The Chronicles of Life. (Complete)

To love you and leave you.

Ashley was seeing someone.

It had taken her a while but she'd finally realized that she was a desirable human who other people found attractive.

She'd gotten a bit large since the baby but that only meant she now had curves she'd grown to love.

Once she'd gotten over the guilt of being so young and nearly divorced, she evolved. In more ways than one.

She stopped caring how the world saw her. How the world always saw divorced people, As failures. Ashley was the opposite of that. She'd recognized a toxic situation and she got herself out of it. It hadn't been easy but she'd done it anyways. Not a lot of people could say that about their situations.

Because people stayed in them, toxic or not. Her mother stayed.

Ashley knew all about her father's affairs despite all her mother tried to do to prevent her from knowing. She was young but she wasn't stupid. She knew it wasn't as perfect as they always made it seem but she'd always been so proud of her mother for staying strong. She'd thought staying no matter what, was the key to the perfect marriage.

But now looking back, she couldn't have been more wrong. Ashley hated that her mother stayed. Because she then grew up thinking that was ok. She grew up thinking that cheating was a behavior that all women needed to tolerate. Her mother always told her 'they will get off track a bit, but they'll always find their home'. Now she felt disgusted even thinking about that saying.

If she'd stayed, her daughter would've grown up thinking that too. That was unfortunately the cycle of life. But she was happy she got herself out of that situation, and thus getting her daughter out of the potential situation that she unfortunately grew up in.

Her relationship with her parents had been at odds, for the first time ever.

They didn't understand why she'd given up on the person she loved and she didn't understand why they wanted her to stay with the person who'd done the things he'd done to her. Yes she still loved the boy, a lot. But the trust was long gone.

It had taken Ashley a while but she was happy.

She'd realized that she'd rushed into things, they both had. When the girl was young, all she ever wanted was to find someone who would love her like her father loved her mother.

When she found that person, she wasted no time to get married and have a kid.

She didn't at all regret where she was, and she certainly did not regret her beautiful little girl - she was her whole world, but she'd realized the train of events that led her to where she was.

She was seeing someone, yes. But it wasn't anything serious. She wasn't planning on getting into another long term thing any time soon. The boy knew and understood that.

Ashley had further realized how her life had never really been her life. First it belonged to her parents who did what they wanted with it. Then it belonged to Siya. But never truly to herself.

That was why in addition to moving on, she'd made friends outside the group. She'd created magical moments with the group and she'd always love all of them. But if she had to be honest, the only reason she'd been friends with them was because of Siya. She only knew them because of him.

She never really had friends of her own and so she'd decided to start getting to know new people. On her own.

She went out and she broadened her horizon. Even though her relationship with her parents was still rocky, she knew they still loved their granddaughter a lot and they'd always been more than happy to look after the little kid whenever they were asked.

So Ashley traveled. She met new people, she made new hobbies and she found herself.

She hadn't seen the group in a while, but she'd kept in touch with the girls.

Her relationship with Siya was perfect. They gave each space but they were also there for each other and their daughter. It was the ideal babymother, babyfather relationship.

It had taken Siya a bit of time but he too eventually accepted that Ashley had moved on. He'd always regretted how he'd treated the girl but more than anything, he was happy to see her doing so great for herself.

True love meant hoping and wishing someone well even when you didn't have them anymore and he'd finally understood that.

He knew she was seeing someone. He wasn't very happy about that but he was happy that she was happy.

Siya wasn't seeing anyone but he had his eyes on someone. For a while now. Someone he'd never thought he'd ever see that way.

The girl was doing great too. She was living her best life but he hated to see her going out with different guys and sleeping with them.

He knew she'd gone through a lot but he'd thought she was just acting out without realizing. It took the girl almost dying for Siya to realize that his heart wanted to get to know hers.

So when he'd asked the girl out, he was sure she thought it was just innocent. They'd gone out more than a few times in the past so what difference was that time going to make?

After dinner, Siya had driven Dineo home. When they got there he got out of the car to open her door and then he walked her to her front door where he kissed her passionately.

The girl was shocked at first, but she soon melted into him as they embraced each other.

Dineo had been in love with Siya for as long as she could remember. When he chose Ashley over her she'd been heartbroken. So heartbroken she was forced to move on. And move on she did.

But now as she stood kissing the boy who used to have her heart, she couldn't figure out where her feelings about him were. All she knew was that his lips felt so good against hers.