Just for This Year

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Getting towards the end :( we only have a few more chapters left! So crazy! But don't worry, I obviously have stuff planned for after this book!!

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Friday
November 22nd

22 Days After

Lila laid lazily on the couch, clicking through various television shows to find one she wanted. She propped one leg on top of the other, blanket draped over her body. Her brother was at Charlie's and her mother was out to the store for groceries. She had been laying there since she got back from school, trying to ignore the fact that yet another football game was tonight. And she was not planning on attending. Again.

She had been meaning to see Ashton to talk to him finally. Lila hadn't gone to school for the first two days of the week to recover from the weekend she had, and Ashton was gone the other days she was there. When Lila texted him, he said that Poppy was sick again and he wanted to be home with her. She understood, but was admittedly disappointed. She wanted to sort out what was going on between them.

Lila knew she cared about him more than she had ever cared about someone else. But they were graduating in a few months, and she wasn't sure what that meant for them. Lila really liked Ashton, and she wanted to give this a shot. They both owed it to themselves to see where this could go. But she didn't want to start something just to end up hurt in the end.

There was a sudden knocking on her front door. She stood up from the couch and trudged over. She unlocked it, swinging it open to reveal the very quarterback she was just thinking about moments ago. Wonderful timing, she mused internally. It was nice of the universe to finally give her something she wanted, she supposed.

"I meant what I said, Lila," Ashton confessed quickly, not giving her a chance to even say hello. "I wanna be more than friends—"

"Me too," Lila tried to interject but he kept going.

"I just feel like... I feel like we get each other, you know?" he sighed out, shaking his head as he looked towards the ground. Lila leaned against the doorway, crossing her arms over her chest.

She attempted again in a louder voice, "Yes, completely agree."

But Ashton was very much so in his own world. "And I think if we gave it a shot that it could really work, if you don't think that—"

"I do," Lila commented, eyes flickering to the side.

"Then— what?" he finally stopped, looking at her for the first time since they started talking. "You..."

"I wanna be with you, idiot," she confirmed with a gentle laugh, raising her eyebrows at him. "If you had stopped talking then we could've been done with this conversation already."

Ashton blinked once at her. "Really?"

"Is it my turn to rudely tell you to shut up before kissing you?" Lila asked, gesturing to herself loosely.

He nodded firmly. "Absolutely, it is."

"Perfect, now shut up and kiss me," Lila demanded as she tugging him inside of the house by the back of his neck, connecting their lips together. He nearly tripped over the front step, allowing her to guide him inside of the house. They continued to kiss for a few moments before a thought popped into Lila's mind.

"Wait, what about college?" Lila brought up as she broke away from the kiss. "Where are you going, do you know yet?"

"Didn't I tell you? I'm going to Dumont," Ashton told her, rubbing his thumb on her hip mindlessly.