Stare At the Photograph - A.F.I.

2

ASHTON

Aw shit I thought to myself as I continue to bang on the door.

"Alya, please let me in!" I beg. Then the door swings open in my face. When I open my eyes to look at her, Alya has mascara tear stains running down her face.

"You're an ass!" She screams in the Panera dining room and goes outside. There's only one other elderly couple sitting there.

"You better go fix that boy," the old man scolds.

—
"Alya!" I call out when I walk outside. I see her fiddling with my phone while leaning on the passenger side door of my car.

"I'm sorry," I say, as I hand her phone over.

"And I was thinking he was planning a surprise." She said wiping the tears from her eyes. "Who is she?"

"I don't know," I respond, while I unlock and open the door for her. "I'm going to be completely honest, it's been random girls all throughout tour."

"What?!" She says, as a flood of tears approach her eyes.

"I'm sorry." I say as I open Twitter to see the posts. I've been so busy with running around for Alya that I haven't actually seen the pictures myself. As I scroll through the blurry pictures of Michael and the girl kissing in tour bus (Which is weird because he never brought them there.), I find very clear picture and it's my girlfriend.

"What the fuck!" I exclaim.

"What?" She asks.

"That's my fucking girlfriend!" I tell her. "Get in the car."

I sped. I was lucky I didn't get pulled over. The car was quiet except for the music playing from the stereo. Hopefully she doesn't think Nickelback is weird.

When we slid into a parking spot, I took a deep breath. I looked at Alya to nod and go inside, but her face was still covered in black streaks of makeup.

"You're not going in there looking like that." I say. I pull out tissues from the glove box and wet them with a water bottle.

"I can do-" Alya says, reaching her hands out.

"Allow me." I say wiping under eyes. I know I've only met her today, but her dark brown eyes are so beautiful.

Once I get it off, I crumple the tissues into ball in my fist and nod at her. We get out and head into the hotel.

-
We storm inside the hotel and get into the elevator. I turn to look at Alya. She looks... sad. I was caught up in my own anger and didn't think about how she's feeling right now. Flying out for so long to find out her boyfriend had been cheating on her the whole time.

The elevator takes us to our floor and I give her a nod of reassurance and I lead the way to our suite.

"Michael! Open the goddamn door right now!" I say, banging on the door.

No response.

"Michael, if you don't open the fucking door I will kick it in." I threaten.

"Don't hurt me okay?" He says from behind the door.

ALYA

Michael slowly opened his door into his hotel room and Ashton pushed it open, causing Michael to fall to the floor.

"What the fuck man?" Ashton screamed. "Out of all these girls, you had to fuck Ashley?"

I stood, watching all this from the door frame and make eye contact with Michael. His bleached hair hidden under a baseball cap. I was a sucker for the hair, but right now I just looked at him with disappointment.

"Alya, I-" He says, attempting to get up, but is punched in the stomach by Ashton.

"The fuck man?" he says, rubbing his abdomen.

"Stay down." he commands.

"I spent all this time and money getting flight tickets and my PTO lined up. Couldn't you have just broken up with me?" I say. I can feel the tears welling up in my eyes.

"Why'd you lead me on?"

"Baby, I still-" Michael begins to say before I turn around and run out.

I run to the elevator and continuously push the button to bring the elevator to me. The door opens and one other guy is inside. I quickly turn to see if anyone else is coming and see Michael running down the hallway. I get into the elevator and spam the door close button and it closes right when Michael gets to the door. I hear him calling my name, but I just press the lobby button.

"Hey," the dark haired boy, who looks about my age, says, breaking the silence. "Are you okay?"

And then I lose it.