Battle Scars ➳ Ashton Irwin || #Wattys 2016

Thirty One

A/N: holy cow 7k !! thanks guys !
sorry i haven't been active in years, senior year is stressful. you guys are great, thank you for all the support while i was gone! here's a chapter for you :-))

**

Shay

My mother? I left home so long ago, there's no way she could care about me now. I haven't talk to her since that night before I left. We had an argument about my dad leaving her for the third time in a year. I ran to my room, packed my stuff and left early that morning.

"Yes, Shay. I'm so glad I found you," she had tears forming in her eyes.

"Please excuse me," I say to the rest of my friends and walk away with my mother. We walked in silence before I could no longer see the table, I didn't want them to over hear anything, I already know how they are curious enough.

"Ever since you left, I never stopped looking for you, you know that right?" She tries to grab my hand, I take it away from her. Her hair was short and a little frizzy, it looked just like mine. Her eyes were dull, hardly any light in them, and she looks like she hasn't slept in days. She looks nothing like I remember her, "Don't you have anything to say to me?" she asks.

"I don't know what you want me to say, I ran away for a reason, I didn't want you to worry about me anymore. I missed you more than anything, I did it for you and dad," We walk close together and our voices were low. She stopped me and pulled me to the side.

"You did it for me and your father? Don't you realize you were the thing that was keeping us together? Your love for us kept us trying to make it work," She brushes my hair out of my face and tucks it under my ear.

"Every time you guys would fight it was about me, it never failed to not be me. It was either about school, or me trying our for sports or anything else you guys could find to bicker about," I say. She sighed heavily and put her hands on the bridge of her nose.

"Honey, we only did that because we wanted what was best for you, we want you to do great in school and get scholarships. You wouldn't have any of it, and we just couldn't find a way to agree on what we think was best. And yes me and your father did take it farther than it should, but that is something we could work on ourselves." she said with a slight smile. "We are doing so great now, we both decided to look for you. Your dad couldn't be here, he's on a business trip." she explained to me. He was always on a "business trip". Most of the time I thought it was just an excuse to cheat on mom. I never said anything to her, of course. She would just yell at me, and not believe a word I was saying.

"Would you like to go back? I would love to meet you new friends," she exclaims. I nod.
She always got all sequelly when I brought friends home. In elementary school I was quite and never said a word unless I had to. That didn't break until about middle school, and I hardly spoke a word even then.

We walk back to the table in silence. When we turn the corner to get to the food court everyone was staring, and then they looked away like they didn't want to be seen.

"Hey guys," I get their attention. "This is my mom, she came all the way from Florida to come find me." Everyone waves hello. Ashton stood up and shook her hand.

"I'm Ashton, i've ben helping out Shay a few months after she came to New York." he shook her hand, and offered her a seat at the end of the table, but she declined.

"I should get going back to the hotel, i don't think Shay wants me to intrude on her with her friends, i've been a big bother enough already." She says to all of them. "I'm so glad i found you Shay, i'm glad you're happy and that you're doing well. Why don't we catch up later, okay?" She handed me a paper with her number a name on it written neatly with blank ink.

"Okay, that sounds good," I nod. I watched her walk away. She walked slow, like she has no purpose. I felt bad, I never really thought about what I did to her when I left.

"Your mother," Skyler exclaimed abruptly. "Where did she even come from?"

"Probably from Shay's grandma," Michael snorted. Sky just glared at him, I did the same.

"Can we just not talk about this?" I pleaded. I didn't want to even think about my mother, all I wanted was a day with just me and my friends.
We all finished our food, little murmurs here and there. No one else was in the mood for shopping, so we all decided to head home.

***

Sky and Gracie went back to campus, after dropping off the boys back at the apartment. While Ashton and I rode home in his truck.

"Do you not want to talk about it?" Ashton asks. We were almost home, and I had almost survived a quite drive without him mentioning my mother.

"I will when i'm ready," I sigh. I'm glad he didn't push it, I didn't know what to think about all of it. My mind was too flustered to even bother to try and understand it all. I pull out the paper she gave me, and looked at it. She always had such pretty hand writing. Jacquline Barrett.

We pulled up to the apartment, without saying anything to Ash, I got out of the truck and walked up the steps. I dialed the number and waited for her to answer. My heart was racing and I was tempted to hang up, before I could the ringing stopped and I heard her voice.

"Hey mom, it's me." I smiled.