~HAZEL~

"I know that this conversation might make you uncomfortable," he says, voice rough, as though every word was hard to escape his lips. "And believe me, I wouldn't have brought it up if there was an easier way out of this mess, but I need to get us out of here and it's the only way."

My pulse thundered in my ears. "Ashton?" The word came out small, fragile. "Just tell me. What is it you're trying to say?"

He kept avoiding it which only made my anxiety even worse.

He dragged a ...