"This is the biggest temporary home I've ever seen." I made circle around the living room, staring at the tall ceiling and the fancy decorations. It felt ironic that two destructive boys were living in such a delicate-looking home.

"I've been in bigger ones," Asher sighed as he collapsed onto the soft, white couch. "None of them can beat the barn, though."

I stopped in front of the window and watched the snow fall. It was getting heavier by the hour and covered the beautiful city in even more beauty. Tapped the glass absently before walking toward the love seat beside the couch, plopping down on it.

"Have you been to the barn in a while?" I asked, watching him for a response. He turned the TV on and started scrolling through channels before landing on a channel I had never watched before.

"I've went back a few times, but not enough to make it feel like home again." He acted as if he wanted to go back and rewind his life. I got the feeling that he wasn't as happy as a rock star should be.

"Are you sure you're okay?" I leaned forward and narrowed my eyes at him.

He narrowed his eye back at me, leaning back into the couch to prop his legs up on the glass table in front of him. He propped his arms up behind his head and gave me a small, tired smile.

"I'm just really tired." Was his excuse. Maybe that's all that was wrong with him. Maybe he was perfectly fine, just tired.

"You and I are in the same boat, then. I think I've had a total of four hours of sleep every night," I explained as I rubbed my eyes. I realized that I never put any makeup on and I must have looked like a homeless person. I never did put much on, though, so hopefully it wasn't noticeable.

"I bet I woke you up this morning, didn't I?" The guilt of knowing he was right seeped through his voice.

"No," I lied. "Grayson did with his loud mouth." There was a moment of silence while we stared at each other. "How about we both just take a nap?"

The idea sounded wonderful to me, and Asher nodded his head as he shifted himself to lay flat on the couch. A fluffy pillow practically swallowed his head whole. I made myself comfortable by throwing my legs over the side of the love seat, letting my feet dangle. The TV seemed to be getting quieter as my mind drifted off to sleep, all thoughts coming to an abrupt end.

When I woke up, I was still in the same spot and in the same position on the love seat. A warm blanket was draped over me and my feet were freezing from the lack of blood they were getting. The TV was playing softly on some laundry detergent commercial. I lifted my head to look around at my unfamiliar surroundings. Asher was sitting on the couch, staring absently at the TV.

"Good afternoon, sunshine," he smiled, giving me a little wave. His smile sent chills down my arms and legs. I fell back onto the pillow under my head, still looking back at him. Then realization hit me.

I quickly moved so I was sitting properly on the chair. "Afternoon?"

"Yep. Did you know you talk in your sleep?" He asked amusedly, folding his hands together as he leaned forward onto his knees.

"I..." My cheeks flamed with embarrassment. "How would you know if you were sleeping?" I shot back.

"I wasn't sleeping," he smirked. I watched him head to the kitchen and I hopped up to follow him. I shuffled over to the bar where I pulled myself onto a stool. Like any other normal person would do when a seat twist, I began twisting myself back and forth. Asher chuckled at me as he grabbed two bowls from a cabinet.

"Aw, you're making us cereal for lunch?" I exclaimed with fake humor. Though I was actually excited to have some cereal – especially if it was Lucky Charms. Asher gave me a look as he pulled out a box of none other than Lucky Charms.

"Of course. Cereal used to be our favorite meal anyway, wasn't it?" He laughed as he dropped a spoon in each bowl and placed one in front of me. Leaning against the counter across from me, he watched me take the first bite.

"Mmm," I moaned. "And, yes, I believe it was." I avoided talking anymore by filling my mouth with marshmallows. It was always my subconscious habit to separate the cereal from the marshmallows so I could eat the sweet little marshmallows last.

"I see your cereal habits haven't changed a bit," he laughed at me, taking another bite. His eyes flickered to the TV and stayed there as he watched whatever it was. Curiosity got the best of me, so I turned around to see the movie Jack Frost playing. I remembered the tears it brought me when I first watched it. I haven't watched it since. It made me too sad.

"That movie makes me sad." I pouted as I shoveled another bite of cereal in my mouth. Asher raised an eyebrow at me.

"It's life, Bea," he said gently. "I just like it because of the talking snowman."

I had to hold my hand over my mouth to keep from spewing milk and Lucky Charms all over Asher's face. He laughed at me while I tried to swallow and not choke as the guffaws threatened to explode.

"That's great, Asher. I would never guess you were twenty-two years old," I chuckled. Asher's face scrunched up at me.

"I'm almost twenty-three," he argued. I rolled my eyes and continued eating my cereal. "I miss making snowmen with Brody and Mom and Dad. It was even more fun when Mia and her clan would show up."

I smiled at the thought of Mia and Asher making a snowman. Knowing them like the back of my hand, I came to the conclusion that those days probably turned into snowballs fights and bonfires. I never had any of those nights.

Before I could stop myself, I blurted out a piece of my sad childhood. "I've never built a snowman."

