melody

I opened the door, revealing a smiley Ashton. I was quite grateful that it was bubbly Ashton and not stare-into-your-soul-so-much-that-it's-scary Ashton. I definitely prefer happy Ashton. He gave a small wave before I welcomed him in.

"Hi," I said nonchalantly.

"Hi," he giggled as he walked in.

I smiled widely and led him to my room. "That's where all the pictures are," I pointed to the bin.

Ashton crouched down and turned the box to face him. "Melody's pictures," he read. "Ooh, glittery!"

"I was in like fifth grade, give me a break," I laughed.

I crawled over to him and kneeled so I sat on my legs. "Here, open it," I directed.

He lifted the lid, revealing my obsessive collection of pictures. His eyes widened and he gasped.

"I know," I sighed. "There's a lot."

Ashton looked up at me, and we held eye contact for moment before a wide grin decorated his face. "This is gonna be fun!"

We started flipping through different pictures. Some of them were from back when I was a baby that my mom had given me, and some were from last summer. There was a wide range.

Ashton pulled up a couple of my baby pictures and smiled.

I shook my head and laughed. "Laugh all you want, I was an ugly baby."

"Hey, you weren't an ugly baby," he reassured. "You just made some ugly facial expressions." He giggled at his 'compliment.'

We both cracked up. "Hey, this pictures a lot better," I defended.

We went through multiple baby pictures and filtered through what I wanted on the wall and what I would just put in a scrapbook or something.

We started getting to the photos of when I was older. It was only hard because they were memories from my old house and in high school and college.

There was a picture of me and my best friend that we took on a walk one day.

That friend passed away a year later in a car accident.

I stared at the photo for a few minutes, trying to not get caught up and memories and feelings.

"Melody?" Ashton interrupted my thoughts.

I snapped out of it and moved the picture to the side. Ashton rose one eyebrow and looked at me weirdly before grabbing the picture.

"No, Ashton," I said weakly.

He shook his head. "It's just you and your friend..."

I shrugged it off and tried to move on, completely failing. Tears were welling up in my eyes, my vision blurring. "She was my best friend. She's gone now."

I exhaled and tried to move on to different pictures.

"Oh," Ashton whispered. "I'm sorry."

A tear fell down my cheek. I tried to wipe it off with my sleeve. Ashton grabbed my shoulders and pulled me into a warm embrace. My arms were in front of me, against his chest. I was pretty much cuddling myself.

"I'm sorry," he said again against my shoulder.

We looked at a variety of photos of me and my friends.

"Is that... ramen?" Ashton laughed as he stared at a picture.

"Don't judge me," I laughed.

(a/n i will give you all some of the photos that they were looking at just because that's fun)

"A lot of these are with same friend," Ashton pointed out.

I nodded. "I spent most of my time with her. We like, grew up together."

Ashton nodded. "Is she still your best friend? Like virtually?"

I shrugged. "I guess? I don't really have a best friend."

Ashton shot me a happy grin. "I'll be your best friend."

I smiled at him. "Okay."

We started organizing pictures into a massive collage that I wanted on the wall. After an hour of that, we started putting them on the wall. We couldn't reach the top of it.

"We could stand in the dresser?" I brainstormed.

"No!" Ashton exclaimed. "There's no way that's safe."

"Good point."

Ashton and I sat in silence for a minute. "I have an idea!" He told me. "Get on my shoulders."

He crouched down, and I attempted to literally sit on his shoulders.

"This is terrifying," I said shakily.

I held onto his head for dear life, probably pulling his hair out. He rose up slowly, and I plastered on the pictures as neat as I could. Ashton let go of my legs and quickly grabbed me waist, lifting me off of his shoulders and onto the ground.

"Woah, you're strong," I said in disbelief.

He shrugged. "Gotta love muscle mass!"

I laughed a bit. We continued to put on pictures, luckily not having to go higher up on the walls.

"You're shoulders are gonna be sore for days," I said as I taped on a picture.

Ashton looked at me weirdly. "Why?"

I laughed. "You held my heavy self? Yeah, you might want physical therapy."

Ashton swatted at my arm. "Stop it! You aren't even that heavy."

I shook my head. "Whatever you say, big guy."

After hours of work, it was already eleven at night. We stepped back to look at the completed wall. I still had hundreds of photos left.

"Wanna do the door?" I asked him.

"Sure!" he said happily.

I didn't think he would actually want to.

We filled up the front of the door, and before we knew it, it was 2 am. We fell back and collapsed onto the bed to take a break, but actually fell asleep.

Ashton's shoulder made a surprisingly comfortable pillow, though.

a/n ugh they are so cute stahp

i hope you enjoyed this chapter! i worked really hard on it.

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love you all! blm, tpwk, happy pride month :))