Ray ||l.h.||

0.9

Ray hasn't tried to sneak in or out anywhere since she, Ashton, and Calum were freshmen and got invited to a predominantly junior filled party, that started at eight and ended around two in the morning. Michael had been on his fourth day of being sick and insisted that they do something wild on his behalf.

She smiles when she gently pushes open her front door, just like she did that night, except this time she doesn't get to stumble up to her room and flop victoriously onto her bed.

"I know we're not talking right now, or whatever, but you could've called to say you weren't coming home." Ashton's voice startles her into letting out a scream. Of course he's awake right now. Last Ray was told, it was almost half past five a.m.--most likely past that now--and Ashton has work around the time she has to go to school. 

The girl rolls her eyes, irritated that she got scared so easily and by what he said. She guesses that he does have a point, though. In between her and Luke listening to an entire album and them going downstairs to get Oreos, she could have rung Ashton up and told him not to expect her back until the morning, but like he said, they aren't talking right now. Or whatever.

"Boy, you're not my father." She says, trying to make for the staircase. After stuffing his foot into his boot, Ashton sighs and gets off of the couch, hastily blocking her path.

"Will you stop being petty and childish for two seconds?" Ashton requests, while Ray tries to go around him. He holds his arm out in front of her, stopping her from making it to the first step, which Ray finds infuriating the third time she bumps into it. 

"You really wanna talk about being petty and childish right now?" Ray counters, gesturing to his body. He's older than her, he should be more mature than this, she thinks.

Ashton cups her face with both hands, in the least romantic way possible. "Ray, I'm trying to fix--" His sentence drops off when Ray almost immediately yanks his palms away from her cheeks. He quickly snatches up the wrist of the hand that she used to pull his away, then starts again. "I'm trying to fix this but you're being stubborn."

"If you really wanted to fix anything, you'd apologize." Ray attempts to jerk from his grasp, and while they aren't quite yelling yet, she realizes they are getting louder and she doesn't like this. She can't say she doesn't enjoy being right, though.

Dropping hints that he was sort of wondering why she didn't come home until a few minutes ago does not equal an apology.

"For what?" Ashton shouts, and, yup, they're yelling now. He lets her hand go, only for Ray to wave her hand around in where she hopes is his face, which it is. If he wants to yell at her then, fine, Ray can do the same thing, and then some.

"For bringing up my garbage past to try to talk me out of going on a date with Luke, that's one thing!" She matches his volume, not surprised when he takes her forearm in hand again. To be fair, she keeps wiggling her fingers around in his face and has probably almost poked him in the eye.

"I already told you--"

"I don't wanna hear you unless you're saying sorry!" Ray's voice tramples his words, and she smugly smiles, putting a finger behind her ear.

"Say it for trying to help--"

"Uh-uh, you know you weren't trying to help me." 

If Ray could see, she'd have flinched from how swiftly Ashton reached for her, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her. "Let me talk!" Ray's breath catches in her throat and she feels like a half empty Heinz bottle.

She doesn't move for a second, maybe a few minutes, she can't tell, but when she does get her limbs going, she pushes him away from her. Ray gets upstairs as fast as she can, nearly falling at the top, and slams her door behind her when she makes it into her bedroom.