In The Midst Of A Crowd

Chapter 9

When music ended, James and I walked to our lockers to drop off our books before he went to practice and I went to the cafeteria.

"James?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't put me before Sadie. I'm just a friend and she's your girlfriend. She should come before me."

"But Ashlynne... You're more than that. You are my best friend. I trust you with everything. You will always be my number one girl. I lo-" He cuts himself off, looking at me wide eyed and his cheeks red.

"You what James?"

"Never mind. It doesn't matter right now." He says, doing that really cute rubbing the back of his neck thing that boys do when they're nervous. God, I want to kiss him so much right now.

"Oh. Umm... Okay." I say. Way to go Ashlynne. He was about to say he loved you and that's all you can say. Pathetic.

"So," he says bringing me back down to earth. "My mom texted me after you and Katie left. She said that you'd probably be sleeping over." It's an obvious attempt to change the topic, and I knew he was uncomfortable so I went along with it.

"Umm. Yeah. Most likely. I'm not sure if Jake or Tyler will, but I have some stuff to talk to Katie about. My brother's, Katie and I will be going out for dinner together too." I say, looking down.

"Ash?" My eyes meet his. "Does this have anything to do with Austin?" I nod sadly, and he pulls me into a hug. "You know I'm always here for you Ash. If you ever wanna talk to someone just call me or text me. But I hope you realise that eventually you are gonna end up telling me about your past."

I look towards the classrooms and see Sadie standing there looking pissed. I quickly pull out of the hug but not too fast so he doesn't get suspicious. I nod my head at him after a second. "I do know. It's just... I just... Just not right now."

He nods with disappointment in his eyes. We walk for another minute in an awkward silence. We get to our lockers and I let out a shaky breath.
"I'll see you in gym, Ashlynne. Take care." He says giving me a quick hug and walking away.

I stand there staring at an empty hallway until someone comes up behind me.

"Ashlynne can we talk?" instantly I stiffen.

"Why Austin? So you can humiliate me again? So you can break my heart again? So you can make me leave the place that I'm finally comfortable being myself in? I have nothing to say to you." I say, with a new kind of angry in my voice. It's something I haven't heard before. It must have been from all the emotions I've been hiding from everybody.

"You don't need to talk Ashlynne. But I want to talk to you. Please just hear me out." he pleads. Something about the honesty in his voice makes me soften a little bit. He may be lying to me but, I still love and care about him.

"Im not making any promises to be kind, but you have three minutes to talk, starting now." I say.

"Okay. Thank you. Umm where do I start. Oh yeah. I'm so sorry about spreading all those rumours about you. I was angry that you were starting to talk to, hang out with and kiss another guy and I wanted to hurt you back so you could feel the pain I felt. To you we were just best friends. But to me... Ashlynne you were my life. I loved you. I love you."

I shake my head. "I loved you too Austin but you ruined it. You ruined everything the minute you opened your damn mouth. How you found out about my dad I won't know. But thanks to you, instead of spending the last few hours of my mother's life with her, I was being beaten up in the hallway by your girlfriend and best friends. You ruined everything we've ever had and any chances of getting it back."

"But Ashlynne. That was three years ago. I came here to tell you that I still loved you. I came back to make things-"

"You've reached five minutes Austin. That's two more than I originally gave you. You shouldn't have come here and you shouldn't have ruined my life. Now I'm leaving and I hope you have a good life, because I'm no longer a part of it." I say. The tears are threatening to spill but I keep my head high and my emotions in.

"But that's the thing Ashlynne. You are my life. I realised that the moment you left. I will win you back somehow, you'll see."

"No Austin. You won't." I say shaking my head. With that I turn around and walk towards the office.

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A/N
Hey guys! I hope this chapter was okay, I've been working on it for a while. I feel like this story is going really slowly but at the same time it's not. Can you guys please tell me what I should do?! I really don't want to have twelve chapters for one day, but at the same time I want to include as many ideas as I can.

Love you all and thanks for the support :)

Cae♥