chapter thirty

WHILE I WATCHED my cousin, Sarah, say her vows to her fiancé, I expected myself to be jealous or even a little bit mad at myself for being who I am, but I was neither of those things. I was happy, actually, to see two people in love getting married in front of family and friends. There wasn't a moment when I thought: oh, I wish I were straight.

I am okay with marrying a woman in my future, and I'm incredibly happy to come to terms with that fact.

It'll be okay, May's voice echoed through the back of my mind. My heart skipped a beat as I inhaled sharply. It really will be okay. I will be okay, no matter what happens in my future.

Bravely, I slid my right hand out of my lap and onto May's, where we intertwined our fingers without any exchange of words or a glance. I smiled to myself because of the simple gesture.

"I do." Sarah's fiancé, Alexander, smiled so big after announcing two words that his eyes were barely visible. I squeezed May's hand. I felt her look over at me, but I kept my face forward.

"And do you, Sarah James, take Alexander Chapmen to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

I heard a couple of sniffles to my left, so I looked over and found my mom a complete mess. She was crying uncontrollably as she wiped up a few tears with a tissue. I leaned forward and smirked at my dad, who only shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.

"I do." I snapped my attention back to the front, still holding May's hand, and smiled at my cousin.

"You may now kiss the bride."

My entire family (plus some of Alexander's family), started hooting and hollering as soon as Alexander grabbed Sarah's face and pressed his lips onto hers. We all laughed, screamed, and cheered them on. May and I hopped out of our seats, along with everyone else, and began clapping.

I smiled over at May and enveloped her hand into mine again. We weren't able to clap anymore, but my heart took my hands' place and did the same effect - fast paced and loud. All because of simple skin to skin contact.

I looked over and admired the left side of my girlfriend's face. She was smiling at the bride and groom, but there was no dimple on the side I was looking at; it was on the right side. She looked so happy, extravagant, and just, well, perfect. She's perfect. My heart fluttered.

     Sarah and Alexander danced down the aisle (yes, danced) as everyone continued to cheer for them. I looked over at my mom and saw that she was smiling again even though her earlier tears stained her cheeks.

     "Hey, mom?" I yelled above the loud crowd. She looked down at me and smiled. "I love you!"

     "Oh, Ashy." She wrapped her arms around me, causing me to let go of May's hand. "I love you, too." I wrapped my arms around my mom's back and closed my eyes.

     We pulled apart rather quickly as I smiled up at the most amazing woman I know. She was the first in my family to accept me and I can't even imagine how much stress she had when her own husband left the house for hours because of me.

     I perched my body forward to look at the man beside my mom. My dad, the one who told me I was a failure to the family and then redeemed himself later, wasn't watching Sarah and Alexander dance away, instead, he was smiling at May and I. I furrowed my eyebrows and cocked my head to the side, but he shooed me away with his hand. "Later." He mouthed to me. I nodded my head, eyebrows still furrowed, before turning back to watch my cousin show off the biggest smile on her face.

     May slipped her hand into mine again, causing a great amount of butterflies and electricity to rocket throughout my body.

This girl.

     Some people started to sit back down while most just walked around and mingled with each other. I looked over at my mom and was about to ask her what we were doing, but she responded before I could open my mouth.

     "Let's just sit here for a little bit." She suggested. I nodded my head and sat back down in my chair the same time May did. My hand was starting to get really warm, signaling sweat, but I didn't mind it.

     May smiled at me and her stupid, stupid, stupid dimple practically winked at me. I was drawn in almost immediately, but I managed to blink my eyes a few times and stop staring at the thing she seems to hate (I have no idea why she's so self cautious about it, though). She tilted her head to the side slightly and beamed for so long that tiny little crinkles started to form near the tips of her eyes. I knew that she'd have wrinkles there when she grows older, but it's a sign of a life well lived through laughter and love. May Parker really is my idol, no doubt about that.

     "Ashley James..." She cooed, taking her fingers out of mine and beginning to run her fingers along the top of my hand. Shivers ran down my arms and legs. She smiled, again, which caused me to smile back. "Do you..." She looked over my shoulder, so I did the same. I only saw a few people wandering around and my parents sitting behind me. I turned back around and came face to face with May. She lowered her voice, "do you think that'll ever be us up there?" She pointed towards the front of the room where Sarah and Alexander has just gotten married.

     Color immediately rushed to my cheeks, causing my stomach to flip and my ribs to tickle. I cleared my throat and looked at the ground, trying to comprehend what she had just asked me.

