A Certain Romance || Ashton Irwin

Bugs

"Lunch anybody?!" Lisa called out down the long hallway of bedrooms where everyone was sleeping. I slept, maybe, an hour with a lot of tossing and turning before deciding it wasn't worth the fight to sleep with so much bugging me. You'd think I'd know better than to try to sleep when I couldn't even think straight. Then again, I never quite learned my lessons with anything.

At four in the morning I heard Sammy's giggle echo down the hallway, but she never entered the bedroom we chose to share. I was somewhere between the lines of upset and happy that she didn't join me. I'd feel far too ashamed to have her cuddle into my side while still feeling as if I smelt of Ashton. His scent stuck to you, made you dizzy as it reminded you of him and his infectious smile. He was deadly and you couldn't escape him. And for those reasons I was afraid she'd trace back my scent and my attitude to Ashton. I wouldn't underestimate Sammy, she was smart.

I hugged my torso as I left my designated bedroom. It was a bit chilly in the house, but I also needed my body language to appear as if I was closed off, I didn't want a single person in my path.

"Good morning." Sammy's whispery morning voice surprised me, pressing a kiss behind my ear.

"Morning." I nodded to her.

Veronica and Ashton weren't to be seen, giving me high hopes that they had left together. Sadly, too, I was praying they did leave because I really didn't want to see them being affectionate with each other after last night.

Before going downstairs Arrie pulled me aside. If there was anyone who could pick up on my bad vibes it was Arrie. He hadn't known me very long, but it sure felt like he had grown up with me by his levels of concern and attention he gave me. I found myself wanting to push him away, sensing that he only pretended to care for the sake of Sam and not because he genuinely did. However, if he was pretending or not pretending, the feeling of someone caring for you topped every shitty feeling in the world.

"What's wrong?" His long hair was in a messy ponytail, making me uncomfortable just thinking about how he even dealt with sleeping with his hair up. I couldn't bare to lie my head down on the pillow and have lumps making it impossible for me to sleep. It seemed more like self-torture if you asked me.

The scary thing about this house were the huge windows that seemed to be just about anywhere a bedroom wasn't and showing out to the backyard lake. Anyone close by could see in and notice the shame and sadness I was feeling. "I can't talk about it here." You know that shame was so bad that you feel like you were going to vomit? That was how bad I was feeling it. I covered my mouth with my hand, closing my eyes to regain any self-control that I lost last night and rebuild all the dignity I had lost.

"Are you sick? Did something happen?"

"I just want to go home, Arrie." I was definitely not in character, I was not myself at all. What I hated about life was the ability for something to happen, for someone to come into my life and I lost all meaning of who I was and I felt off. And not the kind of off where you know you would be okay with a hot bath or a good nap, but the kind of off that shook you to your core and made everything else around you unbearable.

"Can we just eat lunch?" He asked calmly. "I'll take you home right after."

"Yeah that's okay. I'll just be in my room."

"Eat something or I'm not taking you home." The ultimate feeling of defeat snuck upon me. It had me hold my head down the entire walk to dining room and furthered that nauseous feeling.

Sitting directly across from me at the dining table were Ashton and Veronica. Like, Veronica was sitting on top of Ashton's lap in his chair as they mindlessly fed each other the salad Veronica had made for lunch. After she popped a piece of leftover chicken into Ashton's mouth their lips happily pressed together. They pulled away giggling, gazing into each other's eyes. I began to question if they couldn't sense the rest of us sitting at the table, staring at them and slowly losing our appetites one by one.

"So I thought we could all take the boat for a run on the lake after lunch." Lydia broke the silence between us, catching the attention of the "love birds," but Veronica stayed on Ashton's lap, ignoring the empty seat right next to them.

Luke stabbed his fork into a piece of chicken, sending a glare to Ashton and Veronica, "I kinda want to go for a hike."

Veronica shifted on Ashton's lap, making him cough uncomfortably. "Are there like, bugs, on the boat?"

"You're the only bug that'll be on the boat." Michael answered, pushing his plate of salad away. Lisa hadn't caught on that Michael was strictly a no-salad person, so she was slightly confused as to why he was picking at the food on his plate instead of actually eating it.

"Michael." Sammy said with a warning voice and Luke snorted.

Sammy had no problem setting Michael in his place, ever. She was the only person who could control the mass of negative energy that he was.

"Sorry." Michael muttered.

-

Arrie was great, he was a fantastic man, but his mind could be changed so quickly. Arrie heard "boat ride" and if he was a dog I was sure his ears would've perked up and he would've been jumping all over the place. He had never been on a boat, not even when he grew up in Miami. Riding on a boat was on his top three things on his bucket list and his bucket list was a serious thing to him. He fulfilled number one: move to Seattle, number two is: murder Noland "Smokey" Seeley, but I was not sure if that was a joke or not. And lastly, number three: take a boat ride.

"I'm still in shock that Veronica invited herself." Lydia said from her seat on top of one of the pier's beams.

Sammy, Lydia, Lisa, and myself sat on the pier together. Well, actually, Lisa stood against a beam with a hand resting on her hip, watching the boat slowly disappear down the lake. I loosely held a fishing rod, having enough courage to know that I would most likely not catch anything because the boat's motor probably scared every good catch away. Lisa mentioned hoping that the boat would tip over or the motor would go out, deserting Ashton, Veronica, Luke, Michael, Arrie, and Calum, but mostly Ashton and Veronica because she was sick of seeing them all over each other.

Reuben stayed a couple of yards away from us, resting on one of the chairs in the backyard glued to his phone. If Reuben joined the boat ride then there would be a high chance of the boat never returning with Veronica in it.

"It's your house, you can tell her to leave." Sammy removed her flip flops, hanging her feet over the miniature pier.

"She's friends with Elizabeth, both girls have a history of inviting themselves places because they don't want to feel left out of anything." Lisa said in an obvious tone. "Plus, Veronica can't be without Ashton."

"They could at least do us all a favor and retire the PDA." Lydia groaned. "Sammy and Sage aren't even that affectionate to each other." Sammy and I were actually terrified of being affectionate to each other public.

I handed the fishing rod to Sammy and began rolling up the sleeves of Mikey's blue jean jacket that I snatched from his suitcase and pulled on because I forgot to bring my own jacket.

"Sammy and Sage have respect for our weak digestive systems when it comes to PDA." Lisa slid her sunglasses on, covering the dark circles from not getting enough sleep. Not all of us were as blessed as Sammy.

"What are you girls talking about?" Reuben sang as he walked up to us.

"We're strategizing new ways to promote Team Sage." Lisa rolled her eyes. No one knew exactly how Reuben ended up on the trip, no one bothered to figure out why, no one really cared that he was on the trip except Ashton and Veronica.

"This is a magical moment that I must take a picture of." Reuben held up his phone, smiling like he had just won an Olympic gold medal for wrestling. "Everyone say Team Sage!"

The other three said, "Team Sage." while I forced myself to smile happily as Reuben snapped at least twenty photos of us in the same pose.

"Oh god they're coming back." Lydia hopped off the beam.

"Beautiful." Reuben said from behind his phone. "I'm uploading it to Facebook and promoting the movement."