TASK [005] ; journal entries
this is essentially ashvia okay I really tried to stop the ashvia but all his important moments are ashvia and just BE WARNED
JUNE 2015
I guess everyone had a different idea of Paradise when they got here. Maybe they were looking for palm trees or a stable living or someone to go to bed with. I don’t know what that fucker was looking for, but I sincerely hope he doesn’t get it.
I remember getting to this island with almost nothing, and almost dying from the heat. And when I start to settle in, finally find a, uh, special friend... this douche goes and spills his drink all over me. Like, yeah, thanks. Little dork carried on when I returned the favour, like he wasn’t expecting it. Huh. This island may still be a little fun, but I hope I don’t have to see this mess of a kid again.
Tristan Leighton. That’s his name, it’s Tristan. It even sounds like a douchey name.
Bright side though, there’s this guy named Logan Bateman that seems like a real pain in the ass. I think this is a guy I can get along with.
AUGUST 2015
Today... today was something else. Bear with me here, because this is a long story. It started three months ago. Three months of teasing, three months of banter. Three months of sending her racing down hallways. The first day I met Olivia Leighton I seemed to give off the wrong impression. She was the only one who didn’t put up with my bullshit though, and I’d made it my mission to annoy her every day since. I don’t... I never knew why. Well, not until today.
It’s not a surprise that our building is shitty. Like, look at it, it’s the eyesore of Paradise. So when the elevator stopped while it was only the two of us in it, the last thing I thought about was filling silence with this girl I’d spent hours mocking. I focused on getting out. But when that didn’t work, and Olivia was losing her shit, we talked. We sat down and talked. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours. All I know is that my heart was beating and it had nothing to do with the adrenaline from the elevator situation.
It took me longer to realise than it should have that I had come to... want this girl. And not the way you’d want someone you’d seen in a club, or at a cafe. A more innate wanting. I wanted to get to know her. I wanted to be beside her. And most shockingly, I wanted to be with her. So when the doors of the elevators were pried open, I was stupid enough and brave enough to ask her to go out to dinner with me. Which was amazing, until I fucked it up. Again. She ran out when I (untruthfully) told her I had no intent of having feelings for people. Or something to that effect. I don’t know, what I said doesn’t matter. It’s the fact she left that matters.
I’m not smart. I didn’t chase after her when I should have. And instead, I sat there like a fucking moron. I juggled the options in my mind, did I really want to risk developing... feelings for someone? Well, it seemed my subconscious answered that for me because before I knew it, I’d raced up multiple flights of stairs and stood breathlessly in her doorway. She was shocked, I was shocked. And looking at her, she was just... she was so beautiful. She saw something in the world I didn’t she saw me for who I was. She was just... everything. And so I kissed her with all the heart I have, and I couldn’t stop smiling when she did the same.
And I knew from here on that this wasn’t about ‘just a girl’. She had become my girl. My Olivia.
SEPTEMBER 2015
Never have I royally fucked up as much as I have today. Never. Effectively in the process of a couple of hours I’d fucking ruined everything in my life. Every little thing.
Liv and I had been dating, yes, had, for a while. It was still a secret, because neither of us quite knew how to tell her brother. And who should barge into her apartment unannounced as we’re making out on her couch? Yep. So the fucker stares at me and I had no clue what to do. I’d never cared about someone as much as I did Liv, and I didn’t want her to hurt anymore at the hand of her brother. So in essense, my move was the second most fucking stupid thing I’ve ever done. I wasn’t even thinking, I was falling out the window and climbing down the fire escape before I knew what was happening.
I don’t remember the little details, I don’t remember a lot. All I remember is standing on that fucking cliff as Tristan threw the first punch. So I fight back. Liv is there, screaming for us to stop. We don’t. And without exerting myself too much, without us even fighting that hard... there’s a crack. Tristan falls. It’s not long before the sirens are wailing and I have hand-cuffs slapped around my wrists. Tristan’s not okay, Liv fucking hates me. Even Logan won’t be able to find something to mock here.
