ʟᴀᴄᴇᴅ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʜɪᴍ- ᴄ.ʜ

Vol 52: The Fuck Overs

The ride to Lacey's house was a fairly quiet one, due to the unravelling of a series of events that had occurred. Ashton had successfully found Lacey, as she was already in the unlocked car in the passenger's seat, sitting silently and looking down at her hands. As Ashton steered the wheel, he'd attempt to look over at Lacey but Lacey's face was always turned away into the window, but Ashton knew her eyes weren't dry.

And it stayed silent between the two up until Ashton drove up into the Hemming's driveway.

Ashton parked the car onto the side of the semi-empty driveway, and made his way up to the front door, looking to his left to expect Lacey to catch up to him, but instead, she wasn't there. She was outside of the car, but instead, she was leaning on the passenger side car door, in a way where her back faced Ashton. It looked as though she was biting her fingernails, arms wrapped around her torso, looking down.

Ashton lightly drew air out of his mouth and licked his lips, trying to calculate the most cautious and appropriate way to approach this. He was good at reading people, so he felt as though it was his responsibility to do something about it. But because of what the problem entails, he didn't know how to approach it.

Ashton slowly approached the girl, leaning next to her on the car door but trying not to look directly into her eyes in case it made her more anxious.

He tried to glance at her for a millisecond without her noticing. Lacey's hand was close to her mouth and her head was down, looking at the ground, slightly turning away so Ashton couldn't see her face- but she failed.

"Calum- he's- he's an asshole," Ashton said as he also looked down onto the moonlight-coated ground, speaking reluctantly, almost like he didn't want to admit it to himself.

Lacey slightly looked away from the ground and towards Ashton, her eyes still not dry but broad and laced with some underline of surprise as she sniffed; possibly now knowing that Ashton knows. Lacey then looked back down, her eyes further away from being dry, like she also knew that Calum was in fact an asshole. Silence intruded the hot night air.

"I'm just so sick of feeling like this all the fucking time." Lacey croaked out her voice, splitting the thin silence, head still turned away.

"I know." Ashton slightly nodded to himself, acknowledging the great weight that Lacey was struggling to carry on her weak shoulders.

Ashton's response caused the girl to snap her head up directly at him, confused about how he got to that conclusion. "Wh-what do you mean?" Her voice was soft and shaky.

"You're a strong girl, Lace- Luke taught you to be that way. But sometimes, even the strongest of us can break." His eyes made sure they met hers, wide and concerned laced with empathy.

And with the last word falling out of Ashton's mouth, Lacey fell her head into her hands, sniffling even more, tears making their way out through her fingers.

"It's okay." Ashton quietly said as he embraced Lacey, pulling her into a tight warm hug, his hand resting on her head as she sunk into his chest.

After a couple of minutes, where the tears and sniffles subsided, as Ashton cooed Lacey- his little sister not by blood, she slowly pulled away; drawing a deep breath in.

"I shouldn't be feeling like this because we weren't even together. All we did was kiss- and that was- and then we had this fight the day after the party where Luke- and he wouldn't let go that I went to Eli instead of him and that's when he said he cared about me." Lacey shook her head, looking at the stars and then at her twiddling thumbs.

"I wanted to believe it, I really did- but I knew the feeling wouldn't last in him when he left to go back on tour- so I ended it before I got hurt ." Lacey swallowed hard, trying to keep her eyes dry this time.