Confiding in You ϟ a.i.

Chapter 3

"Will you guys stop lagging behind?" Ashton yells in his drunken state. We've been walking in the woods for at least 20 minutes and I still have no clue how this is supposed to be more fun than sitting in front of the fire. In all honesty, I'd rather be reading The Scarlet Letter right now.

Luke and I have been staying away from Ashton for this entire time, and the only reason we know where he is is because of the stupid remarks he keeps making every five seconds.

"You guys are such pussies," he slurs.

"At least if there's a murderer, they'll get him first," Luke whispers to me and I giggle. I still can't believe he's paying any attention to me right now, let alone holding my hand and whispering to me. I remember that I'm in his jacket too and shake my head. This has to be too good to be true.

"FUCK!" Ashton screams and stops in his tracks abruptly. We both jump and Luke grips my hand tighter. He bursts out laughing, "You guys really need a drink or a smoke."

"How is this supposed to be fun?" I voice the constant thought in my mind once we start walking again. It would be more fun if it were day time, but I can barely even see what's around me.

Really, why did I agree to this?

"Just be patient," Ashton says and we reach a trail. He shines the light of his phone in front of him and a chill runs through me at the sight of the seemingly endless trail ahead of us. We're surrounded by tall grass, which doesn't make it any less scary.

The hum of the crickets and the crunch of leaves and twigs under our feet is the only thing heard. We continue up a hill and I get an eery feeling that makes me wish I never agreed to come.

"There's an abandoned cemetery somewhere up here. It's cool Maddie, you'll like it," Ashton runs ahead once we reach the top of the hill.

Of course he would remember my interest in that kind of stuff. I like history, but only when I get to experience it first hand. So I like looking at abandoned things. Except not in the middle of the night with him. My fear of ghosts, uncomfortable feeling around drunk people, and awkwardness with Luke definitely overpower my interest.

"You couldn't have showed me during the day?" I ask, my voice shaking. He doesn't answer, but instead grabs my free hand and I pull Luke along with us.

We realize that we've reached the cemetery when Ashton trips over a tombstone. My breath catches in my throat and he shines the light on it, "Look at that. Died 1809."

"That's cool," I say absentmindedly. All I can think about is if a ghost is going to pop out and murder us. I consider asking if we can go now, but I don't want to disrespect the spirits.

"I think there's some grave stones in the shape of a pentagram over here," Ashton grabs my arm again and leads us to another set of tombstones.

"Looks like a circle to me," Luke scoffs and I can tell Ashton is glaring at him, "Can we leave yet?"

"No, there's more stuff," he whines, shining his phone over more tombstones as we all walk, "Look at this one, they were only like, 15."

"25," I correct his math and he stays silent, probably thinking of how annoying I am.

"Come here," he finally says but gives me no choice by forcibly pulling me along still. We reach another set of woods and I pull my arm back as hard as I can. Thankfully, since he's drunk, he doesn't put up much of a fight.

"Can we not go in the woods again? It's freaky," I try to voice as assertively as possible. Luke agrees from beside me and Ashton sighs.

"No, I promise you will like this."

I roll my eyes but oblige anyway. There's no use putting up a fight, even if my argument is that he could show me sometime in the daylight. He drags me into the woods again and we get to an open area, surrounded by trees. There's one fallen over and he stands on top of it to look out. As if he can see anything.

His feet skid against the ground once he attempts to jump back down. Luke is startled by the noise and grabs my hand tightly again, causing me to smile up at him even though he can't see me. My fear of the night is clouded as I start feeling disbelief about this whole thing once again.

"Look over here," Ashton points his phone toward an area within the trees, "it's like, old farm equipment or something. From when they used horses."

Glancing over at the rusted metal sunk halfway into the ground, I have to admit that's probably the coolest thing I've seen. I start to think of how people used that once and lived on the land. Before I could indulge very much in my imagination, though, Ashton is tugging on my arm again.

He pulls us to another pathway and into another open field, which starts to freak me out. I can barely see in front of me now. He opens the flashlight on his phone in an attempt to light up the area more but it's no use.

"It's a field, like where they grew crops and stuff. I guess it would look better in the day time," Ashton finally admits.

"Okay, can we go back now?" Luke groans, removing his hand from mine but placing his arm around my shoulder instead. I struggle to fight the urge to smile.

"Fine," he sighs, "Do you want to go back around through this boring path or back through the cemetery?"

"Just through the regular path," Luke says quickly and I don't have the nerve to fight him on it. The path that just takes us straight back to the bonfire will probably be less eery anyway.

Ashton leads us to a second path that starts right next to the path that goes to the cemetery. We practically run down the hill without trying and I trip over my feet and run right into him. Luke is unable to keep his arm around my shoulder, so I don't pull him along with me. Instead, Ashton replaces Luke's arm with his own.

I feel uncomfortable now under his weight, the smell of beer invading my senses as soon as he pulls me closer to him. I scrunch my face up but do nothing about it, since we're nearing the fire now anyway. Luke runs up so he is next to us and gives me a sympathetic look.

"MADDIE!" I hear Cooper yell once we make it to the end of the trail. I don't even need to force Ashton's arm off of me, since Cooper pulls me away from him with as much force as possible. He practically rips my arm out of its socket. "Where the fuck were you?"

"We went up into the woods," I shrug, knowing how dangerous it actually was but choosing to play it off since nothing happened.

I can tell Cooper is glaring at the two boys, even in the dark. "We're leaving," he growls. He tries to pull me away again, but I stop him, slipping one of my arms out of Luke's jacket.

"Keep it," Luke says quickly and I feel fire raise to my cheeks as I put it back on again. He gives me the cutest crooked smile, "Wait, your name..what's your name?"

I feel a pang of disappointment in my chest at the reminder that he didn't care enough to remember me. I smile despite the pain and open my mouth to answer. Ashton speaks before I can.

"Her name is Maddie, stupid," he scoffs, hitting Luke over the head. Right. Ashton would remember me but Luke wouldn't.

Luke looks embarrassed, even in the dark, and I almost begin to feel bad for him. "Well, I'm Luke," he says, rubbing the back of his neck.

I open my mouth to speak again, but I don't really know what to say. It doesn't matter anyway though because before can respond or even say goodbye, Cooper is already dragging me forcefully toward his car.