Asher was quiet for a long second. It wasn't until I looked up from my bowl that I realized he was staring at me with a hard expression. "Are you serious?"

"I just... never had the chance," I replied. What else was I going to say? "Mom and Dad were never home... my babysitters never gave a crap. I matured really fast, I guess you could say." I shrugged my shoulders and swallowed a spoonful of milk.

"Don't do that," Asher practically scolded. "Don't shrug it off. That's a big deal."

I stared at him as if he'd lost his mind. He was making a bigger deal out of it than was needed.

"Not building a snowman is a big deal?" I asked, dumbfounded by his reaction.

"Every kid should have the opportunity," he argued, setting our now empty bowls in the sink.

"It's really okay, Asher," I tried to express. He was not going to be convinced otherwise.

"Nope, not with me." Before I could stop him, he had a hold on my hand and was pulling me towards the door of his condo. I watched him pull on his shoes and jacket for a moment. "Don't make me put your shoes on for you."

"What are we doing?" I asked him, sitting down on a bench with coats thrown over it to pull my shoes on.

"We're going to build a snowman," he smirked. I pulled on my coat and let him pull me out the door and down the hallway. Once we reached the elevator, he pressed the button to take us to the first floor and the doors closed, leaving us accompanied by each other and the annoying elevator music.

"How have you not been mobbed here yet?" I asked randomly.

"Well, I think it's because the fans haven't really figured out we're here. It's only Grayson and me, so they don't realize we're here. At least, that's my theory. Fans are crazy, trust me. I found that out the hard way."

I wasn't able to ask how he figured that out because the doors slid open and he jerked me out of the elevator. The snow was still falling outside, only not as hard. The snow was about up to my ankles by now which meant the roads and sidewalks were in awful shape.

Asher pulled me to up the sidewalk a few feet so we were in front of a lobby window. A few people looked at us like we were crazy for walking off of the sidewalk. Our footsteps were the first in the untouched snow.

"Okay," Asher said as he bent down to pack some snow together. The snow was wet and heavy which made it easier to stick together. "First we have to make a really big ball for the bottom. Let's just pack a bunch of it together in front of this window."

I stopped myself when I was about to tell him I knew how to make one. I'd seen about a million people make snowmen on TV, plus, who wouldn't know how to make one, even if they'd never made one before. But I decided not to stop him since he was really determined to make one with me. I bent over and started helping with the bottom layer of the snowman's body.

It took us almost thirty minutes to make a snowball as big and round as an exercise ball. Asher was determined to make my first snowman the best one in New York. I, somehow, didn't mind helping him for countless hours in the freezing cold. The thin gloves Asher had given me were soaked, but I ignored it.

"Now for the middle part," he grinned. I smiled back as we began making our snowman's torso. The thought of seeing the finished product made me excited. I had never built a snowman before, so the whole process was new to me. Watching kids on TV make one wasn't near as much fun. I know, it sounds lame, but I had a dorky soul.

The snow had stopped halfway through being finished with the middle ball. We hardly noticed through the bits of conversation and being so into making our snowman beautiful. A few people stopped and asked for an autograph or a picture with Asher. I loved watching them because Asher's smile was genuine each time. He loved his fans, and it was obvious.

"This snowman is going to be an epic one," Asher said as he placed the head on top of its body. "It'll be in the New York Times. Beatrice Montgomery: Genius Snowman Builder."

I laughed at him. "I'm pretty sure your name will be the one to pop up." He just shook his head at me. He knew it was true. He was one of the most famous people in the music world, while I was just a simple girl lost in a complicated world. I smiled at him admiringly as he adjusted random lumps in our snowman's body.

"I'm going to go get a carrot and a scarf and..." He looked the snowman up and down as he thought. "A hat. Can't forget a hat." He squeezed my arm as he passed me to get to the doors of the building.

"Asher!" I yelled after him when I thought about the snowman's smile. He had to have a smile or he wouldn't look right. But he didn't hear me in his hurry to get the other things. There was no chance of me finding any rocks the right size under the snow, but I looked anyway. I found a few rocks trapped under the snow by the sidewalk and gathered as many as I could.

Asher appeared with a scarf that look foreign, a long, orange carrot, and a beanie. I took the hat from him and chuckled. "A beanie?"

"It's the only hat I could find," he argued with me. I placed the hat on top of our snowman's head – which was rounder and harder to get the stretchy hat on – and helped put on his scarf while Asher put the carrot where the snowman's nose was. 

"He looks beautiful," Asher cooed jokingly. He grinned at me as I looked at our snowman, cocking my head to the side as if it would help me notice what was wrong. I remembered the rocks I'd collected and left in a pile on top of the snow.

"Wait!" I exclaimed, making Asher and a few people passing by us jump in surprise. I grabbed my pile of rocks and began pushing them gently in the head of our snowman. He had eyes and a lopsided smile that reminded me of Asher's. I stood back to look at my piece of work and looked to Asher. "We couldn't not give him a smile."

