"Kevin!"

"Kevin!"

"KEVIN! STOP!"

"Kevin, he got his punishment so calm down!"

"My life isn't ruined, Kevin. I still have people who love me in my life."

"..."

"Because I rejected him."

"He was my best friend since the starting of high school. We met on the first day and instantly became friends. It happened in the middle of our junior year. He just confessed to me, out of the blue. I didn't feel the same about him and I didn't want to lose my friend so I told him that."

"He had anger issues and he didn't took that rejection well. The next day in our chemistry class, we were asked to perform an experiment with our partners and my partner was a good friend of mine. I guess, he took the hit on his so called man ego."

"I went to the supply room to get the equipment for our experiment and when I turned around, I only caught a glimpse of his face before he threw the acid on my face."

"Just because he couldn't take a rejection, he decided it would be fun to ruin my face. On the day he was taken to the jail, I asked him why did he do that to me. You know what he said? 'You didn't want to be with me so I just made sure that anyone else won't want to be with you either.' "

"People at school started saying that I brought this upon myself, that it was all my fault. Is saying no when you don't harbor any feelings for someone a crime? Am I supposed to say yes to anyone with a penis who asks me out just because he'd ruin my face if I hurt his man ego?"

He raises his hands and unties her scarf from behind her head. Ashton freezes for a moment as her guards started going up because she believed that her safety shield was being broken but then she lets her guard down because she knew that she could trust Kevin.

Kevin removes her scarf and looks at her with adoration and admiration in his eyes. He raises one hand and touches her left cheek where the burn marks were. Ashton closes her eyes and sighs. When she opens them and looks into his eyes, it makes her feel like she's actually beautiful.

"These are not something you should be ashamed of, Ashton. These are your battle scars. They tell your story and show that you won a battle. The people who think otherwise can just go to hell. These scars won't change my feelings for you."

Her vision got blurry and everything seemed so unreal. She always believed that someone like her didn't deserve to be loved. She never thought that she'd have someone who would look at her like that. She never thought that she'd ever have someone she'd be able to call hers. Even when she started developing feelings for Kevin, she denied them and always tried to suppress them.

Kevin leaned forward and kissed her scarred cheek. "You can reject me a thousand times and I'll still be there standing in front of you with a huge grin for the one thousandth and one time. I developed feelings for the person you are even when I'd never met you. Heck, I haven't even known your name at that time. My feelings for you are real, Ashton. They are not going to change, no matter what."

He looked directly into her eyes as he said. "You're beautiful to me, Ashton. Even with your battle scars. I'll prove it to you, every single day. Count on it. I'm going to stick around for a really long time. I'm worse than superglue." He kissed her cheek after saying that.

She chuckled at that as tears shone in her eyes. "You can ask me a thousand times and you'll get a yes as an answer, every single time because I really like you, Kevin."

He took her face in his hands, leaned in and kissed her. Putting all his feelings in that kiss, making sure to let Ashton know how deep his feelings are for her.

***