Taking Chances (a Ross Lynch fanfiction)

Chapter 25

I walked on stage, hand in hand with Ross. The shouts from the fans were unbearable.

Everyone was screaming. Altogether it was deafening.

"This is Ashely." Ross's voice boomed through the speakers. "I made the mistake of letting her go, and I've almost lost her twice now. I had to stop her from going. I had to make it right. I apologize for the delay of the concert, but I hope you all understand. You can't let the person you love, just walk away and leave."

The girls in the crowd were screaming. Some were good, majority were bad. They were calling me names and yelling for me to leave Ross alone and get off the stage.

I looked at Ross with tears in my eyes and my cheeks burning. Without a second thought, I turned and hurried off stage.

Ross turned to go after me, but his guitar was handed to him and he had to start the concert.

I ran backstage and into the prep room, where the band waited until the concert, and burst into tears.

"Ashley, don't cry. They don't mean those things." Stormie came in the room and wrapped her arms around me.

"If they didn't mean those things, why would they say them?" I said between breaths.

"They're jealous. Don't let it get to you. For a while, they were jealous of our cousin because she was around the boys a lot." She tried to reassure me.

"Why are people so mean?"

"I can't answer that. Some people just want to watch the world burn."

Stormie wiped away my tears and brought me to my feet.

"How about we go finish watching the concert from backstage?" She asked.

I nodded my head and walked back toward stage with her.

We stood on the side, completely out of sight to the audience, and watched the concert.

When they finished playing their last song, Let's Not Be Alone Tonight, Ross rushed off the stage toward me and pulled me into a hug.

"I'm so sorry, I had to do the concert or I would have came after you." He whispered in my ear.

"It's ok. I understand. You had to do your concert, I can't stop that." I said, pulling away.

"You were crying. I can see it in your eyes. I'm sorry I brought you on stage. You didn't want to go on and I forced you."

"It's not your fault. I couldn't be a secret forever." I whispered.

"Come on. Let's go to the bus. I haven't been able to hold you for days and I'm not missing my chance now. By the way, I still wanna see your battle scar. I'm so sorry I wasn't there with you when they were removed. I should have been."

"You were angry. It's fine."

"No, it's not fine." He cut me off. "I should have been there for my girl, angry or not. I shouldn't have let you go alone."

"I didn't go alone, Rocky took me."

"Is there something going on between you two? You've been getting close lately."

"You wouldn't even look at me and I couldn't do much on my own. I had to get someone and Riker was out of the picture. And, Rydel can't pick me up, so I befriended Rocky."

"Alright. I just don't want you getting too close. You and Riker got close and look where that got us." He laughed.

"That's not funny. Why would you make that into a joke? That was serious and I almost left because of that." I said angrily.