The Outsider || Ashton Irwin

Chapter 9

Zoe's POV-

I was standing in Ashton Irwin's en-suite, wearing Ashton Irwin's grey top and jogging bottoms, I looked an absolute state. How I'd ended up here was still a blur. Somehow I just stepped into his car and then he drove me to his house, his very big house. This was just another one of Ashton Irwin's many secrets, this massive house. I would've never expected it if I just had met him, but after some of today's events, I had managed to find myself getting used to it.

I found myself studying the room around me. The bathroom was big, bigger than any other en-suite bathroom I had ever been in before. Everything was so white and modern, the walls, the floor, the bathtub, the sink, the toilet even the cabinets were painted the same colour to match the rest of the room. In fact, the only thing that wasn't white was the huge round mirror that sat above the sink. This was one of those bathrooms that I thought would only exist in IKEA or any other bathroom shop.

I reached down into my bag, searching for my phone. There were a few texts, mum and dad asking where I was, Michael had said how his xbox had broken, I answered these quickly. Last of all, at the bottom there was a text from Calum. I considered just deleting it, lingering my finger over the text, I found myself clicking on it anyway.

Do you wanna go out sometime :) xx

Calum really did disgust me sometimes. The way he treated girls like pieces of shit, how he played them, how he didn't care about their feelings, how he'd grab another girl as soon as he got got bored. I'd really hoped that he would have got the message at lunch but Calum wasn't like that, he was really getting on my nerves. So instead of replying to the text, I deleted it, and forgot about it.

After chucking the phone back into my bag, I quickly brushed through my hair, untangling each knot in my wet hair. I re-applied some more makeup, wiping away smudges of mascara from the rain. I looked back into the mirror. I still looked shit, but presentable.

The first thing I saw when I walked out the door was Ashton. He was sat behind his drums, drumming a slow beat. He had obviously changed when I was in the bathroom, he was now wearing a brown nirvana top, which had holes and rips all over it, with black skinny jeans.

Ashton looked up to me and immediately stopped playing. "You look... nice." He put his drum sticks down.

"Don't lie Ashton, I look hideous." I huffed, perching myself down on Ashton's bed. "You didn't have to stop playing you know, I want to hear you play."

"I'm not lying, you always look beautiful." Ashton said, with his signature smile. Then he looked down at his drums, shaking his head. "You probably don't want to hear me play the drums, I'm not very good at it."

"I somehow doubt that." He still shook his head, so I decided to beg. "Please Ashton, for me?" I gave him puppy dog eyes, he couldn't refuse.

He finally gave in. At first he made small beats onto the drum, it was quite slow, I could sense Ashton was still nervous. After a while, he gradually got into it more, going faster. I watched as his nerves soon disappeared and he was completely focusing on the music. It was like he was in a completely different world, where he could express all his feelings of anger and other emotions into one drum set. It was amazing, the drumbeat was extraordinary, this boy had so many surprises.

When he stopped playing, there was sweat dripping off his face, he was breathing heavily and he looked up to me. "What do you think then?"

I still felt stunned by this boy. "It was amazing Ash. I'm no drum expert but what you did there was truly incredible."

He shrugged. "Thanks I s'pose. I've never really played in front of anyone before." He scratched his head, standing up from his stool. "I like it when you call me Ash." He bounced onto the bed, beside me.

"I'll call you Ash from now on then." I smiled, looking towards him, he was really close to me now. Our arms were touching and his face was so close to mine, I could almost feel his breath against my skin. His brown eyes were looking straight into mine. My heart began to race. Why did I feel like this?

"Dinner's ready!" Dawn, Ashton's foster mother, burst through the door, breaking the moment. "Zoe, I assumed you'd be eating with us. You do like chicken pie don't you?"

"Yeah, I, I love it." I nodded to her. I turned towards Ashton. "Shall we go then?"  He gave me a quick nod back, there was a sense of disappointment on his face.

Dinner was, awkward. It was one of those meals filled with those uncomfortable questions, from Ashton's foster parents. They were nice people really, they were a bit unusual though, compared to my busy parents. They were so relaxed and happy, there was a part of me that felt jealous of having parents who actually well cared.

"Do you like it, I made it all by myself." Dawn asked, as I took my first bite into the meal.

"It's lovely, thank you." It was actually pretty odd to have an actual cooked meal, usually right now Mum or Dad would be ordering the takeaway. "I wish I could cook like this." I admitted.

"You haven't tasted Ashton's food, his lasagna is to die for." Dawn nudged Ashton, who's cheeks were turning into a deep red. "Can you cook Zoe?"

I shook my head. "Not really."

"Oh my gosh. Ashton you should teach her!" Dawn suggested. Ashton looked a little startled at first by this. He looked over, giving me a questioning glance.

"Okay, that would be good I suppose." I watched as Ashton's face lit up, at my response.

After more awkward chat, Ashton stood up. "Well this was fun, me and Zoe are going to go now." He grabbed my arm, with a smug smile. I gave a quick wave at Ashton's foster parents, before I was hauled out the room by Ashton.

"Where are we going?" I asked, tapping on his shoulder. He opened the door into his garden.

"I want to show you something." We walked along the wet grass in his massive garden. Luckily the storm had passed, the sky was now a Orange colour, the sun starting to set. From what I could see, the garden went on for miles. He leaded me into the trees.

One of the trees had a ladder connected onto the side. "You're not afraid of heights are you?" He said as he started to climb, looking down at me. I shook my head. "Good, follow on behind me." He continued to climb.

I followed on behind him. The wood was slippery because of the rain, it smelt damp and dirty, I didn't really mind though. I wasn't one of those girls who would be scared of a little mud, nothing bothered me really.

"We're nearly there." Ashton said from above me, reaching the top. "Just a few more steps." He reached out his hand for the final part. I took it and he hauled me up.

I was stood on what felt like the top of the world, well a tree, we were stood in a small tree house. It was small but cozy. There was a window at the edge, I walked over to it.

"It's beautiful isn't it," Ashton said, following me. "I come hear when I'm stressed or angry, looking out to the world just release a lot of stress you know what i mean?"

I looked out at the sight. It was the whole city, thousands of buildings, thousands of lights, thousands of cars, all under an orange twilight. "It's beautiful." I looked up to Ashton.

"I know." He said, grabbing my hand. We looked both looked out to the city again, taking in the sight sat before us.

_________

A/n- So I was reading your lovely comments on the last chapter and I decided to carry this on.

The picture of Ashton is how I imagined him in this chapter:)

Thanks for reading :)