//Author's note//
sorry for the most terrible updating ever, I'm just really busy with school. This was a short chapter but I needed the two of them to meet. Thank you for reading anyway!
Ashton's p.o.v
I woke up with the worst hangover anyone could experience in a million years. I felt a non-stop ache going through my head and as soon as I tried to move just inches I felt a pain even worse in my hip. I carefully turned myself to the side, just so that I could reach my phone. I grabbed ahold of the usually white but now almost black iPhone and got to see for my surprise that it was 1 p.m. School had started hours ago, not that I had wanted to go there anyway, but unfortunately this was the first day with the group-project, which meant that I lose a day of working with Beatrice. But what was that to cry about now when it was already all too late, and all I could manage to do was to get down to the pharmacy. I used the little strength I had left in my body to push myself up so that I was at least leaning my back against the headboard, but got shocked when I saw the biggest hickey anyone could ever manage to make. It looked like as if it was several hickeys made into one big that spread from my right nipple just to the middle of my chest. I got disgusted by just the look of it. What I did at parties where I drink that much is just to remember for the moment, not the following or the four following mornings after. I used my hands but not my sight to locate the shirt I knew I had tossed somewhere in the bed earlier and when I finally felt its soft fabric against my fingers I looked down at it. Fortunately there weren’t any signs of significantly trying-too-hard sex so I pulled it over my head and got out of the bed. With a pair of sunglasses and shorts I left my apartment unlocked and empty for a while.
The drugstore was only a few blocks away from where I live, and that’s almost my favorite thing about living here. It doesn’t matter how wasted you decide to get, you just have to walk a few houses to get your cure. I looked around to see that the street was just as busy as usual, with business people walking around with their serious faces, children running around and I noticed a few people from school that probably had ended already. I used my least sore hand to search through the pockets of my jacket to see if there were any cigarettes left in there. Amazingly it was. I had the lighter in my other hand and I had walked like that all the way since I had left my home, just in case I would find a cigarette or if I would’ve had to, I would’ve persuaded someone to give me one. I put the white stick to my lips, carefully wrapping my hands around it so that the wind wouldn’t blow the fire out and oh my god how amazing it felt when the smoke filled my lungs once again. A year ago, I would’ve never believed that something so dangerous would be so relaxing to me, but who’s still the same person they were a year ago?
I cornered the last building and now the pharmacy was in sight. I threw the cigarette to the ground, giving it the slightest possible stomp there is to give it and then walked into the huge store that could probably cover my whole apartment. I walked down the aisle once or twice before I had any time at all to realize that they must’ve moved around all the shelves in there.
“Where are the fucking painkillers?” I mumbled to myself as I walked around a shelf with birth-control.
“Just down this aisle” a girl’s voice said from behind. I didn’t get that she had been talking to me until I actually got to the end of the aisle and saw the painkillers there. I grabbed a package of them but decided that before I left I needed to thank her. It didn’t matter how she looked, who she was or how she was, just as long as someone was being nice to me there was no other way but to treat them the same way back. Now instead of looking for the medication I walked through the store to find the girl. I walked past an old lady holding a package of condoms, a young boy with some aspirin but that was it. My attempts weren’t the best maybe, but I could barely stay this pain anymore so all I had to do was walk over to the cash register to pay. On the other side of the desk a boy my age was standing, and he looked at me with worry in his eyes when he saw what I was getting.
“Is something wrong?” he asked, yet he scanned the pills in.
“No, just the worst hangover ever.” I was expecting some great laugh from him as if he knew exactly what I was talking about, but instead he just held out his hand, waiting for me to hand him the money. So I did it, got my change back and grabbed the meds and walked out of the store. Or I was supposed to walk out the store but when I pushed the door to get me out of there, something on the other side got hit and removed. I opened the door a little more, just sticking my head out to see what I had done, and I could barely believe my eyes. Yesterday I had bumped into this girl at the party.
Today I slam a pharmacy door on her.
“I’m so sorry” I said. She covered the place on her arm where the door had hit with her opposite hand.
“Just watch out” she said looking at the ground and her own shoes. She was hot, there was no denial, but in her I could see something I rarely see. This girl was actually beautiful, and that’s not a word I just throw around like that.
“Seriously” I said, “it wasn’t any of my intention.” I desperately kept the conversation going, hoping that she’d soon look up and see who she was talking to. Not that I saw myself as “the popular guy” but girls had never been a problem.
“No, but seriously” she said, “you just watch out.” She now let her gaze slowly go from the ground and up to meet my eyes. Not because she could tell that I was looking at her since I had sunglasses covering mine, but I sure looked into hers. Even though I was meters away I could tell how beautifully blue her eyes were. “Is something wrong?” she asked, probably because it might’ve looked like I was staring at her.
“No, it’s nothing, you’re just…I just… I don’t know.” I mentally face palmed myself, since when do I get nervous when it comes to girls?
“That’s really strong” she said, nodding at the package I was holding in my hands. “Though hangover?”
“Yup, that’s it” I said, smiling a little at her recognizing the hangover signs by just looking at the medication. When she returned my smile, it felt as if I had won a million bucks. “How did you know?”
“You look like a fucking mess” she said, not moving an inch of her face just the littlest. She wasn’t joking. As offended as I felt I looked down at my clothing. My jacket probably covered whatever she would be able to see on my torso, I wore the usual ripped jeans I always wore and I had hid my hair underneath a hat. The only thing that could’ve revealed me would’ve been the bags underneath my eyes but they were hid behind my glasses. When I returned my gaze to meet hers, she was actually smiling a little again.
“That wasn’t a joke?” I asked, just to make sure. At the same time I totally stepped outside of the pharmacy, dropping the door so that it closed with a bang. Now it was only her, me and the street.
“No? You’re not used to hearing that are you?” She crossed her arms in a sassy way over her chest, looking like she was the boss of everything. I liked it.
“Not like that, people usually aren’t that honest with me, even though I am with them.” She cracked a little, even though my comment weren’t supposed to be funny. She was wearing a simple white t-shirt and light blue jeans, still she manage to look hotter than any girl in any tight dress or revealing shirt.
“Too bad. People say that I’m too honest so maybe we have something in common. Oh god I never thought I’d say that.” She shyly looked around, throwing a glance over her own shoulder.
“Do you know who I am?”
“You’re Ashton Irwin, you’re a bad boy that smokes, drinks and do drugs.” A smile spread across her face, for what reason I have no idea.
“And I’m a very honest person, you have to remember that. Add it to your list please.” I mocked her, trying my best to be flirtatious in a secret way.
“Smokes, drinks, do drugs, being honest. Sounds like a good resume.”
“So when I’m telling you I’m honest I should probably say something honest.” I paused for a little more dramatic touch of it all. “You are very very beautiful.”
