Confiding in You ϟ a.i.

Chapter 69

==Ashton's POV==

Listen, I exhausted literally every single one of my options to get to the unbelievable point that I'm at right now. I'm desperate, frustrated, and beyond tired. I just want to see my f*cking girlfriend, for Christ's sake.

It started as soon as my mom left the house. When I was younger and she took something away from me, she always hid it in the most obvious places, so I began with that. I looked on top of the fridge, in the kitchen cabinets, and I rummaged through several drawers in the kitchen. All that got me was several small cuts on my fingers from pushing around knives and shit.

When I was sure the kitchen would lead to nothing, I went through her own room. Nothing on the nightstand, nothing in the various boxes under her bed. I even mustered up enough courage to go through every drawer in her dresser. Still nothing.

By the time I was searching under the sheets and pillows of Harry's racecar bed, I knew I wasn't getting anywhere with this. She must have taken them with her to work. So I went onto the next option from the list I made the night before. I started texting people.

Michael answered me, supposedly, in the middle of taking his math final early. He refused to leave, even after he finished, and told me that "with all of the trouble I was in, shouldn't I give breaking the rules a break?" Typical.

I tried Calum, but I guess his car broke down and his sister took him to school today. Jessica, apparently, has also skipped enough school to be suspended and cares more than I do. I even tried Hannah, Lily, and Milly, but none of them answered.

Of course I couldn't text Cooper, and everyone else in my contacts hates me now.

Once that debacle was over, I moved onto plan C: a taxi. But as it turns out, taxis cost a lot more than I thought, especially to go all the way to the hospital downtown. I've had people cover for me at work for the last month. I'm broke as hell.

My last two options on the list were hurting myself just to get into the hospital via an ambulance or learning how to hotwire my care. But those are both a bit drastic, don't you think?

My mom has enough hospital bills thanks to me and she would not be very happy if I gave her more just to see Maddie. And by the time I got around to even thinking about hotwiring my car, it was 11 am. Too late to learn, and I guess it's more dangerous than the movies make it look.

Oh, also, the walk to the hospital would take 6 hours and 39 minutes -- probably even longer in the snow. Yeah, I was that desperate.

So here I am.

"What happened to your face?" Luke snickers as I jerk open the passenger door to his car. I hope Maddie is aware of the insane lengths that I would go to see her.

"You know exactly what happened," I grunt, buckling my seatbelt and slamming the door. "Just drive, and keep your mouth shut."

I can't believe I have to spend 20 minutes with this asshole. What was I thinking? With the way he feels about me, I wouldn't be surprised if he purposely got into an accident just to kill me. He totally would.

I grip onto the sides of my seat and hold my breath as he backs out of my driveway. I don't breathe out until we're on the main road and he's going the speed limit.

Yeah, he's not even going along with traffic, he's going the actual speed limit. That, thankfully, is typical pre-revenge Luke behavior.

But, wait. Isn't that just as dangerous as speeding? Going slower than traffic? I'm going to f*cking die and I'll never get to see Maddie again. I suck in another breath.