     "I don't know." I tore my eyes away from the ground and looked into her eyes, causing my cheeks to become even more heated. "A church probably wouldn't be a good idea."

     May giggled and shook her head.

     "Bad, bad, bad idea..." She trailed off in her sentence and looked to the right as she hunched her back over. I watched her eyes dart around as if she was scanning everyone in the room. "How many of these people are related to you?" She asked, slowly bringing her head back to look at me.

     I shrugged and looked around the room and began to count. Grammy, Papa, Aunt JoJo, Hazel, Gabriela, Xander, the other Papa... As I kept looking around the room, it seems as if the number kept multiplying.

     "Too many." I looked at May and grinned. "It's practically a family reunion."

     She nodded her head as she kept her lips pressed tightly together.

     I felt a hand rub near my spine, so I quickly turned around with my face scrunched up but only found my mom on the other end. I relaxed in my seat and smiled at her.

     "You looked tense." She said, started to rub the tips of her thumbs around my spine and near my neck. I laughed and turned back to face my girlfriend, enjoying the massage on the other side of me. "Hey girls?" My mom said as she dropped her arms from my shoulders. May and I both looked over to look at her. "I hate to tell you this, but you're not invited to the reception because you're too young."

"Ahh." I pouted my lips and sighed. It's not like I haven't drank alcohol before or anything...

"Yeah, I know." She swished her lips to the side. "I wish you two could come. But, you can have a fun little date night or something!" She smiled. "There's plenty of restaurants around here."

I turned to look at May and we were both smiling. I looked back at my mom.

"That sounds fun." I tried to stop my insides from exploding, but it was too late. May and I have never been on a date, now that I think about it, and I couldn't be more excited.

"Yeah!" My mom smiled. "Just don't do anything stupid. Who knows when I might want to FaceTime you?"

Oh, God, mom. No.

"Hey, Ashley, can I talk to you for a second?" My dad interrupted us. I nodded my head and stood up, telling my mom and May that I'll be back soon. I followed him out of the church and finally stopped at the steps outside. You could see and smell the beach from my position, causing my heart to feel happy. I was nervous for what my dad wanted to talk to me about, though.

"What's up?" I cleared my throat and smiled up at him. My heart was pounding and I felt my palms grow sweat.

"Ashley," he began, "I am so proud of you." We both smiled. The inside of my body sent crazy messages to my fingers and toes, causing them to lose feeling. "I know I can never really take back what I said, but I just want you to know that I am proud of you for sticking up for yourself and not being afraid to be who you really are."

I felt warm all over.

"Thanks, dad." I blushed. "That means a lot."

He nodded his head before pulling me into an incredibly tight hug. I exhaled deeply and sunk into his arms, feeling incredibly happy that he's on my side. We pulled away and smiled.

"I love you, Ash." He paused, "Always have, always will."

I beamed as he bent down to kiss the top of my forehead.

"I love you too, dad."

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

May and I sighed in defeat as we shut the hotel door behind us. The hot tub wasn't working (now that we finally found it), and now we're just standing in the living room wrapped in towels. We didn't want to take them off until we hopped in the water (I guess as a surprise, but this just sucks).

"What do we do now?" I sighed as I stated at May. She shrugged before her eyes trailed off into the room. She gasped. "What?" I smiled.

"I have an idea! Don't follow me." She said, practically sprinting into the bathroom. My entire body felt happy as I made my way into the bedroom and turned on the television. I heard May start the bathtub and that's when my entire body fluttered.

I didn't change the channel because I was too excited thinking about what May was doing, so my eyes were just glued to the television screen with the local news channel on. It was the same one from home (hence only being an hour away), but it still felt new.

About five minutes later, May walked into the bedroom with her towel still wrapped around her body. She wore a huge smile on her face.

"I have a surprise." She said. I felt the blush burst into my cheeks as I turned the television off and followed her into the bathroom. I looked at the full bathtub and then back up at her. "Surprise!" She yelled as her arms spread out, revealing her body in a bikini. "I made our very own hot tub!"

I smiled, not only because she's incredibly cute, but because her body is just fantastic and the steam from the water was causing my blush to become even more colorful. May walked behind me and shut the door before coming back to stand in front of me.

"Do you like it?" She smiled. I beamed and nodded my head.

"It's perfect!" I smiled and looked down at the tub. May practically got in incredibly fast, her face scrunched up as her eyes squeezed tightly shut. "Is it hot?" I chuckled.

