More Than a Teacher - Ashton Irwin

61

It's our second day back at school - so far so good.

I guess it's only up from here. This is the beginning of getting back on track and each week will only get easier.

I slide down from the passenger seat in Ashton's Jeep saying a quick goodbye. We're still on odd terms, little to no affection is being shown, he's still sleeping in Calum's bed and it's mostly been small talk between us.

I trail through the staff car park and towards the school gates where I see a familiar person walking towards the entrance as well. He's not in school uniform. Instead he's in skinny jeans, a flannel and a snapback taming his curly hair.

He's finished his final school exams and is coming back to organize graduation and the handing over of his captaincy to next year's school leaders.

"Hey." Harry greets me as our paths meet and both of us make our way inside the gates.

"Hi." I quickly say, wanting to avoid him.

We fixed everything between us but Ashton still doesn't like him and my priority right now is building my relationship back up with Ashton. Ash hates seeing Harry around me so I know what I have to do to fix that.

Harry's head turns behind us before doing a double take to confirm what he saw. I assume Ashton is walking not too far behind us.

"Is that Irwin?" He whispers to me as I keep striding into school. "When the fuck did he get back?" He furrows his brows with disapproval lacing his tone.

When Ashton went missing I told Harry what had happened. That's the night I spent with him and we got high and I broke my own few weeks of sobriety.

"Like last week." I breathily say and roll my eyes.

I'm not in the mood for explaining.

"And he thinks he can just rock up like that and think everything is gonna be ok?" Harry's eyes nearly pop out of their sockets as his agitation bubbles over.

He goes to turn around, wanting to staunch Ashton's way but I quickly grip his shoulders as the tall man disappears in the other direction.

"Harry, stop it! He couldn't help it." I say through gritted teeth, pulling him back into line.

"What do you mean he couldn't help it? That's bullshit Ava! He left you and hurt you." He spits, towering over me.

"Yeah well I hurt him." I say as a matter of factly.

"Pfft." He brushes my words off as if they were untrue.

He thinks Ashton's is solely to blame in this situation.

"Well, what does Skye think?"

"She's got nothing to do with this." I sigh in annoyance.

"Yeah but surely she's spoken to him? What has she said? Is she upset? Surely she can see what her brother has done wrong." He questions to subtly manipulate me to tell more.

"She's not happy but at the same time she understands. She's thinking about coming up to visit him, maybe try and—" I pause with a frown washing over my features as I look back up to Harry. "Wait, why am I telling you this? This isn't any of your business." I shake my head and begin walking off.

I have class to get to and no time for Harry's bullshit.

"Cause I'm your friend Ava." He chases after me, his long legs catching up to mine quickly.

He just won't stop pestering me.

"Yeah but you're certainly not Ashton's." I comment, not giving him anymore interest.