To make matters worse, I get bailed out of jail by my roommate Emelyn. Sweet girl, nice. All she’d ever done is be nice to me. All I can manage to do is scream at her as I rage over the fact she’s not Liv. So I go to the hospital, Tristan is in a bad way. My bloodied hands and empty chest are nothing compared to the harrowing stare of Liv as she sends me away. As I leave. I can’t stay in Paradise, not like this. Not anymore.
I write this while I sit on the dock, waiting for the boat. I’m going to sea, leaving everyone and everything behind for however long I need. And if I’m lucky enough, the sea will swallow me whole before any realises I’m gone.
Not that anyone would anyway.
OCTOBER 2015
There is more to the world than fish guts and hooks. It’s taken me too long to realise that.
I returned to Paradise after disappearing. No one knew where I’d gone, and I’d bet no one would have cared either. But that doesn’t matter. I came back anyway because there were three words on my lips that I couldn’t keep trapped forever. I needed to say it.
I needed to tell Liv I loved her.
Of course it had to be fucking raining. But I wasn’t going to half ass this. So I grabbed a copy of Romeo and Juliet, her favourite, and I started reciting out her window hopelessly until she opened. By the time she did, I was drenched. But I didn’t care. She was there, she was looking down at me and all I could feel was my love for her that I’d been drowning in for the past weeks.
She dragged me in her window. I got to touch her, feel her warmth around my freezing hand. I held her body close to mine as I told her the truth that had struggled on my lips for far too long. And with a kiss, she reciprocated her feelings. And so that night we fell onto her bed, and we finally consummated the love we felt for each other. My world is still broken, fractured, but.... it’s perfect. Her laying beside me in bed, I just know... it’s perfect.
DECEMBER 2015
I’m as in love with Liv as I was when I first knew. A love so potent apparently that we’d, well... we didn’t really plan this pregnancy, considering she’s only 18, we’ve been dating less than a year. But things are falling together and... I’m going to have a family. So Logan and I are working on repairing this defunct apartment to make our home. With everything Logan’s had to deal with, we’ve grown closer too. And I don’t care if I have to quit my job as a life guard, I don’t care if my world is small and the fact that my family is now, essentially, the Leightons. That would have bothered me before, but not anymore.
Things make sense. I wake up and I’m smiling because I’ve got Liv, I’ve got a home, and I’ve got a future. And that’s all I can comprehend caring about now.
FEBRUARY 2016 *******(tw)*********
I want to burn this fucking suit. The suit I had to buy instead of saving for baby formula and food. The suit I put on this morning as my body wracked with tears. The suit I wore as I said goodbye to the love of my life.
It’s been a week since Liv died, and my son was born. Today we all gathered in the cemetery. The weight of the world was on my shoulders as I helped carried her down....
It’s never easy losing someone you love. But I never thought I’d lose Liv like this. I never thought I’d lose Liv. I couldn’t even bring myself to drink myself to sleep because I’d been so heavily gripped to Jax. I haven’t slept. I haven’t felt anything resembling myself since it happened. I’m so fucking lost. I have to raise a kid on my fucking own, I don’t know how to do that. I don’t want to be alone. I don’t want to be without her.
Don’t get me started on the fact that I can’t bring myself to look into the eyes of any of the Leightons, especially Tristan. I’m not even talking to Logan because the fucking asshole decided to attack my suicidal friend that I had to save. All the other people in my life are unimportant, but these are the ones I needed most... and I couldn’t bring myself to talk to any of them.
I want her back. Fuck, I just want Liv back. Or at the very least... my chance to say goodbye.
MARCH 2016
Looking back on my life, from here to now, this is not how I thought it would go. I never
My home has become ours now. Today Jax was officially released into the hospital and into my arms. And I cried. I’d spent every day in the nursery of the hospital, no matter how much it hurt to see other happy couples doting over their children and seeing familiar hallways and doors where floods of bad memories arose. No, it’s all about Jax now. It’s all about Jax.
My world suddenly feels worth something when he’s in my arms. His bright shining eyes and tiny little fingers wrapped around mine, it’s enough to make me think that yeah, life is pretty shit. But this isn’t. He’s my world now, and I’m going to protect him and do anything I can for him.
I love my son, and I’m going to make a life for the two of us now.













