Catharsis || Lashton AU - boyxboy

12. frisättning

"Kiss me like the world is gonna disappear,
I’m a better person when I have you here,
I got you and I can get though anything,
As long as I can see your face."
Mary Lambert, So Far Away ☯

l.h.

I was woken by a persistent ringing sound; given it was only nine o'clock at night, but Ash and I had decided on an early night and I guess I simply expected the rest of the universe to be in the loop.

I had passed out on the couch as I initially promised Ashton I would, though I could hear his snoring from the other room and I couldn't help but laugh very tiredly at that, because I wasn't sure if he was aware and I wasn't sure if I wanted to make him aware.

Ash had gotten a little frantic after my physical advances; sure, they'd been nothing more than my hands on his waist and my face perhaps a bit too close to his, but he seemed to make it very clear that he didn't want it, so I, of course, despite how much I really didn't want to, retracted myself from him in the least alarming manner I could muster.

Not long after that, he'd claimed he was exhausted, so I told him to go ahead to bed and that I wouldn't be up much later than him, I just had a bit of reading to do. And sure, reading to him may have implied something to do with work, but all I really meant was that I hadn't gotten a chance to continue reading Two Towers, so I figured tonight would be a good chance.

Only, of course, I had a bit of trouble trying to get into my book when there was a stranger asleep in my bed a few meters from me and I'd just recently cursed out my girlfriend and there probably wasn't much chance of scrounging anything from those burning bridges.

My train of thought was interrupted by more of that insistent ringing, and I swore I'd sat and waited for it to stop for hours now and it just wouldn't. So I groaned rather obnoxiously and rolled over onto my back, reaching an arm over to my phone and grabbing it very tightly in my cold hand.

"Hello?" I groaned into the speaker, having yet to even open my eyes.

"Luke?" It rolled off her tongue too lightly for it to be anything I'd want to deal with tonight, because I always felt like Cassie was her worst self when she was timid. Which is a bit illogical, of course, because I had a knack for complaining about her sheer persistence, but she was simply who she was and her timid side showed quite a lack of strength of character.

"Cass?" I responded, after what felt like centuries.

"Will you-- Would you come meet me, maybe? Just over at my apartment, nothing special, I just, I wanted to talk, is all." she asked, sounding like she was journeying over a bed of nails.

"I--" I stopped, sitting up and checking the time, though it wasn't nearly as late as I hoped. "Now?"

She didn't speak for a moment, and my toes were all numb and it kind of resembled that feeling you get when you're a kid and you get called to the prinicipal's in front of everyone, and you're forced to trek all the way up there like you've just been framed for genocide or something, even though it's probably nothing at all.

Only in this case, we were two grown adults, Cassie was my girlfriend, and though I had yet to commit genocide, given the previous events of today, I didn't quite know what was in store for me if I agreed to go see her and it was definitely a lot more terrifying.

"I-- Yeah, yeah. I'll be there in twenty." I said, before I hung up rather abruptly and began ambling around the apartment in search of shoes and a jacket, maybe.

I contemplated waking Ashton, whether to tell him where I was going or to invite him along (though I knew the latter option wasn't actually even an option), I wasn't sure. Regardless, I didn't wake him. I wasn't sure where it'd go if I did.