Vault

Sixty-Four

I groaned at the sound of laughing. I slowly opened my eyes and looked around at my unfamiliar surroundings. After a few confused moments crossed my mind I realized where I was and recalled the events of the night before.

I have to face Ashton and his annoying face that probably is going to be doing nothing but getting on my nerves. I know he's trying to help, but I just don't want it. I sat up in bed, deeply sighing before I forced myself to get up and leave his guest room. I followed the sound of the obnoxious laughter, leading me to his living room. But Ashton wasn't alone. His friends were here too.

"I thought you were dead," Ashton laughed when he noticed me, "I had to check if you were still breathing like four times."

"Too bad that I was," I shrugged as I sat down besides Ashton on his couch.

"Shut up," Ashton shook his head, "I didn't want to wake you up since you were actually sleeping."

"I was so exhausted that I think I would've slept just as long in the sand on the beach," I admit.

"Yeah that's what happens when you try to make your body do things it doesn't have the fuel to do," Ashton pointed out, "so we're not going back to this not eating or sleeping for days bullshit thing. You can be a little moody bitch all you want, but you're going to eat and you're going to try to sleep."

"You're not my dad," I scoffed.

"No, but you don't have a dad so suck it up. I told you I would turn to tough love if I had to," Ashton laughed.

"I don't care Ash, whatever you say," I surrendered as my phone went off.

"It's nice to see you Ava," Michael smiled at me, directing my attention to the other three guys sitting in the room.

"Its good to see you guys too," I fake smiled.

It was nice to see them, honestly, but I'm not in the mood. I don't want to be around a group of people or be forced to do anything but sit around and mope.

"Are you cold?" Ashton asked.

"Freezing," I sighed as a shiver ran down my spine.

Ashton grabbed a blanket and put it around my shoulders before he put his hands on my upper arms, gently rubbing over them to help me try to warm up.

"So how are you?" Calum asked.

"Perfect," I mumbled.

"No really," Luke insisted, "we don't know the guy Ava, you can say whatever you want to us and it doesn't affect anything. So how are you?"

"I can't breathe," I shrugged, "I feel like I'm drowning."

"What happened?" Michael asked.

"We were at a halloween party and I was with Maddie and Katie. I went to find Karl and he was making out with Jessie," I admit out loud for the first time.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Ashton asked, "the same bitch as before? Why was she even there?"

I shrugged, genuinely not knowing the answer. Of all people, why Jessie? He knows how much she would hurt me of all people. I mean, getting cheated on always hurts, but the person who single handedly takes the trophy of my most loathed human to see... And for some reason, I just want to call him. For days, I've just wanted to call him. Hear his voice, tell him about how much I'm hurting because I know he'd listen even if he didn't understand, maybe he'd even get me to smile. He's the reason for my pain, the reason why I'm suffocating, but he's the only person I want to talk to.

I hastily wiped away the tear that fell from my eyes and looked over at the guys who all kind of looked like they wanted to cry for me.

"What can we do for you?" Luke asked.