Close As Strangers » (Ashton Irwin a.u.)

Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Over Again

After a couple more days I was better. I was a bit weak, but I quickly fixed that up and am now back to how I was. Grace has been doing a bit better as well, remembering random things at random times.

Right now we're both in the basement, Grace sketching away and me on the drums. The boys couldn't come over today, so it's just us.

I hear her sigh in frustration from time to time, and then she'll erase whatever she drew roughly. Finally she crumples up the paper and throws it.

"Why can't I remember our first fucking date?!" she yells.

I get up and walk towards her. I pull her into an embrace, and she's crying quietly.

"Don't cry. It'll be okay. I'll help you."

"Ashton, I can't do this anymore."

"Yes you can. We'll get through it."

"I can't," she says.

"If you can't remember, I'll take you on our first date again. Like a re-first date kind of thing."

"We're gonna on a re-first date?" she asks, sounding confused.

I laugh. "Yeah. Re-first date. We can go tonight if you want."

She smiles. "Sure."

I wipe the tears off her cheeks. "We'll leave in a couple hours."

She leaves and goes back upstairs. I pick up the crumpled up piece of paper and gently try to flatten it back out. It's the outlines of a sketch of what appears to be the profile of a girl. An eraser mark was through certain places, but it's still amazing.

I try to get out as many creases as possible before clipping it back up to her easel. I go back upstairs as well to get ready to go out.

I shower and change into skinny jeans, a t-shirt, and a bandana as always. Since it's cooler outside I'll just take a jacket. I find the leather one Grace gave me for my birthday last year. She says it makes me look good so why not?

I sit down on the couch and look through my phone. I text the boys for a little while before checking the time.

"Grace, are you ready to go?" I ask.

"Yeah. Hang on like two seconds," she calls.

A minute later she appears in the living room in tight black skinny jeans, a random t-shirt with a flannel over it, and a pair of combat boots. It takes me back to that shopping trip she had after we told her she looked innocent. I can't take my eyes off of her.

"Is this okay?" she asks nervously.

"Yeah. It's amazing." She smiles. "You look so badass."

"Thanks, I guess. I didn't really want to wear a sweater so..."

"You'd look beautiful no matter what you wore." Her smile grows, and her cheeks begin to turn a light shade of red.

"You don't look too bad yourself," she says.

"But not as good as you. Are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

We walk outside to the car. I open her door for her, and she continues to smile and blush. I get in and turn on the radio.

"So where are we going?" she asks as I pull out onto the road.

"Well, on our first date I didn't know what to do. I also didn't have much money to take you out, so we snuck into the movies at the last showing of a horror film. And we only snuck in because you convinced me to."