Miss All American

Chapter Twenty-Five ~ Leather

~Leather's POV~

I was trying to catch my breath through the tears when I felt someone put an arm around me. "Leather, are you okay?" I got up and pushed away from Ashton and walked forward a few feet.

"No, Ashton, I'm not okay! How could I be okay? My best friend is getting beaten and both her and my boyfriend neglected to tell me!" I screamed at him.

"Well, technically, we weren't together when it started." I glared at him and he ran his hands through his hair. "I'm sorry, that was uncalled for. Ari begged me not to tell anyone. She said it would stop. Believe me, Leather, I wanted to kill him as much as you do right now."

"Yeah, well unlike you, I'm going to go through with killing him." I spat as I crossed my arms over my chest.

"Leather, you can't! Ari would hate you and I don't want to visit my girlfriend in jail."

"That won't be a problem if you don't have one." I mumbled.

Ashton's eyes went wide and his jaw dropped. "What?" He breathed. "You can't mean that. You don't mean that. Baby, please. I just got you back. I don't want to lose you again." Ashton's voice cracked at the end and his eyes got glassy.

"Yeah, well you should've factored this whole mess into your plan to get me back. There was obviously a huge flaw." I said as I picked my beanie off the ground before walking back into the building towards my office.

I walked into my office and sat at my desk and looked directly at Ari. "Alright, I want to know everything. Talk."

Ari went on to tell Luke and I about all the things he did to her. Seeing the pain in her face killed me. As she continued with her story, she said that she basically guilt tripped Ashton into keeping her secret. My eyes flickered to Ashton who was leaning against the window, looking at me with tears in his eyes. At the end of the story, all the sadness I felt for Ari disappeared in the matter of a sentence.

"You what?!" I yelled as I stood up and slapped my hands on my desk.

"I don't want to leave Trent." Ari said while doing her best to avoid eye contact with myself and Luke. "I love him." She mumbled at the end.

"How can you love someone hurts you like that?!"

"He apologized! He said it wouldn't happen again!" Ari argued.

"It's happened three fucking times, Arianna!" I screamed as I punched the molding around the window with the same hand I punched the ground. I winced in pain and Ashton went to take my hand, but instantly retracted his when I glared at him.

"Leather, calm down. I know you're mad. I'm just as mad, but yelling isn't going to fix anything." Luke said as he placed his hands on my shoulders trying to calm me.

"Thank you, Luke." Arianna spoke up.

"I'm not on your side, Arianna. I just don't want her to need to get stitches." Luke responded and squeezed my shoulders before letting go.

"Well you didn't tell me that you and Ashton were back together!" Arianna yelled at me and I started laughing. "Why are you laughing at me? I was hurt!"

"That isn't even in the same planet as what you didn't tell me about!" I screamed back. Luke and Ashton were now both sitting on the windowsill, neither daring to interfere at this point. "Not to mention you knew that Ashton kissed me at the party and pretty much everything he kept from me. I never actually lied to you, Arianna."

We just stared at each other in silence, both of us with our arms crossed over our chests and tears brimming our eyes, one more word from falling down our cheeks.