Young Writers Society

“Asher Axton, don’t ignore me,” I almost growled, grabbing his wrist and pulling him around to face me.

“I’m not! I just thought we’d already addressed this,” he growled in a similar fashion, yanking his arm out of my grasp.

We’d awoken in his Los Angeles condo to news of our relationship announcement covering our social media feeds, as well as magazine covers. “Asher Axton and Cailin Eden - Crazy In Love,” read People. USA Today had “Cailin Eden and Asher Axton: Will It Last?” blazoned across its front. Star’s cover story: “Dating Again! After a Year of Being Single, Drummer Asher Axton is in a Relationship!” Now, I, at least, was determined to face the facts we’d been putting off for almost two months now.

“No. We haven’t addressed anything since we’ve been back together, and I’m getting sick of dating someone I feel like I barely know anymore. Either we talk, or I’m sorry, but this just isn’t working for me anymore.” I held his eye with a steel gaze, refusing to budge.

He sighed, taking a seat on his kitchen island before looking at me. “I’m listening.”

I bit my lip. “Are you?”

He nodded. “Yes. If you feel like we need to talk, I’ll talk.”

I wrapped my arms around myself, needing a hug but not wanting one from Asher. “So, um...I felt like we’d start at the obvious,” I whispered, my voice wavering as I finally spoke the words I’d been rehearsing in my head for so long. “We don’t really know each other anymore.”

His brow furrowed. “I don’t know what you mean.”

I sighed. “I’m not the same person that left in the middle of the night almost a year ago. I was that girl, yes. But that girl traveled, she saw how people around the world lived and loved and made their ways through life. She grew up, a lot. She found her own voice.

“I’ll never be the girl you dated before. She’s gone, as much as you might hate that. And as much as you might want to say that you know me now, reality is that we haven’t spent enough time together for that to be true. I won’t pretend that I know how you’ve changed over the year I’ve been gone, and there are things even now that seem to come out of left field from you. We can’t keep pretending we know each other when we don’t,” I told him, and he ran his hand through his hair, a habit he seemed to have developed since I’d left. He used to hate touching his hair, or having other people touch it.

“I have changed,” he sighed, fiddling with his fingers. “And you have, too. I guess I just assumed that we’d get to where we were comfortable with that.”

I shook my head. “I don’t want any more assumptions. It’s too easy to get mixed up when they’re made.”

“That’s fair.”

I smiled slightly at him, before remembering what I planned to say next. “The next thing I wanted to say is...I think we need to start over. Completely.”

“What?” His face was a sculpture of confusion, eyes widened slightly and eyebrows raised. “What does that even mean?”

I looked at him. “It means that whatever we were before...it doesn’t count anymore. We broke laws, Asher, and we hid it with lies. I was fine with it before, but I’m not now. I don’t want to continue a relationship that only survived because of lies.”

He groaned. “We talked about this over and over. You always said it was okay. What changed?” His eyes had gone from bewildered to angered, the understanding changing to defensiveness.

“I changed,” I explained, turning away from him so that I could keep my train of thought pure of guilt. “I saw people get arrested in China for lies much smaller than the ones we told. I learned how not okay it is to lie. And I don’t want to be in a relationship built on one.”

He seemed to soak this in like a cheap paper towel - absorbing some of my words, but leaving plenty to permeate the air. My heart beat rapidly as I watched him try to understand my words. Every movement of his face, every flash of his eyes, every twitch of his hands added to the tension crushing my shoulders.

“So - so you’re breaking up with me?” Everything about him was crushed and drawn into itself when he looked up.

“I’m saying that I want to start our relationship over as two consenting adults, instead of continuing a relationship that started as a minor dating an adult without parental consent and that was covered with lies,” I clarified, leaning back against the table.

He nodded. “We should probably, y’know, tell people about this. Like, Ana and Cullen and Tristan and Brayden.”

I smiled over at him. “Does that mean you agree?”

He bit his lip in response. “I agree. I'm not thrilled, but you've got a point. I just want to be with you, and if this is what it takes, I'm willing to do it.”

Standing, I walked over to him. “You know, you’re hot.”

Asher smirked and rested his palms against the countertop, flexing casually and causing me to almost burst out in a fit of giggles. “You’re pretty hot too, gorgeous. What would you say about lunch on Friday?”

The torrent of giggles I’d been suppressing pushed past my lips and filled the room. “What if I’m busy during lunch on Friday?”

“I’ll just have to ask you to dinner, then,” he answered nonchalantly, shrugging as if he was unbothered by my question. “You’ll find I’m persistent.”

I blushed. “I’m open whenever you are then.”

He winked, walking over to the coffee maker and pouring himself a cup of the black liquid before taking a sip. “I can’t wait.”