peregrination

[ vier. ]

"I want this one! No, wait, I want this one! Actually, this is the one I want. For sure. Definitely. Oh my God, they have a whole other aisle of wagons? How am I ever supposed to choose?" Ashton wailed, his indecisiveness showing through as he ran around Wagons R Us, trying to find the perfect new wagon to replace his old one. Journey was following after him, not saying anything but giving him a nod or a thumbs up whenever she thought it was necessary.

"Oh my God..." Ashton said, trailing off as his eyes widened, looking at something in the distance. Journey followed his line of vision, rolling her eyes as he ran towards a wagon that looked even bigger--and heavier, but like she was going to mention that--than his last one, plus, it was a more vibrant red.

"'Carries up to four children, comes in cherry red, apple red, and tomato red, has better steering than most wagons' I think this is the perfect wagon!" Ashton said, his dimples showing as he smiles while reading the label on the wagon. "It's only...four hundred and fifty nine dollars...oh...it's looking a lot less perfect now."

"I get five hundred per month, Ashton. I think I can handle an expensive wagon. If it means you can drag me to your practices everyday, that is," she walked over to it, trying her best to find out what was so great about a wagon that'd make it that overpriced. "Deal?"

Ashton smiled widely and shook Journey's hand in an overexaggerated manner saying, "Deal."

"Well," she placed her hands on her hips, staring at the wagon. "I'm not gonna grab it for you."

¤

"Okay, now, personally, I think we should start with Barbie: A Christmas Carol," Ashton said as he plopped down on the couch in his living room, gesturing for Journey to sit down.

Just as she was about to sit down, her phone blares Don't Stop Believing and she's fumbling for her phone, looking at the Caller ID and groaning at the name 'mom' across the top.

"Hey sweetie! Your father and I have to go on a surprise trip to Hawaii for the 15th annual scuba diving conference. Sadly, we are unable to bring a guest, which means you'll have to stay by yourself for two weeks," Journey's mom's voice called out from her phone quite loudly, making Journey hold her phone a few inches away from her ear.

Ashton stared at Journey, his eyebrows furrowed in a way that made him look concerned, but she was sure it wasn't for her, so she turned away from him and spoke into her phone, "Oh, um, okay. I'll just- I'll just kind of...-"

"Love you, sweetheart!" And then her mother hung up.

Journey sighed and sat down on the other end of the couch, as far away from Ashton as possible, and said, "Would it be too much of a favor to ask if we could hang out at some point while my parents are away? Shockingly enough, I'm not the biggest fan of being left all alone for two weeks."

"Wha- uh, uh, yeah, for sure," Ashton responded quickly, his eyes wide. "We can totally hang out. You've gotta come to band practices anyway, so this- this'll be great."

"Yeah, I guess it will be..." Journey said softly, turning away from the messy haired guy and focusing on the Barbie movie.

"We can do other stuff too," he added, "like swimming or something. Your parents have a pool, right? We can have a big party with all of my friends since you're all new here and stuff."

Journey shivered slightly at Ashton's mentioning of swimming, parts of her nightmare flashing by in her mind.

"Don't know how to swim," she responded quietly, and suddenly she was being pulled off the couch, "Wha-"

"We're teaching you how to swim. Right now."

"No, no, no! I, uh, don't have a swimsuit," Journey said, trying to sit back down. Ashton gave her a look, staring at her for a second before picking her up and proceeding to throw her over his shoulder, starting towards the front door, the movie still playing.

"Put. Me. Down. You. Uncultured. Swine!" Journey yelled, hitting Ashton after every word; this simply made the boy laugh as he continued his journey to Journey's pool. Just after yelling more obscenities at Ashton, she felt the water surrounding her and her now-soaked clothes sticking to her skin.

Instantly, Journey starting thrashing around, trying to get to the surface as her reality started to replicate her nightmare. Just as she thought everything was going to be over, she felt Ashton yank her up and saw him grin at her while she spit water out of her mouth and clung to him with every ounce of strength she had; his grin only widened, "It's called swimming lessons, not drowning lessons."

"Shut up. I don't need to know how to swim."

"Oh really? But if you don't swim, you'll drown," Ashton said, smirking at the frustrated brunette.

"You know what- I have no comment to that. Nothing at all," she stated. "Actually, I'm just going to- you've got really bad brains, Irwin."

Ashton sighed loudly before giving Journey a serious look and said, "How did we end up talking in the first place? Was it because I said that I liked your Cobain shirt?"

"No, you idiot. It was because you pounded on my window at three in the morning every night for two months."

Journey had nearly forgotten that they were in the middle of the pool, but as soon as Ashton started to move a little, she remembered, and the panic set in.

"Whoa, whoa. Calm down. I won't let anything happen to you. It's my duty as your friend to protect you from anything and everything the world throws at us," Ashton said, wrapping his arms comfortingly around the flailing girl.

"I don't care! I'm terrified of water, okay?" she exclaimed, hugging him tightly. "It's just one of the many reasons why I'm a terrible daughter."

"What? If anything, your parents are terrible," Ashton pushed them towards the stairs at the end of the pool, "leaving you alone for two entire weeks. I wouldn't. You're just too darn adorable."

Journey didn't know how to respond to that, so she just clung onto Ashton even tighter and buried her face in his shoulder.

"What are you doing, Evans?"

"I'm obviously being a koala, Irwin. Couldn't you tell?"

"Really? Because I'm almost sure you're clinging onto me like we haven't saw each other in years."

Journey rolled her eyes and said, "Sometimes I really can't tell if you want me or if you want me dead."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure you can always tell, Evans."

Ashton started to push her away--trying to put her on the side, not that she knew that--and she let out a yelp before wrapping her arms around his neck tighter than he thought possible. "Journey, I'm kind of dying. Can't breathe."

"Oh...sorry. Just get me out of here before I start losing my shit," Journey said, lessening her grip on Ashton ever so slightly. She was then lifted onto the side of the pool, where she proceeded to sigh in relief and pull her legs out of the water, tight to her chest.

Ashton sat down next to her and wrapped a towel around her shoulders.

"Look...I'm really sorry about that. If I had known that you didn't like water, I never would've done it, I swear. It's just...your parents are scuba divers so I just assumed--"

"And that, Ashton Irwin, is why you don't assume. It just makes an ass out of you and me."

She looked down at the pool, into the water, where she could see their reflections, both of them looking more like injured puppies than newfound friends due to the event that had just occurred.

"I think the worst part of this situation is that the Barbie movie is probably mostly over by now," Ashton said seriously. Journey smiled, and for the first time in weeks, she actually looked really, truly, genuinely happy.