Burn ▹ Ashton Irwin

thirty eight

"I'll pay." Luke shrugged, pushing Michael out of the way from the gas pump. Michael sighed and backed up against the hood of the car.

"You pay for everything, Luke," he said. "Let me pay."

"Michael. You don't have a job."

"Yes he does," I said, looking over to Michael. "You work at a pizza place, right?"

"They fired me," he laughed, crossing his arms over his chest. "They called me the other day- I guess I didn't tell you guys."

"Aw," I frowned, though only half of me was paying attention. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. They were shitty people anyways," Michael shrugged, rolling his eyes. "But yeah. Luke does have a point. I don't have any money left, I hope I haven't lost my house to the government yet."

As Luke and Michael began to talk some more while we waited for the car to refuel itself, I decided to into the little market and grab something to drink. We were literally in the middle of nowhere, and it was probably around 90 degrees. I have had no idea where we are since the moment I woke up an hour ago. Somehow we managed to stumble upon a gas station in the middle of the desert, but it looked like it gets maybe around 5 customers a year.

As I walked over to the enterance of the market, I glanced over my shoulder to look at Ashton, who was standing near the trunk of the car. He was leaned up against it with a cigarette between his lips, his eyes glued to Calum as they spoke quietly between eachother. Not the best idea to smoke at a gas station, but I knew if I was to tell him that he wouldn't listen.

Ashton hasn't spoken to me since last night. When I woke up this morning Ashton was already awake himself, and when I tried to talk to him (all I said was "good morning") he didn't respond. He hasn't looked at me, talked to me, or made any acknowledgements to my existance in over 17 hours.

I quickly made it into the small and stuffy room, and walked over to the refrigerators, glancing out the window to look at Ashton with every few steps I took. Unfortunately, his back was still facing my direction and I could just picture the blank look he probably had on his face. Instead of doing what I was intending to do in here (find something to quench my thirst), I ended up just standing in the middle of the room, staring at Ashton like I sincerely thought he was going to turn around and just forgive me in the blink of an eye.

Eventually, I could see Luke and Michael checking the time on their phones and I knew they probably wanted to get going again. I sighed and sulked out of the food mart, having completely forgotten to buy anything in the end.

I hopped down the steps and cringed at the heat, making my way towards Ashton to see if I could spark any kind of conversation with him. As I approached his broad shoulders that were obviously turned against me, I gathered up all the courage I could, and quickly prepared a few words to say to him.

"Ashton-" I tried to speak, reaching out to grab his shoulder. But Ashton immediately turned and walked off, getting back into the car and slamming the door beside him. I looked over to Calum for moral support, but all he did was shrug and pull at his collar. I sighed and shuffled into the car from the other side.

Once we were back on the open road, I lost interest in the sights of dry dirt and cacti from outside my window, and I tried to turn my attention to the inside of the vehicle instead. Unfortunately, everyone was too enveloped in the incredibly awkward silence that filled the car to do anything.

I glanced to the right. Calum was on his phone playing a game. I didn't dare look over Calum's shoulders, though, so I then looked to the front seats to see if either Luke or Michael wanted to talk to me. But they were both engaged in a conversation already, so that left me feeling both sad and awkward.