"Mhmm." May nodded her head and pressed her lips together. She finally opened her eyes and shook her head, "It's fine, though, you can just come right on in." I laughed and slowly brought both of my legs in, feeling the insane amount of heat wrap itself around my calves and toes. I hissed.

I took a few slow deep breaths before taking my towel off and dropping it on the floor. I looked at May on the other side of the tub and saw her blush before she ducked her mouth and nose into the water so only her eyes were out. I laughed and quickly sat down, the water even worse.

May "swam" over to me and practically laid on her stomach on top of me. The rollercoaster in my body went on the scariest ride of its life. She pressed herself up with her hands and leaned forward to kiss my left collarbone. I shivered in the hot water. She made her way up my neck, and that's when I started laughing.

"Stop," I giggled, "it tickles."

She didn't stop, naturally, and kept kissing all around my neck and collarbones. My body felt weak and practically relaxed under the water. Without much warning, she made her way to my lips and snuck her tongue in, something I'm not used to, but the weight of her on top of me caused the both of us to be pushed underwater. We broke apart immediately and came up for air, both of us coughing and laughing. She came back to me and laid down beside me, our bodies barely fitting in the tub, before she wrapped her leg around me and rested her head on my left shoulder. My heart pounded against my chest as I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her even closer.

We sat like that for a little bit.

"Your heart is beating really fast." She spoke softly, causing my heart to beat even faster. She picked her head up from my shoulder and smiled at me. "Mine is too."

She sat up and grabbed my right hand, placing it over her heart. My stomach churned. She took my hand away as she smiled at me.

"I love you." She breathed. I could barely move my body.

I smirked, "Can I ask you a question?"

She nodded her head.

"How the hell did you spill milk all over me?" She burst into laughter, causing me to giggle as well, as she came over to me again and rested her stomach on mine again. This time, I was prepared and could actually hold her up. She smiled.

"Well, that day was a really bad day for me." She began. "I found out that my parents were getting a divorce because of me." She tried to smile, but I knew it was hard. "So," she breathed deeply, "I skipped school and asked Fernando to give me some weed in the morning, but he didn't. I was really mad at him, but he knew what was best for me." She smiled. "It's funny, actually, I was thinking about running away that day." She said. "So, I went to the grocery store to buy stuff I needed and for some reason, I couldn't wait to drink the milk because I never had it in my house; my mom was lactose intolerant. So, you know, it was kind of like a fuck you to my mom." She giggled. "To drink milk." She laughed even more, causing me to smile even though it was a painful story to hear. "So, yeah, then I saw you."

My heart fluttered as I brought my hand up to play with her hair.

"And I thought to myself, well shit, that girl is bomb." I smiled as she did, too. "I didn't know how to start a conversation, so I took one look at the carton of milk in my hand and knew what I had to do."

I bit my lip to keep from laughing.

"And bam, here we are."

"Here we are." I sung. She smiled before slowly leaning her head down to meet her lips with mine. My hand that was once playing with her hair moved to the back of her neck, where the other hand also rested. Our lips moved in sync like they were playing a song. A very beautiful song.

We slowly broke apart but she still hovered extremely close to my face. I stared at her lips and smiled. She did, too.

"Hey, Ashely?"

"Yeah?" My eyes flickered up to her big brown eyes before getting distracted by her stupid, stupid dimple.

"I'm not stuck on chapter one anymore." She said. My heart practically burst. "I think I'm on chapter thirty now." She smiled.

"How about let's get to chapter one thousand?" I suggested.

"Or chapter five billion."

"Chapter seventy trillion?"

"Does there have to be a last chapter?" She scooted her legs forward, straddling my lap, before resting her hands right above my bikini line and under my collarbones.

"There will never be a last chapter with you." I smiled so big that my cheeks hurt. "We can just keep going and going and going-"

"And going and going and going." May continued my sentence and put her hands on the side of my face as she leaned forward. "I love you, Ashley James."

There was a spark when our lips met once again. This girl.

The End

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I'm literally staring at my screen in shock right now. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

This is the first book I have ever finished and I can't stop pinching myself to see if this is real. It's all thanks to you guys; without your support, this book would've been deleted by now. Thank you for giving me the confidence to write this amazing story!

The next part will be five years into the future (when May and Ashley are 21) and will be the last part to the story. After that, I'll write a chapter in May's POV and then answer any questions you all may have (either towards the author or characters).

This journey has been unreal. Thank you.

I'll let you all know when my next book is posted so you can go an check it out! Yes, it has LGBTQ+ involved ;)

Dedication to @veauner for the amazing cover in the multimedia. Should I change my main cover to the one above?

I love you all!