Invisible || Ashton Irwin

Chapter 16

Zoe's POV

"Good morning Anne." I give Ashton's mother a bright smile as she opens her front door.

"Oh Zoe, I didn't expect to see you today." It's Saturday and Ashton invited me over to watch their band practice.

"Ashton invited me over." She nods and ushers me inside.

"Well he's upstairs in his room. The boys should be here soon." I thank her and head up the stairs to his room. I push the door open when I get there and I see him scribbling away at his desk.

"Hey Ash." His head whips up and a smile graces his face as soon as he sees me. I walk over and sit on the edge of his desk so I can peak at what he's writing. "What are you doing?" He looks from me back to the paper.

"Just spitballing some song ideas." He shrugs before leaning back in his chair.

"So are you ready for the English test on Tuesday?" He nods his head and I breathe a sigh of relief. "That's great to hear." I  quickly get up from my spot and give him a hug.

"Ehem." I let go of Ashton and look to the door to see Calum, Luke and Michael looking at us. "Are we ready for practice?" Calum asks and the boys all nod.

"Ash there's some woman outside your house by the way. She was talking to your mum and I think she's getting frustrated. We snuck in through the garage to avoid it." I look to Ashton and he looks to me.

"Uh, you guys go start, I'll go and help Anne." We split off at the bottom of the stairs and I walk to the end of the hallway to listen for the voices.

"So he does need tutoring? My daughter seems to be here a lot. I also heard you had her over for dinner last weekend." Are you kidding me? She followed me here? Why would she do something like that? Doesn't she trust me?

"Mother." I step out from behind the wall and stalk over to the front door. "Why are you here?" I glare down at her and she stands her ground.

"I wanted to know if you were telling me the truth."

"I told you, Zoe and Ashton have been doing tutoring every time she comes here. You have nothing to worry about." Anne gives me a small smile and I thank God that she's on my side. My mother eyes me wearily before sighing.

"I'll be home later today mother." I give her a small smile and she makes he way down the driveway without a goodbye. Anne shuts the door and I sigh. "I'm so sorry about her." She pulls me into a tight hug and I hesitate before hugging her back.

"It's fine." We stay in the embrace for a while before she lets me go. "I heard you told your mother you stayed for dinner last weekend." She quirks her eyebrow at me and my cheeks grow hot. "I guess you'll have to stay tonight so it's not technically a lie." A smile grows on my face.

"Really? That sounds great." She pats my shoulder before heading off to the living room.

"You better get back to the boys before they get to carried away in their music." I laugh in understanding. I quickly rush to the boys and when I get there they're still fiddling around with their instruments.

"Zoe, who was that at the door?" Calum gives me a quick smile with his question.

"Oh just some neighbour." I shrugged and tried to play it off as if it wasn't my mother. The boys all concentrate severely on their instruments so I make my way over to Ashton. "Your mum invited me to stay for dinner if thats ok." He twirls his drumstick around in his hand and looks up at me.

"Yeah that's fine." He gives me a smile that shows his dimples. I'm glad he doesn't mind.

"Oh Zoe," Luke comes over with a guitar in his hands. "I know you don't have your own instruments so I bought one of my guitars with me for you to play." He hands me the black acoustic guitar and I give him my biggest smile.