What Doesn't Break You (Ashton Irwin Fanfic)

Chapter 21

 A.J’s POV:

The drive home with Ashton was not pleasant. We didn’t talk. He didn’t look at me. I barely looked at him. Glancing at his hands, they were gripping the steering wheel so hard his knuckles were white. His shoulders and neck were stiff and his jaw was set in a hard line. I didn’t focus too much on his face because every time I would chance a peek I would end up flinching away from all the ice in his eyes.

His beautiful eyes. Iced over in his anger from the encounter with Michael.

I didn’t know what to say to Ashton to make him feel better or make sense about what just happened, but then again I didn’t have all the answers to where his dad was either. How could I just start questioning him about what happened with Michael when he has never talked to me about it before? He told me his dad was not in the picture, and I was willing to leave it at that until he was ready to tell me anything else.

But the situation with Michael had clearly opened up some old wounds and upset Ashton very much. It wasn’t my business, and I didn’t want to make it that way. I just wanted to help him. It hurt my heart to see him this way.

I didn’t even take into account where we were until we had pulled into Ashton’s drive way. The lights were all off inside his house and it looked like everyone was probably asleep. I looked at the clock on his dash before he shut the engine off and it read 12:39 a.m. Shit! I should have been home by midnight. Whoops.

I looked over at Ashton then to see that he was scowling at his steering wheel, still not looking or trying to talk to me. It was somehow quieter now than it was driving home, but that could be because of the lack of sounds the car made as we zoomed down the highway.

Then he made a loud sigh and finally looked over to me. “I…I know I’m supposed to take you home. You’re already late, but….can you just….stay.” He looked at me and then back down at the steering wheel and started rubbing that back of his neck.

I was never a rebellious kid. I always followed the rules and did as I was told. If I was given a curfew I kept it, no questions or excuses. But tonight I went on my first date with a boy who was my first kiss. I saw my first live acoustic performance in a bar, and drank beer illegally for the first time. I even saw my first street fight. All that combined with the look Ashton gave me when he asked me to stay added up to me deciding that tonight had room for one more first.

I was going to break my curfew and stay with him.

…

“Ashton shhh!!” I whispered when he shut the door to his closet a little too loudly.

He turned around with a grimace on his face and a pair of old gym shorts and a t-shirt in his hands. He whipped his head around to look at the door leading to the hallway where his little brother and sister’s rooms where just down the hall. When we didn’t hear any sound coming from their direction, Ashton looked back at me with a relieved look on his face and tip toed across the room to hand me the clothes.

 “Here, you can wear these. They’ll probably still be kind of big, but they’ll be comfortable at least.” I smiled at him and took the shorts and shirt. “You can change in my bathroom.” He pointed to the other side of his room. Thankfully his room had its own bathroom so we didn’t have to trump up and down the hall and risk waking anyone up. Ashton said his mum was working a night shift tonight and wouldn’t be home until 6:00 a.m., but we still had to be careful not to wake Harry and Lauren.