Chapter Fifteen

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        The birds are what I heard first as I woke up from my deep sleep. They were chirping happily, blissfully enjoying their simple bird lives. My eyelids felt heavy as I slowly opened them, revealing the glow of the sun through the window in front of me.

Ashton's arm was still draped over my waist as he remained sleeping next to me. I tried my hardest to carefully move Ashton's arm off of me so that I could get up without waking him up, but alas, I failed.

Practically as soon as I touched his hand he began to stir, and I sighed softly to myself when I realized I woke him up. He brought his hands up and rubbed his eyes, before running them through his hair. He looked over at me and gave me a small smile, which I returned.

"Sorry I woke you up, I gotta get better at that," I said.

"No one else I'd rather have wake me up," he responded with a chuckle in his morning voice, before leaning up and bringing me back down onto the bed with him. I giggled at the mini-tackle. "Can we just stay in bed though for a little?" He asked, still holding onto me.

"I'd love to, but I'd also love to eat food.. I'm starving," I told him, and I looked over to see him sigh.

"Fine, fine you're right," he gave in, "I guess we do have a lot to do today."

"Yeah," I felt the weight in my chest setting back in again. "Yeah, I do," I finished, dreading everything.

"Welp, I'll be here if you need a good distraction," he said, and I rolled my eyes at him before pushing myself off the bed.

"I'll keep the offer in mind," I responded sarcastically with a smile.

"I think Layla's making breakfast," Ashton commented, and then I smelled the bacon also. I smiled and did a mini happy-dance, before going into the bathroom and quickly showering and brushing my teeth.

By the time I was out, everyone was in the kitchen and had just started eating. I saw Ashton talking to Jake, making him laugh. Layla was talking to Connor, and I felt a small smile make its way to my face. We all had fucked up families.. but together we were our own family.

"Morning guys," I said when I sat down in the seat next to Ashton, grabbing some bacon.

"Morning," Layla smiled up at me, "Now that you're both here, I have a proposition," she said to me and Ashton. We looked at each other, neither of us sure of what she was going to say, before we turned our attention back to her.

"So there's this cute little farm stand across town that gives free apples to families on Sundays and I've always really really wanted to go and get the free-family-apples but I've never really been able to cuz, ya know, I'm sort of lacking the family part of that equation.. but now that you guys are here I figured you could maybe pretend to be these little guys' parents and get the apples and I can indulge in them once you get them- I'll be watching from the car in awe.. so, what do you think? Fun event to get our minds off of things?" She finished.

She had a look in her eyes of innocence... but not of innocence itself, however. It was more of a longing for innocence, like she had always seen this farm stand as a blissful journey to a place of peace. A place of innocent fun and laughter and joy that we all strove for now that we were older. Layla had had this innocent, naive happiness stripped from her at too young of an age.

And while I had a lot of shit I had to do, I for some reason wouldn't be able to stand myself if I didn't do this small act for her. With her.

"Of course! We're in," I responded with a smile and looked over at Ashton, who nodded, eating his bacon and going with the flow.

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