler, but I’m not going back.”
He shrugged. “Fuck it. Neither am I then.”
I laughed, but when he didn’t say anything else, I turned my head with question and answered, “Really?”
He nodded. “But if we intend to be bad asses, we should probably go get your car; or at least get a ride back to the house so that we can get my car. It’s not like I don’t have the money to sustain us for a little while.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I had never expected that he would join me. I just thought I was running away from my father, and Tyler would have to be the sad casualty. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case.
“Really?” I asked and I saw the shadow of his head nod as he chuckled and before he was even finished moving, I threw my arms around his neck and pressed my lips against his.
I felt the wetness of them and the desperation of his kiss and I knew that he was telling me the truth. There was no doubt in my mind that he was really going to join me in my pursuit and I couldn’t wait.
Suddenly, this adventure got a lot more interesting.