Mistakes

Thirty Four

Carter

"Have you heard? Ashton has a daughter." Lisa told me.

"I don't care." I sighed. "Congrats on getting a girl pregnant."

"She's such a tomboy though." Lisa whined. "And he didn't get Bryanna pregnant."

"A tomboy?" I asked.

"I would have thought Ashton would adopt a girlier girl."

"He adopted? At his age? What is he doing? Does he have a brain?"

"He's 22." Lisa rolled her eyes.

"People get engaged at 22! What's he doing adopting?"

"Dunno. But rumor has it, Bryanna doesn't know."

"If you know, she knows."

"True." Lisa giggled.

"I don't care about your stupid boy bands anyway."

"She kind of looks like you." Lisa said.

"What? Impossible. Show me her face."

"I mean, you can't really see her face in the picture. And she's out with Calum, not Ashton."

"Then how do you know it's Ashton's kid? How do you even know it's any of these boy's child? It could be their sibling or cousin."

"Ashton's siblings are younger than him and he only has one sister and one brother. Luke has two older brothers. There's no way Michael or Calum's mum could have had a child 15 years ago and gone completely invisible."

"That's true. But it could be a cousin."

"Cousins are boring."

"I'm your cousin."

"Exactly."

"Love you too."

I sighed, putting my phone down. I grabbed the iPad she was handing me and looked down at the screen. The girl was a tomboy, but tomboy times two. She wore what any of the boys in Lisa's class would wear and she literally looked like a toothpick. She was holding Calum's hand as she walked out of what looked like Forever 21.

Her face seemed familiar but she had her hand on half of it, so I couldn't really tell.

"How do you know her age? She's so skinny. She looks nothing like me."

"She's covering her face." Lisa said.

"So how do you know she looks like me?"

"She has the same eye color as you."

"So do a ton of people on this planet."

"She has the same eye shape." Lisa studied my face.

"You're insane." I put the iPad down.

"I'll find a better picture to show you."

"Have fun." I walked out her room.

Dale

"There were so many people taking pictures of us." I said, still holding onto Calum's hand.

I had another panic attack in the car on the way home. There was just such s big crowd, so many flashing lights, so many questions. It was too much.

"I'm sorry. I forgot you're claustrophobic."

"I hate that word." I said.

"Sorry."

"Whatever." I whispered, letting go of his hand.

"I'll get you some water." He said, walking out the living room.

I sat on the sofa, sweating a river. My hat was on my lap and I had taken my shoes off by the door. Calum came back with a bottle of water. He handed it to me and I drank more than half of it in a mere minute.

"Wow. You were thirsty." He chuckled.

I nodded, feeling refreshed. As I was drinking the rest of the water, Calum turned the T.V. on.

"-Ashton Irwin. Rumor has it, he adopted. Without Bryana, his girlfriend, he went to Alendre Children's Orphanage and adopted a 15 year old girl named Dale. The secretary from the orphanage spilled all the beans when the boy band was caught walking out the front gate of the building." A Barbie doll-looking woman said, her blonde- probably fake- hair flowing down her chest.

"W-W-WHAT?!" Ashton ran in the living room. "WHY IS MY NAME ON CELEBRITY GOSSIP?!"

"The paparazzi must have been behind us and we didn't know it." Calum held his head in his hands.

"OH MY GOD, I HAVEN'T TOLD BRYANA YET! SHE'S GONNA SEE THIS ALL OVER TWITTER AND SHE'S GONNA FLIP." Ashton ran out the room.

"Uh oh." Calum cringed.

Feeling guilty, I walked out the living room. I saw Luke and Michael arguing in the kitchen, so I quickly pressed my ear against the door and listened in.

"He shouldn't have gone to pick Dale up! I told him that morning!" Luke shouted.

"It's not Dale's fault, neither is it Ashton's. It was his call, he decided to go get him." Michael said.

"He shouldn't have! He should at least had walked in the back door."

"None of us were thinking about what was going to happen! We were joking around, it's all of us who are in trouble. We should have been more serious."

"No, it's Ashton who shouldn't have done your stupid dare."

"Oi! It's not my fault we were all drunk."

"The party was your idea. We weren't even celebrating anything."

"It's not my fault, it's all of ours."

"You're the one who made the dare! He's the one who went to go get Dale! I was the one who told him not to and look what happened! He's going to lose Bryana."

"No, he isn't."

"How do you know?"