Stuck {A.I.}

two

Ashton leaned against the rough, brick wall of the school and sighed. It had been a week since he'd spoken with Bayla, but he was still rattled by it. The memory of their interaction sent his stomach turning, reminding him of the reason he'd come outside in the first place. 

He'd barely pulled out his nearly empty pack of cigarettes when the door next to Ashton was shoved open and someone burst through it. Ashton jerked his hand behind him in case it was a teacher coming to bust him, but the person hurriedly walking towards him was wearing ripped black jeans and had bright green hair. Although he should have been relieved that it wasn't a teacher, Ashton still felt a sense of dread as Bayla caught sight of him, her eyebrows furrowing together. 

"Are you fucking kidding me?" He groaned, fishing around in his pocket for a lighter. 

"You smoke now?" Bayla asked while remaining a fair distant away from Ashton. She looked disgusted, and crossed her arms over the gray bomber jacket she was wearing. 

"Not that it's any of your business, but yeah, I do." Ashton replied. He held the pack out towards the grimacing girl in front of him. "Want one?"

"No!" Bayla wrinkled her nose. "Those will kill you, you know."

Her response made Ashton snort dryly. "Why do you think I'm smoking them?" 

"God, you always have to be so dramatic." Bayla groaned, dragging her feet back and forth, clearing a spot among the slush on the sidewalk. They both stared down at her bright red boots until Ashton lit his cigarette and exhaled a cloud of smoke, which made Bayla look back up at him. Some emotion Ashton didn't recognize flashed across her eyes. Maybe it was pity.

"What are you doing out here?" Ashton asked after an awkward beat had passed. 

"Oh, I have a doctor's appointment." Bayla shrugged casually, but her face held a pained expression that Ashton tried to ignore. He'd spent months convincing himself that she didn't matter to him anymore, but here she was standing before him for the second time this week and fucking that all up. 

No, he could still do this. He could pretend that this girl meant nothing to him, because it was true. She'd broken his heart; she meant nothing to him now. Absolutely nothing. 

"Um, I should go now." She stammered, slowly backing away. Ashton nodded nonchalantly and took a long drag from his cigarette. The sight of her hurriedly walking away from him reminded him of a similar moment, one that felt like a punch in the stomach. 

"Taylor Beth, please don't go." Ashton begged. He grabbed her wrist to stop her from running across the street. She whipped around to face him, a look of anger and hurt etched on her face.

"I have to Ashton, you don't understand." She pulled her arm away.

"But you can't leave me here!" Ashton was getting desperate, following her into the middle of the empty road. The hot summer air was making it hard for him to breathe, or maybe it was because his girlfriend was ripping his heart out. 

"But I can't stay." Suddenly Bayla was crying, her chest heaving and shoulders shaking and gorgeous face crumpled. She was right; Ashton didn't understand why she had to go away for the entire summer, with no word of warning until now, the night before she was leaving. 

She collapsed into his chest, sobbing into his shoulder and leaving tearstains on his favorite tee shirt. Actually, it was his second favorite tee shirt; his favorite was currently engulfing Bayla, falling all the way down to the middle of her thigh. Ashton numbly wrapped his arms around her.

"Why do you have to leave?" He mumbled into her neck. 

"I, I can't tell you." She hiccupped, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand. Seeing her cry broke Ashton's heart, but the fact that she couldn't tell him pissed him off.

"Why the hell not? It's the least you can do since you're leaving me here! God, I can't believe you're leaving me here." Ashton moaned, letting go of Bayla and pacing back and forth across the pavement. 

"Stop being so selfish." Bayla choked out, a fresh stream of tears falling down her cheeks. 

"I'm being selfish?!" Ashton exploded. He didn't mean to yell, but he didn't know what to feel or think right now. "I'm not the one taking off across country for some reason and not giving me any sort of reason why!" 

"Why are you yelling?" Bayla sobbed. "Ashton, stop." 

"I just don't understand." Ashton moved to grab her hands, but she pulled away from him again. 

"Clearly. Can't you just let me do this and trust that it's what's best for me?" 

Ashton paused for too long to answer, which Bayla interpreted as answer. He made a last ditch attempt to take her hand as she turned to go, but she shoved him back and hurriedly walked away from him, down the middle of the road. The streetlights illuminated her in the darkness, making her face look angelic as she turned to look back at him one last time.

Ashton shook the memory of the last time he'd seen her before their breakup out of his head. Her retreating figure now was far away from him, climbing into her beat up pick up truck. He took another drag and watched the smoke dissipate into the freezing air that whipped across his face in cool relief that it wasn't that awful, humid day in June.

"Shit." Ashton sighed, dragging his long fingers through his hair. He kept trying to tell himself that she didn't mean anything to him anymore, but it just wasn't true.

-

this story is so dramatic ew what am i doing 

the italics is a flashback in case you couldn't tell and ik it's confusing but everything will be explained eventually 

i was listening to if you don't know while writing this and you can kind of tell lol

anyways, thanks for reading and don't forget to vote and comment xx