Beauty and The Bad Boy

Chapter 11

*Ashton's P.O.V*

I stared at Bethany asleep in the hospital bed. Her body was place, thin and lifeless. I held her hand in both of mine and tried not to look at the IV in it. I glanced at the clock. It was almost ten. I had been at the hospital for hours, telling Bethany all about Aubrey what happened.

I wondered how she was doing. Who was she staying with? What was she doing? Was she thinking about me at all? I hated not knowing. I hated that she could just leave me like this. And I hated how she could make me feel this way. So... alone.

My mom was never around, and Bethany was in the hospital. I had no one but my other friends. And all they ever wanted to talk about was girls. And at the moment, it was a sore subject. I grabbed my backpack and skateboard and left the hospital room, being as quiet as possible. I wondered how many times my mom had been to the hospital. Probably not as many as me. Her and her stupid ass job.

I went straight home from the hospital. My mom was there, for once. I opened the door and went inside. I smelled something cooking on the stove. I went into the kitchen with caution. My mom was standing on the counter, seasoning a cooked chicken.

"Mom? What are you doing?" I asked. Mom was never home for dinner. Never.

"Well, I left early today and I thought I'd make us dinner!" She said cheerfully, as if this was normal. This was not fucking normal.

I sat down at the table and my mom put a plate in front of me. I didn't touch my food. I was waiting for something. I was waiting for he bad news. We were most likely moving.

"I have some news," mom said suddenly. Here we go.

"Okay," I said nervously.

"Something came up at work, and I have to go on some business to Chicago for two weeks." Wait, what?

"Mm hm.." I said, waiting for her to tell me that I would have to take care of myself, blah blah blah.

"And I'm taking you and Bethany with me!" She exclaimed. "We're leaving tomorrow."

"Wait, Bethany?" I said. "The doctors approved of?!"

"Yes."

It was good news for Bethany's health. But I was having trouble being happy about the trip itself. All I could think about was Aubrey, and it wasn't like going to Chicago would help me find her.

-The Next Day-

Our flight was at nine, and I rolled out of bed around six. I shoved all my remaining clean clothes in a giant suitcase. My mom was yelling at me from downstairs. I dragged the suitcase down, the wheels thumping on each carpeted step. The hospital had already dropped Bethany off to our house, and she was in a wheelchair. She was probably too weak to walk, I noted.

I ran to her and hugged her, being careful not to hurt her. She hugged me back.

"It's good to have you back home," I said.

"It's good to be home," she replied. Two hours later, we were sitting in the airport gate waiting for the attendant to call for us.

Finally, a squeaky female voice called over the mic. We stood up and I pushed Bethany onto the plane. We had to help her walk when we left her wheelchair at the entrance. We sat in a row with three seats, I sat by the window, Bethany was in the middle and my mom had the aisle. I stared out the small window the landscape got smaller and smaller until I couldn't see the people cars, or buildings anymore.

It was a short flight. After all the hassle of getting through the airport, we were finally in a cab on our way to our hotel. I watched the numbers on the price screen go up every few minutes. I looked out the window at the tall hotel building. The building was cream and had gold framed Windows. We dragged our suitcases through the doors. We were exhausted and had terrible jet lag. There was a cheerful lady at the front desk who was wearing too much lipstick and had long acrylic nails. She typed on her keyboard and found our information, then gave us each a room key and we were on our way.

The room had two queen beds and a pullout couch. All three of us laid down and took a nice long nap. When we woke up, it was five o'clock. Bethany was complaint that she was bored because she hadn't had time to bring any books with her. Bethany loves to read, it's seriously like all she does. I asked Siri where the nearest bookstore was, and there was only a few blocks away. Mom stayed at the hotel to finish unpacking.

"So tell me more about this Aubrey girl," Bethany said as we were walking.

"Well," I said. "She's smart and beautiful and funny, and I really like her. I thought she liked me too. Until she left."

"Don't beat yourself up about it," Bethany reassured me. "I bet she didn't even leave because of you. It was probably something else. Something you probably don't know about."

"Maybe," I mumbled. I saw the bookstore from where we were.

"Awe, it's so cute!" Bethany said. "Look Ashton."

We were approaching the store window, and that's when I saw her.

Aubrey.