Infinity and Beyond

2 - Completely in Love

Ashton

Michael coming round mine and Emily's had become a regular occurrence - it was less common that he wasn't around, to be honest. It wasn't even just since Jessica cheated on him, either. Him and the others always spent loads of time round here, because I guessed it was a change of scenery (and I'm pretty sure the fact that we had a bigger TV than them played a part, plus Emily was far better at keeping the fridge full). So it really wasn't abnormal to have Michael sat on the sofa next to us. What was a surprise though was having him laughing next to us and agreeing to go out for lunch.

We decided it would just be easier for me to drop Emily off at work once we'd had lunch so we could go straight to the studio instead of coming back here first, so whilst she was upstairs getting ready I was sat with Michael in the living room. He'd put SpongeBob on and the way he sat there watching it intently, hugging his knees, reminded me of a shy, withdrawn child and it made me hate Jessica for causing him to be like this. But at the same time, it made me thankful that Luke, Calum and I had a bond with him that allowed us to be there and care for him. We'd help him through it, no matter how long it took.

"Ashton?" he spoke suddenly. "You're staring at me. It's pretty weird, especially considering you have a girlfriend."

"Sorry," I apologised, giggling. I hadn't even noticed I'd been watching him, but now I was aware I looked away and at the TV. He switched it off though and twisted to face me so I turned back to him.

"I know I've, um, not really talked about Jessica," he said slowly and hesitantly, "but do...do you think it was my fault? Because I never thought she would do something like that, and I can't stop thinking that it was because I didn't treat her right or I pushed her away somehow-"

"Michael, if you carry on thinking that it's your fault, I will throw a drumstick at you and it will hurt," I said seriously and a small smile tugged at his lips.

"So you don't think it's my fault? I mean, what if I just wasn't ready to move on from Lucy?"

"If you weren't ready to move on, you either would have known or you wouldn't," I started.

"No shit, Sherlock," Michael chuckled.

"Hear me out," I giggled. "If you knew, then you'd have done something about it and you would have ended it before. And if you didn't know, which is okay, then that's not your fault. None of it is. Think about Em - when she went out with Sam, she wasn't ready to move on from Tom but she didn't know that, and so she wasn't really to blame for anything that happened. But then when we first went out, she wasn't ready and it wasn't right to her so she broke things off. If you knew you weren't ready to move on but carried on with it all anyway, then maybe that's your fault. But I know you, and I know that you wouldn't do something like that, so it's not your fault."

"I think I followed that..." he said with a look of concentration which then broke into a grateful smile. "Thanks."

"It's okay," I replied. "Oh, and-"

"Ashton?" Emily shouted down from upstairs, stopping me from what I was about to say.

"Yeah?" I yelled back up.

"Where's my bra?"

"Which one?"

"My grey sports one!"

"Um...I don't know, when did you last wear it?"

"A few days ago, when we were-"

"Dude, please just go upstairs and sort it, I don't want to hear you shouting about this to each other," Michael cut in, pushing me off the sofa and then covering his ears. I laughed a little and jogged up the stairs and into the bedroom where Emily was stood in a t-shirt and half a leotard.