Everything We Never Had

six

"Yeah. It doesn't matter."

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I lean against the counter and watch as Ashton grabs the cream cheese from the fridge and a knife from the silverware drawer and then comes back over and begins to spread it on the bagel.

After a few seconds, he looks over to me watching him and I bow my head, a bit embarrassed he caught me watching.

"Did you want some?" he asks. I can tell he finds it funny, though. He's on the verge of laughing.

Like he has been this whole time.

"Nope," I say.

"Mmm, alright," he says. He finishes putting the cream cheese on and then puts it back in the fridge. "So, what do you want to do?"

"I don't know, you got a movie theater or something?" I ask.

"Nah I wish." He takes a big bite of bagel that I'm confused how he fits in his mouth.

"That's a shame."

"I'm assuming you don't have one either, Valerie," he says with a smirk.

"You're correct, Ashton."

"Want to play hide and seek?" he asks suddenly.

I stare up at him. "What are we, nine?"

He actually looks offended. "It's fun!"

I would say no but I can't really think of anything else to do. Plus, hide and seek in this house would be awesome. "Yeah, yeah, alright. You're counting."

And so he begins to count and I run out of the kitchen into the large house where I am 100% going to get lost.

After running for a bit, I find a room that looks like a guest room. The bed is raised a bit and I can easily slide under it. I sit there and wait for a while, getting a bit fidgety.

I hope this is a guestroom and I'm not hiding in Ashton's bedroom or something.

After a while, I hear the door I halfway closed creak open and I know he's about to find me. I hear him kneel down by the bed and peak underneath it.

"Not a very creative spot," he says, still looking under the bed at me.

"Well, it took you ages to find me so it must've been pretty good."

He smiles and in the darkness, his green eyes are very visible. I look away.  "Do you know how big this house is?"

"Alright, that's fair. Now move so I can get out."

He stands up and I slide feet first out from under the bed. My shirt gets a lifted up a bit in the process and my face flushes completely red.

Ashton pretends not to notice although I know he saw it. "Count in here."

I cover my eyes and begin to count. I hear his retreating footsteps and then open my eyes. It doesn't matter if he's completely out of my eyesight anyway.

I sit on the bed for the remaining sixty seconds and then stand up to find him. This was gonna take me 3 years.

I walk down the hallway to the right, the way I swear I heard Ashton's footsteps go. I go into every room and search it thoroughly but he's not in any of them.

Of course, he had to make this the hardest it could possibly be for me. He knows I've never been anywhere in this house besides the living room, kitchen, one bathroom, and the dining room. There was much, much more to this house.