You Again? » l.t. au

Chapter 7

I almost ignored Tom as I walked out of his car, only sending a polite smile his way. Ashton needed the car for something, which led me to taking the taxi to go to work. I was planning to take one again to get home, but Tom 'kindly' offered to take me there; I came to the conclusion that his high-school-phase never ended.

"See you tomorrow at work, yeah?" He smiled, giving me a bright smile.

"Sure," I pressed my lips in a tight line and smiled too, slamming the door shut before he could say something else. I pretended to rummage through my purse as I walked to my building, and sighed in relief when I heard an engine roaring, indicating that he was leaving, finally. My relief soon ended, as I started climbing the stairs up to my apartment.

I was surprised that I didn't trip over my own feet as I thought; work was my main problem, of course. Not Tom, or my parents, Ashton, not even a certain colleague that left me beyond confused after a fight three weeks ago, could compare to how moody I was because of my students; I was beginning to understand why Maria was flipping out when her whole class failed a test.

I unlocked the door and walked in, all the while mumbling profanities under my breath. The thought of having to mark the other half of the tests was almost making it sick; one B. There was only one B in the first half, and the rest were all either D's and F's. I don't understand, do those kids not know English? Is it me? Am I a bad teacher? Was I too-

"Babe? Babe!" I nearly fell over while getting my shoes off, becoming even more pissed off when I heard Ashton's voice. He picked the absolute perfect timing to scare the shit out of me.

"What?" I snapped back, walking over to the opened bedroom door, where he was stood, changing his shirt.

"Aw, did you have a bad day?" He raised his eyebrows at me, soon followed by a wide smile, the same one Tom gave me. I shook my head as he walked toward me; why the hell was Tom on my mind?

I was quite surprised when Ashton wrapped his arms around me; I was also surprised when I didn't feel like pushing him away. Our relationship has always been a little rocky, and that only increased after my parents' visit and my fight with Louis. Apart from being all snuggly at night, it's like we weren't close at all anymore, so him holding me when we were both fully conscious... I liked it.

I took a deep breath and hugged him back, wrapping my ams around his torso. "Yeah," I mumbled into his chest, answering his previous question. "The kids had a test the other day and... well, they did really bad, and now I'm just..."

I didn't finish my sentence; he knew what I was thinking. "It'll be fine," He mumbled in my hair, rubbing my back as he slowly pulled his arms from around me. "Besides, I have some amazing news."

Before I could register his words, he'd completely let go of me, and had started walking to the living room. I stared at the wall in front of me for a few seconds, before turning around and following him.

"What happened?" I quickly asked as I walked into the living room, to see Ashton flipping through some papers. "What's going on? Why are you home and not at work?" I kept asking, suddenly aware that it was 4 in the afternoon and he should have been at the tattoo parlor two hours before.

"I quit my job," He said simply, with a happy smile on his face. I widened my eyes for a second, and felt my heart rate increase at his words.

"What do you mean, you quit your job?" I knew I was angry at him for doing it and not telling me anything about it, but I was too anxious to focus on that in the moment.

"Well..." He started slowly, trying to suppress another wide smile, "I remembered what your dad told me about wanting to be an actor, how it's silly and all... so today, I went out and..."