A Writer's Cerebrum

Theme: 5 Seconds of Summer (Ashton Irwin)

Keywords: New years eve, Popcorn and Ketchup

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New years eve was coming... but I had nobody to celebrate with. Mom and dad were on vacation to the Bahamas, leaving me on my own here in London, like every December 31st the past 2 years. After a massive family-fight my parents decided to cut all bonds with my family and so they decided to go on several vacations to avoid any possible contact with them and even though I wasn't involved at all in the fight, they all somehow forgot about me in the process of hating each other. Not like 'she doesn't exist anymore', but more like 'we don't care how you feel about it' and I didn't want to be around the anger my parents emitted when they talked about the rest of my family (which they did a lot), so I decided to stay at home while they were gone.

The last 2 years were durable. I had quite a few friends that would accompany me when I felt lonely. That was one of the perks of my parents' constant absence; I could do whatever I wanted to do in the three story house my parents owned. So I would often organize a sleepover with some close friends. We would watch movies and eat heaps of popcorn and dance wildly to One Direction songs. But somehow the world was against me these two weeks, seeing as all of my friends' parents decided to make a trip to their 'o so far away living relatives'. Now we're back were I started. Me... and two friends... 'Myself' and 'I'. Hahaha..ha 'no Ella, not funny'... wait, why am I talking to myself? Urg, I should get out of this lonely house before I start making up imaginary friends... Although, it would actually be pretty awesome to have an imaginary friend...

I was humming Wake Me Up by Ed Sheeran while walking trough the park near my house. It had snowed and everything was covered with a white blanket. Our neighbourhood was very social and everybody got along well and every winter they decorated the trees with fairy lights and hang up fat balls for the birds (A/N: I don't really know what they're called in English ): ). The latter was my idea. One of my friends told me once about this old Celtic feast where people celebrated the return of the (sun)light by decorating trees with food for the birds and things like that. It's called Yule (pronounced yool) and celebrated on the 21th of December.

I walked past trees filled with birds that savoured the fat balls and the little light shone as if the trees caught the stars in their branches. All in all it was beautiful, especially because in the distance I could hear Christmas music playing. I strolled along the snowy gravel road until I reached the small pond in the middle of the park. It was frozen on the edges and in the middle were some swans drifting, cuddled together. I sat down on a bench, only to jump up again immediately. I forgot it was winter for a moment, the bench was cold and frozen over. Sighing, I swung my Eastpak bag over my shoulder so it hung on my stomach and pulled out the towel I brought with me before leaving the house. I unfolded it and put on the bench before sitting down again, 'much better :)'.

I had been sitting here for quite some time, just looking at the cuddling swans and thinking about the things I could do to fill the empty days when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up, only to have my mouth falling open in shock; in front of me stood a boy, but not any boy...

"Hey, what's a pretty girl like you doing alone out here?" I looked to my sides to see if he was talking to someone else but his hazel eyes stared right at me. 'Damn, Ell', say something!' "Uhmm... Why do you care?"... 'Seriously Ell'?! Now he thinks you're mad or something!' My conscience yelled at me. He did look taken aback a bit. I don't even know why I said that! It's just... how crazily and abnormally coincidental is it that you're sitting alone on a bench and suddenly friggin Ashton Irwin walks up to you and asks why you're sitting alone?! And he even called me pretty! I groaned and put my face in my hands. "Gosh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be rude..." I felt a gust of wind and when I looked up I saw that he sat down next me, apparently not minding the coldness of the bench. He looked at me and smiled "No worries, I guess it is pretty weird when some stranger walks up to you and starts talking to you..." "Nonono, you're not a stranger to me at all! You're Ashton Irwin of 5SOS! Everyone knows you!" I said, trowing my hands in the air. He laughed, the sound waving trough the air like tinkling bells. "So you do know me already! Can I ask your name then?" He smirked at my blush that creeped up my cheeks. "E-ella..." I stuttered. Oh god, this is embarrassing... "Hmm, beautiful name for a beautiful girl." He said which caused me to turn completely red. "So why were you sitting alone?" He asked after a short silence. "Well, uhm, my parents are on a vacation, so are my friends. I decided to stay at home, alone." I said quietly, looking down at my feet, finding my shoes suddenly very interesting. "You miss 'em, don't you?" I looked up and into his eyes filled with the same loneliness I felt. "Yeah..." I replied, my eyes suddenly getting blurry.' I will not cry.' I chanted in my head, again and again, I wouldn't cry in front of him. I took a deep breath and was able to see clearly again. "I miss my family too, you know?" I shouldn't feel as surprised as I did, but I never thought about it. Of course he missed his family too, he had been touring for a year and now he was in London.