the treehouse ☾irwin [completed]

twenty-four;

votes and comments are highly appreciated! x

(author's note at end)

"uh, that's bad, right? he copied you?" i asked ashton unsurely, who was still frozen in place, staring down the sidewalk at the two, who hadn't noticed us yet.

"no," ashton muttered, still staring. he had a distant look in his eye, as if were thinking of something.

i frowned and looked back down the street at calum and gabi. calum was laughing at something gabi had said, and he turned and looked ahead. he saw us and his grin vanished.

gabi took notice and looked at us. she frowned slightly, but gave me a small smile as we drew nearer.

we stopped right in front of gabi and calum and we all stood in an awkward silence. i noticed that calum was wearing a similar wig to ashton's, except black, and had black nails.

"calum," ashton said stiffly, nodding his head.

"ashton," calum replied, tapping his fingers nervously on his trick or treat bucket.

"so why are you wearing that costume?" ashton asked quickly, cutting to the chase.

"i could ask you the same thing, irwin," calum said coldly.

ashton huffed and narrowed his eyes at calum.

"i happen to still be friends with michael and luke, thank you very much."

"well--"

"wait! what do luke and michael have anything to do with this?" i interrupted, glancing at the two of them.

ashton sighed and turned towards me. "back when we were younger, and all friends," he shot a look at calum. "we'd always dress up as the band poison for halloween. always. every halloween we knew each other we decided to."

"and that quickly ended when we stopped going trick or treating. and stopped being friends," calum added softly, his eyes lowering.

"so, why are you wearing it now, hm?" ashton turned his attention back to calum, glaring.

"i want to get past all of this," calum shrugged, looking down at the ground.

"what?" ashton said, confused.

"look, ashton, i want to get past what happened. i know i messed up, and i don't know how many times i can apologize for that. but, i can promise you it'll never happen again. i've changed over the past year, got over
those stupid habits of drinking and.. drugs," calum took a shaky breath and looked back up at ashton, who's facial features had softened a little bit.

"but, the past is in the past. you can't go back and change anything, and neither can i. i learned to just move on with life and learn from my.. major mistakes. and i want you to as well. i want my best friends back."

"we were going to make a band, cal," ashton said, disappointment lingering in his voice.

"i know, and i'm sorry. we still can, we're still young," calum offered, crossing his arms across his chest.

"the guys probably won't take it as well as i am, though," ashton scratched the back of his neck, sighing.

"does that mean we're okay?" calum asked skeptically, hope in his eyes.

ashton hesitated and glanced over at me. i raised my eyebrows, waiting for his response. he turned back to calum and gave a lopsided grin.