My Beautiful King

Chapter Thirty Seven

Someone was calling my name.

A part of me wondered if it was Zayn, even though I knew that it wasn't. He'd left my house half an hour ago, tearstained but smiling, with whispered promises that he wouldn't screw up again. I was doing my best to believe him. I really fucking needed him to not do anything stupid.

"Ashley..."

His phone call to Liam had only lasted about 45 seconds, seeing as the boy had coincidentally been visiting his sister in London and was more than happy to pick him up. I personally found it relatively strange that Liam was so eager to pick up a stranger that he'd met sitting and singing on a street corner. But Zayn had said that from the brief conversation they'd had, it was obvious that Liam had been trying to fill the band member space for quite some time and was getting desperate.

I wasn't complaining. I was just praying to God that Zayn would be safe and call me within the next couple days.

"Ashley..."

I loved him so much. It hurt to think about. And the fact that I'd encouraged him to leave was gnawing at my heartstrings, even though I knew it had been the best long term decision. At least this time we'd have contact with each other. And besides, I'd been fine the last time we'd been apart, when I first moved to London, right?

Right?

"Ashley!" A hand reached out and gripped my shoulder, shaking it manically. My eyelids flew open and I saw my dad kneeling in front of me, with my mother standing close behind. There was an uncomfortable, sticky pool of something at the corner of my mouth. I sluggishly looked down at the sofa I was lying on. Drool. Lovely.

"Someone was in a bit of a deep sleep!" My dad laughed, while looking mildly disgusted at my dribble, and rose to stand tall. My head felt woozy with slumber as I dragged my hand across my lips to remove the wet substance. "We've been calling you for ages."

I hadn't even realised I'd fallen asleep. "Sorry," I murmured, fighting wearily to sit upright. "I just... I guess I got bored of waiting for you guys to come home. You came back a lot later than expected." In defeat, I lolled my head back onto the couch and groaned slightly. Maybe it was a good thing I hadn't slept on the sofa last night. My neck was killing me.

"Well," my mum started slowly, the ends of her lips twitching. "Your father and I were having a good time and we got caught up in... Things." At the corner of my left eye, I saw the glance that my parents shared between each other. I nearly vomited.

I really didn't want to know what they'd been up to.

Probably some of the same things that I'd been up to this afternoon. Crap, my head was flooding with disturbing thoughts-

"But anyway," Mum spoke curtly, sounding suddenly unimpressed. "If you were so 'bored of waiting for us to come home' you could have at least cleaned up a bit. Look around, Ashley; the house is a mess! I can't believe that I'm already having to complain and I've only just come back! There's Skittles all over the kitchen counter and floor; dirty shoe prints on the hallway flooring... I haven't checked upstairs yet but I'm sure your bedroom is no better."

I quickly found the strength to sit up straight. Check upstairs? Something told me that Zayn hadn't moved those condoms like I'd asked him to...

"You're right!" I gabbled as I swung my bare feet to touch the floor. "My room: total tip. I'll just go clean it now, don't worry, it's the least I should do. Then I'll tidy the rest of the house. No problem, ha!"

I ignored my parents' bewildered expressions and made to leave the parlour as quickly as possible. Picking up their multiple overnight bags and graciously offering to carry them upstairs, I cursed myself internally for not cleaning up the mess. It had been my intention to tidy as soon as Zayn had left the house; I guess that in between taking a quick smoke in the garden and eating an apple it managed to slip my mind. And I'd ended up falling asleep on the sofa.