"Now all he's missing is a name." He clicked his tongue. "What are you thinking?"

I said the first weird nickname that came to my mind. "Basher?" Asher's eyes grew wide as he looked at me.

"Basher?" He asked, confused. He obviously didn't remember the name.

"That's our names combined, remember? Ben used to call us that." I couldn't help but smile at the memory. No matter what time of the day it was, if Asher and I were behind a closed door, Ben would burst through it and have some kind of remark. It was usually "No hanky panky before marriage".

"Yeah, I remember," he said, a smile playing on his lips that he tried to hide. I jumped over to be beside of Basher, throwing my arms around carefully enough so I wouldn't knock him over.

"Take a picture of me and my new boyfriend," I joked. Asher laughed and pulled out his phone, snapping a picture of Basher and me. When he showed it to me, my curly, wild hair was sticking up everywhere around my face from being held there the hood of my sweatshirt.

"Come on, your cheeks are blood red, we should probably get inside." Asher threw his arm around my shoulders. I didn't remove his arm because it felt normal, and I missed normal with us. "Plus, I'm a little jealous of Basher over there having such a beautiful girlfriend." He smirked.

I smiled but ignored his comment. We stepped inside the building and felt my body warm up a little more. I noticed that my boots were soaked which meant my socks were also, and my feet were freezing. My gloves were soaked and so were the tips of my fingers. Everything was soaked it seemed, and my whole body was frozen.

When we entered the elevator the closed in front of us and I slipped off my gloves. Asher's arm left my shoulders while he pressed the button to take us up to his floor. After shoving my gloves into my pockets, I lurched forward and wrapped my ice cold fingers around his neck. His eyes widened as he pulled on my fingers to get them off of his warm skin.

"What the hell?" Asher laughed as he backed away from me. "Your hands feel like friggin' ice cubes, Bea."

"I know," I answered with a playful grin on my face. I held my hands under my chin to try and warm them up. He took a step toward me like he was going to wrap his arms around me in a hug, but the doors dinged open and a sharply dressed business man walked in, a stern look embedded on his face.

Asher pursed his lips and returned to his spot by all the buttons. "Where to, sir?"

The man looked at Asher and his stern look vanished. "The lobby, thank you." Asher returned a heart-warming smile and pressed the lobby button. The elevator took us to the tenth floor and dropped us off before it took the man back down to the lobby.

We headed back to the condo in silence. My thoughts were overwhelming me at the moment, just as they did all the time. We entered the condo and all the lights were off, the room was freezing and the both of us shivered. Asher turned the heat up and looked at me apologetically.

"If you want, you can take a shower down the hall if you want. I completely forgot about the heat going off randomly sometimes. We really need to get that fixed," he said absently. I looked down at my soaked jeans and my frozen feet and hands.

"Okay, um," I stuttered, nervous all of a sudden. "Can I borrow some shorts and a shirt maybe? My clothes are wet." I gave a nervous laugh while my face heated up. Of course I would feel embarrassed taking a shower in my ex-boyfriend's house. It shouldn't be weird, right?

"Yeah, I'll go grab some." He went back towards his bedroom as I made my way to the bathroom. I pushed the door open and was surprised when I saw how beautiful it was. Yes, I called a bathroom beautiful. The floor was tiled in white and black, the sink was also black. Everything was so shiny and new that it made me wonder if Asher or Grayson had even used it yet.

The shower was glass and very transparent.

The first thing I did was turn to see if the door had a lock on it, and to my happiness, there was.

I would be lying if I said I didn't want Asher seeing my body. We had dated for two years and still hadn't gone as far as kissing. It had to do with my morals and the insecurity I still carried around with me. I liked myself the way I was, and Asher didn't want me to change. So we waited, and the time never came, and probably never will. There was that one moment he saw me without any clothes. Without any cover-up that hid my emotions. And that was the night I almost killed myself. He saved me, and that was something I would never forget.

When he did that for me, I'd wanted to go farther with him that night. But he stopped me and told me he just wanted to hold me. That was the night that I knew my life would continue and my morals still mattered. My faith in God still mattered, and my faith in having someone to love like no one else ever had was still there.

"Bea?" Asher called from down the hall, pulling me from my thoughts. I walked toward the door and poked my head out.

"In here," I replied. He handed me a pair of his soft sweatpants like I used to wear and a smaller Green Day shirt that had the sleeves ripped off. I smiled at him as I looked at it. Green Day was still one of my all-time favorite bands, and he still remembered.

"Thank you," I murmured to him. He smiled and walked away, leaving me alone. I shut the door quietly and locked it. Stripping down and starting a warm bath, I allowed myself to relax for once this week.

______________________

The song is Circles by The Downtown Fiction!

I hope you liked this chapter! I like it because of the moments between Asher and Bea, but I can't wait to dig deeper! The coming chapters are going to be packed full!

Thank you for reading!