Distracted || 5SOS Fanfic

P. 22

Arielle was officially 7 month into the pregnancy and there was no way that she could have faked the whole thing: she was HUGE. Today was her baby shower.

She and Ashton had the party at Ashton's place since his mother was hosting it. I was surprised how well his parents are dealing with Ashton becoming such a young soon-to-be dad.

They had put so much money and effort into the party. "It's a girl" banners covered the walls of the house, the stair case was wrapped with pink and purple ribbons, hundreds of white balloons floated to the top of the high ceilings, and in the kitchen was a table with a giant pink cradle shaped cake with the baby's name on it-- Misty Rose. They probably spent 5 grand on the whole party.

Mikey and I walk over to Arielle and hand her our gift.

"Everything looks great! I really love decor," I hug her.

"Aw thanks, you wouldn't believe--"

Mikey interrupted, "I'm going to go find the boys." He didn't want to listen to our girl talk, and that was fine with me.

"Okay," I kiss him, "so continue, Arielle."

We chit chat for a while until Ashton's mom calls for all the guest to go to the patio to start the baby shower games.

"First is baby beer bottle! Fastest one to finish wins, no cheating: no biting the nipple and no opening the tops--" she lists.

In my head I randomly thought about how well Kathleen would do in this game; too bad she wasn't here because of a dentist appointment.

I look over to my right and I see Mikey, Luke and Calum taking this competition seriously. Surprisingly, Luke was really good at this game, which is a little weird. Watching them was entertaining.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" Ashton taps me on the shoulder and leads me inside the house.

He takes a deep breath; I have no clue what he's about to say.

"I thought this would be the best time to say this before the baby is born. Do you remember the first time we met?" He asked.

I lower my brows, I didn't know where he was going with this, "yeah."

"So do I, and I never forgot it. That day, was the day I thought I found love-- I really liked you and my feelings haven't changed since then. When I saw you with Mikey, I felt like I had been stabbed through the heart a million times. I've tried to get over you, but I can't," he was sincere with his words.

Woah. I was dumbfounded. So much was just thrown at me and my mind couldn't process everything. The only thing I was worried about was someone hearing our conversation.

"Oh," was all I could say.

He was so far into his relationship with Arielle that I couldn't believe what he was saying. He had all this time to tell me, but he chose now? It's too late. I couldn't just leave Mikey and he couldn't do the same with Arielle either. I didn't know how to feel; I thought I was over him, but he's like a drug. I find myself struggling to keep away no matter how long I abstain from him. I wish I could be with him, I wanted to be with him! But I can't; it's not right. So I decided to keep it from him for our own good.

"I'm sorry you feel this way..." I took a deep breath, "but I don't feel the same way. I have Mikey and I'm really happy being with him. You have a family now, I can't ruin that; I wouldn't want to."

These were the hardest words I had ever had to say.

His face showed disappointment; he exhaled deeply and shut his eyes tight to hold back the tears. He couldn't take in the denial.

"Keep this," he hands me a small box from his back pocket, "I kept this hoping one day I could give it to you. I was actually supposed to give it to you the first day you arrived in Australia, but I never had the guts to. I wish I did, maybe things would have been different."

I didn't want to open it in front of him. I looked at the little red box then placed it in my purse.

This was it. We were officially going our separate ways and there was no turning back. I lifted his chin and looked at the sorrow in his eyes. I told him, "you have a wonderful future ahead of you."

I turned away and walked back out to the patio. It took all my strength to keep myself from falling apart.

He stood still looking at the ground.

I tried to convince myself we'll both get over it sooner or later.

I sat next to Mikey at one of the tables and place my head on his shoulder.

"Hey babe, where'd you go," he asks as he puts his arms around me.

I look at his face and into his pretty green eyes and kiss his lips, "no where, just the bathroom."