Stare At the Photograph - A.F.I.

9

ALYA

I really like Ashton. I do, but I can't keep doing this. Especially when my ex boyfriend is his best friend. That's such a dick move to pull, but at the same time Michael did cheat on me.

"What are you thinking about?" Ashton asks, breaking the silence.

"I don't think we should keep doing this." I say, turning to him. "No more sex."

"Why not? There's clearly something forming between us." He says, looking into my eyes.

I look away. This is so awkward.

"You. Michael. You're too close. I don't want to ruin things between you two." I tell him.

"I get it. I do, but I really think Michael's was not as into you as you think, no offense." Ashton says, twirling a lock of my hair between his fingers. "Even before tour, he was constantly checking out and flirting with girls at bars with us. We always found it uncomfortable, but never said anything."

"Fuckin' asshole!" I say, hitting Ash in the chest.

"In my defense, I didn't even know you!" He says, holding my hands, so that I can't hit him anymore.

He then pulls me into a kiss. It's not like any of the other messy kisses we had. This one was soft and intimate.

After a few minutes, I pull away.

"Ashton," I say, trailing my fingers up his chest up to his jaw. "what do you say about one last night out at a club?"

"Fuck yeah!" He says, rolling out of bed. "Mm wings!"

ASHTON

"Can I call the boys?" I ask as put a blue flannel on over a black tee.

"Sure! More the merrier!" Alya replies. "But Michael..."

"I know, but I can't tell Calum and Luke to come and not him." I tell her.

"True." she sighs and ties her hair up into a ponytail, but pulls her bangs out.

I send a message into the group chat and they all immediately text back and say they'll meet at my room.

Calum bursts through the door seconds later.

"You guys didn't finish your wings?" He says winking at Alya.

"Got a little preoccupied." she says, winking and taking a wing out of the container.

"I bet!" Calum says, putting his arm around my shoulder. "Ash here is quite the pack-"

Thankfully, Luke bursts into the room with a handle of Tito's.

"Who's ready to get shit faced?!" He says and we all cheer.

After about 15 minutes, the four of us are already buzzed, with Alya being the drunkest. She doing a whole lot of giggling and flirting.

While Luke was pouring way more than a shot into Alya's mouth, I take a picture on Alta's camera. Then, Michael walks in and the boys and I greet him. Alya, however, stands in place with her hands crossed.

"Alya." Michael says happily, walking to her and engulfing her in a hug.

"So you think buying me a drink just magically fixes everything between us." she says calmly. "I don't want to make this awkward for your friends, but stop pretending we're okay."

Luke just pulls her away from Michael before she says anything else since she's drunk.

"Let's just go guys." Luke says. "There's a cool club a block from here."

Alya starts to walk with me, but I see how she's only wearing a tank top and jeans.

"Hold up, you're gonna freeze." I say, tossing her my jacket she wore for the concert.

"Thank you." She says, as she smiles warmly.

I let her walk ahead of me and quickly slip her camera into my pocket.

—
The music is pounding and Alya and I are another 4 shots in. She's so shitfaced, but I'm ready to be by her side the whole time to make sure she's okay.

I'm sitting at the bar with my old fashioned in my hand watching Alya dance with Calum. She's having a good time and that's all that matters.

"So you and Alya huh." Michael says, sitting down on the stool next to me.

"There's nothing serious between us." I say, continuously watching Alya dance with Calum. He seems to be enjoying himself as well.

"I know I screwed up man. Okay I cheated on my girlfriend, but what wasn't okay was the fact I slept with yours." Michael says. "You're my brother and I shouldn't have betrayed you for 10 minutes of pleasure."

"Damn you're really admitting that you only last ten minutes?" I say playfully.

"Shut up man." He says pushing my shoulder "You still think I have a shot?"

"I don't know why you're still trying man. She's fucking pissed." I tell Michael honestly.

We sit there chatting for a while when Luke and Calum sit back down with us to order another drink.

"Where's Alya?" I ask.

"Fuck. Did she not-" Luke says turning around.

"I don't see her." I say getting up from my stool.

I walk towards the pit of sweaty people searching for her. For all I know, she could have left. I shouldn't have taken my eyes off of her. A group of girls approach me asking if I was Ashton Irwin and I quickly stopped to take a picture because they would not let go of me. When we were posing for the picture was when I saw her.

Some man was dancing with Alya, but she looked extremely uncomfortable and I see her trying to free from his grip, but he won't let go and has his other hand grabbing her waist.

I push people left and right trying to get to her as fast as I can.

"Fuck you think you're doing?" I yell at the guy as I pull Alya off of him.

"The slut was pushing herself onto me buddy." He shouts.

"Oh really? I think my fist wants to push itself onto you too." I say, putting Alya behind me and I push the guy away from us.

"Fuckin' hell dude. You messed-" He stops mid-sentence. I turn around and see Luke, Calum, and Michael standing behind me and the man backs away.

"Yeah go back to whatever shithole you crawled out of!" Alya screams.

We all laugh at her and then she grabs my hands and places them around her neck.

"Let's dance Ash!" she says. "That was so hot."

"Why were you by yourself? Something bad could've happened. You're super drunk." I explain to her.

"But you were there! And that was so hot!" she says and kisses me on the cheek. "My hero! C'mon let's dance!"