My heart raced quickly and a knot tied in the pit of my stomach. A lump formed in my throat, making it difficult for me to even scream, let alone gasp.
"Mia?" I hear Ashton say from behind me, causing me to jump.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," he apologizes, and my back was still facing him.
"I-It's okay," I breathed out.
"What's wrong?" he asked, and I hear him stepping further into the room. "You sound worried."
He spins me around so he could face me. "You're pale. You look like you've just seen a ghost," he chuckles.
"I wish," I mumbled. "Seeing a ghost is way better than the circumstance I'm in right now."
Ashton furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "What are you talking about?"
I sighed, handing him the anonymous note I had found. "This was under my TV. I think it's from whoever broke in."
His eyes widened as he read it, his reaction matching mine. "Oh my God."
"What's going to happen?" I asked, my voice breaking.
"I don't know," he tells me truthfully. "We should talk about this with Savannah."
"Okay," I nodded. "But I don't think we should tell the other boys."
"Why not?" he asked.
I take the note back from his hand, clutching it in my own. "I don't want them more worried than they should. This is my problem, not yours or theirs."
Ashton shook his head. "It's not a good idea to just not tell them."
"What do you mean?" I eye him. "They're going to panic and I don't want to put all this stress on them. I'm surprised you're handling it calmly."
"I'm freaking out on the inside, honestly," he sighs. "Mia, they're in danger and they need to know. Especially Michael, he's your boyfriend for crying out loud!"
I crossed my arms. "I just can't, okay? This is my battle and this is the exact reason why I didn't want you involved in any of this. I don't want any of you hurt."
"We're all in involved," he said. "And we've been involved the moment we took you in."
"This is all my fucking fault," I grumbled.
"No it's not," Ashton says. "We want to help you. You're our friend, we love you - we don't want you hurt."
"You should hate me," I said, looking up at him. "I'm destroying each of your lives."
"I think you're overreacting," he laughs. "We could never hate you."
"You will," I protested. "Eventually."
"So what? You're just going to handle this all by yourself?" he snorted.
"Yes," I said.
"No, you're not. Because I can guarantee you that you will get hurt if you do this by yourself," he says sternly. "It would kill Michael if he knew you're in danger."
"Exactly!" I threw my arms up in the air. "That's why I don't want to tell him."
"You didn't let me finish," Ashton said. "But it would also destroy him by not knowing."
I rolled my eyes. "Now you're just confusing me."
"Anything that happens to you, will reflect onto him. If you get hurt, he loses it. He'll lose himself if he knew that you want to handle this all on your own. He'd protect you but you just want to keep it secret. You're putting yourself in a trap and I don't know why."
