Inspired (CH) •DISCONTINUED•

Chapter 12

Calum's POV:

"Ashley." I gulped, watching with wide eyes as she slowly approached me.

Ashley Cole.

I never though that I would see or hear from her again. And to be quite honest, I was actually looking forward to keeping as much distance away from her as I possibly could.

"Calum, how nice to see you here." I could immediately tell from her tone of voice that she was acting a little too chipper to see me.

It was as if we were playing the roles of the old TV show; 'Tom and Jerry'. Her being the Tom - the cat that is always trying to kill - not literally - the mouse Jerry, which would be me in this case.

Ashley has never been the nicest person in the world, I'm able to admit that now that we're over and I'm not wrapped around her little finger like I used to be. She's always playing games - evil and deceiving games - with anyone and everyone who chooses to speak one word to her, and she makes sure that she always comes out as the winner.

"At the bar?" I scoffed, turning around in my chair, trying my very best to avoid as much eye contact with her as I could. You never know, she's mean enough to be just like Medusa, so with one long look in her playfully innocent eyes, you might actually turn to stone.

"Why yes, this is the best place in town am I right?" She hummed in my ear, the while front of her body was forcefully pressed against my back.

"You're sick." I chuckled halfheartedly, keeping my attention trained ahead of me so she knew that what I said was definitely not a complement, weird statement to be taken as a compliment, I know, but this is Ashley Cole.

"You know that's not true Cal. I was very good to you - and only you - while we were together." She moved from her position behind me to the seat right beside mine at the bar.

"That's probably the biggest lie you've ever told Ashley." I rolled my eyes, giving up on my childish game of trying to not look at her. "You do remember why we broke up right?"

"That was different Calum. At that point in our relationship, I didn't feel as if we were as close with each other as we were in the beginning. I still loved you every minute I spent hanging out with Ashton behind your back. Heck, I still love you now but I can't have you 'cause I've already lost all of your trust." She exclaimed, waving her hands around everywhere in intense hand gestures.

"We was still close! I did absolutely everything in my power to make you happy. That's all I wanted, I just wanted to make you happy 'cause when you were happy, I for damn sure was too. But then one day while I was trying my hardest to help you out when you were supposably 'not feeling well', you were calling up my best friend, inviting him over to hang out when you knew very well that I would be back for you soon." I yelled, my face turning red in pure fury. I needed this. I needed to vent all this out to the one person I knew it would affect the most.

"I'm sorry Calum. I really am." She wheezed through her sobs. Sometime during my rant - sometime I wasn't paying attention to her - she had started crying uncontrollably. But the thing is, as I watch her face crinkle in agony, I wasn't the least bit worried or upset.

"I don't care if your sorry or not. I just want you to know that you completely ruined my life for a good year or so. You snatched one of my best friends out of my grasp so quickly that I had no time to fight back. You made all my family turn against me after I continued to mope around months after our break up. You made the nice and cuddly Calum disappear into thin air, an asshole soon taking his place. I've only now started to form back into the Calum I used to be and the only reason I've started to change now is because a girl I meet a couple weeks ago, she told me that she wouldn't hang around with me until I changed my attitude. So I did." I brushed off her apology to continue on with how my life has been effected by her stupid actions.

"So you've found you another girl?" She whispered after all of my words snuck into her brain and she fully understood what I had said.

"She's not my girl." I grumbled into my hands that my face was now resting in, my elbows propped up on the bar in front of me to hold the weight of my head.

"But I thought you said-" her eyebrows furrowed as a confused look spread across her face.

"I want her to be mine but she's friend zoned me and went after my other friend, Luke. They're actually on a date tonight, that's why I came here." I sighed, now realizing that the beer I had consumed earlier was starting to wear off and I was remembering what all I was aiming to forget tonight.

"You're drinking away your pain and misery still I see." She pressed her lips into a straight line as she looked down at her hands that were folded in her lap. "I remember you doing that in your first few years of college. Like when you failed a test or if all the stress you had built up that week just became unbearable."

"You can still remember that?" I chuckled, sticking the tip of my pointer finger into the shot glass I had left over from the beginning of the night and started to trace around the rim.

"Of course I remember that. I remember everything that happened while we were together." She shyly smiled, her eyes training to her feet as she looked to be in deep thought about something; memories.

"I do too." A shaky and uneasy breath blew past my lips as memories of the two of us in the prime of our relationship flooded my mind as well, making me slightly emotional.

"Calum, I really am sorry." Ashley spoke up after we had a moment to relive the past years we spent together. "I know I should've apologized a lot sooner but I just didn't have it in me. I still can't believe that I'm doing it now 'cause I still really don't feel like I can express exactly how sorry I am to you Calum."

"I know you're sorry." I looked over at her so she could see that I was being genuinely sincere. "I'm sorry too."

"Why are you sorry? You don't do anything to mess up our relationship, only I did." She questioned curiously, her head tilting to the side slightly, easily showing off her confusion.

"I'm sorry for not being everything you wanted and for making you feel like we wasn't close by the end of our relationship. If I could go back in time and change anything that made you even consider that thought, I would do it in a heartbeat." I explained to her as I watched her take in my words with a smile holding on her face.

"I know you would Calum. I know you would." The smile that was still plastered across her lips was gratuitous.

I knew in this very moment that we were both going to be okay. That we both had just silently admitted that it was okay to move on from our past, but we could never forget it. And we wouldn't want to forget it for a million and more years.

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(A/N: Thank you for reading this chapter. This pretty much sums up things between Calum and Ashley for now, but don't think that she won't be back 'cause you never know what I have planned for this story...

So I think that's all for now. Please remember to like, comment, and share this story with your friends and others.

-CalumandLukey )