To Be Loved

11 - Haven

Mom and Dad hadn't come to dinner that night. I left Ashton in my room while I joined my siblings and promised I'd bring him food. I would have let him join us, but I had a feeling something bad would happen and I didn't want to bring Ashton into our mess.

"Sorry, I'm late. I overslept." I mumbled and sat down. I was angry with Lawrence at the moment. I hadn't been earlier, just disappointed, but as I thought about the whole situation, it turned to anger.

"Mom and Dad came and talked to me. They said you told them what happened." Rory said quietly, like he was afraid one wrong word would set off an explosion.

I couldn't help but laugh bitterly but I did not look at him, "Is that all they said?"

"They said you were really mad-"

"Yeah, Rory," I finally looked at him, "I was. And do you know what I told them?"

"They said you yelled at them and told them to apologize."

I kept my eyes trained on him, "I told them that if they did one more thing to hurt you, they'd regret it."

"Haven, why are you so mad still? I'm fine. Everything is ok-"

"You know why I'm so mad, Rory? Because I would do anything for you, and you chose death over me!"

"Haven-"

I suddenly stood up, anger visibly boiling inside of me. I was about to start yelling but stopped myself. I can't let my anger control me, I don't want to become an alcoholic like Rory, so I kept my mouth shut.

Lawrence immediately shut up. I don't think I've ever been so mad.

"Excuse me." I said before walking away but then turned and ran to pick up the plate of food remembering Ashton, "I have a guest to feed," Then I left, leaving all of them at the table. I didn't even care if they knew about Ashton anymore. I don't even care if my parents find out about him, because at least then they will see that they can't control me.

I walked swiftly to my room and saw Ashton sprawled out on my bed lazily reading my book. He had his head hung off the edge of the bed which caused his long curly hair to touch the ground.

"That was fast," He said, not moving, "I was expecting at least another fifteen minutes."

I answered, "Well, Lawrence and I kind of got into an argument. It was pretty intense..."

He finally sat up and was now walking towards me, "What did you bring me?"

I gave him my half eaten plate of food. He stared at it with hungry eyes before taking it and sitting on the small couch at the foot of my bed.

"This is really good," He said with food in his mouth.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," I scowlded but laughed at the adorable face he made.

"Here, hold this for a sec."

I took the plate he was handing me while he took off the black leather jacket he was wearing. I think this might be the first time I've ever seen his arms, which sounds really weird, but, he is always wearing some type of jacket.

I took this as a chance to actually examine him: He had tons of tattoos, mostly on his right arm. Most of them consisted of writing and symbols. As I looked at the art that was sprawled across his arm, my eyes drifted to his chest. He was wearing a white button down shirt and had the first four buttons undone which exposed the tattoos that laid there on his chest.

On his upper breast was a black and white monarch butterfly- I could tell by the patterns. He had some ink that was sticking up through the opening of his shirt, but I couldn't see the whole thing.