Zero Out || M.C.

Three

"Hey Ash" I whispered as I poked the side of his face trying to wake him up.

"Ugh" he grunted into the pillow, "What Romie? I'm tired. Leave me alone."

"Then don't sleep in my bed if you don't want me to wake you up!" I whisper yelled at him continuing to poke his cheek.

He finally opened his eyes up and glared at me. "I swear I'm going to kill you" his voice came off raspy from sleeping. I was still poking him when he moved his mouth and tried to bite my finger.

"Hey!" I yelled as I swatted his head. "Can you not snap my finger off like a carrot?" instead of answering he just gave me a big cheeky smile. "I hate you" I said flipping over on my other side.

Ashton scooted closer to me and wrapped his arm around my waist. "No you love me!" he said into my ear.

I looked over at him, kissed his cheek and then jumped out of bed. "Not at all." I shouted over my shoulder. "C'mon let's eat! I'm starving!"

By the time Ashton was in the kitchen I had already poured us both a bowl of our favorite cereals. The kid was obsessed with cereal I swear. He could eat it for every meal if I let him.

"Thanks." He said with his mouth half full of food. I rolled my eyes at him and continued to eat my cereal in peace.

"So your birthday is coming up." Ash said when he had finished his food. "You know what that means. Don't you?" he stated nudging my shoulder.

I don't know why he had to bring this up. My timer was supposed to go off on my 19th birthday. I honestly was not looking forward to my birthday. I didn't want to be paranoid all day like I knew I would be. Why did it have to be on my birthday for gods sake? Ashton knew how much I hated talking about it to. I felt like I had no control over my future because of the timer. I would really love to know who's idea this was so I could no back and hurt them.

I gave Ashton a death glare and held my middle finger up to him. "Fuck you and fuck society!" I yelled as I jumped onto the island in the middle of my kitchen. "I am my own queen and I shall do as I please!" I yelled down at Ashton.

He gave me a look as if to say 'you're fucking crazy' and he reached up one hand and tried to pry me off the island "you're the weirdest person I know. Now get the fuck down before you hurt yourself!" he declared as he reached for my waist and threw me over his shoulder. He walked into my room, or I guess our room since he was always staying the night, and threw me onto the bed, sitting on top of me afterwards. "Are you done trying to be a rebel?" he asked.

"Yes" I said into the mattress, gasping for air since my body was being crushed by all 6ft of Ashton. "Get off you fucker" I struggled underneath him.

He rolled off of me and we continued to lay there for a while. He was holding my wrist, running his fingers over the numbers being displayed, watching the numbers count down. I hadn't really noticed how often he did that. He brought my arm to his lips and kissed the scar that went along the numbers. Something I had done when Ashton and I were only 13. Trying to cut the timer out of my wrist put me in the hospital for a few weeks. I had lost so much blood. The pain of the knife cutting through my skin was too much to handle and I passed out leaving my wrist to bleed out for two hours before Ash found me. The doctors said if I had lost anymore blood I would have died. Ashton saved my life that day and I will never be able to repay him for that or the countless hours he spent in the hospital with me, refusing to leave.

"Please don't ever do that again. " He's said to me as he disconnected his lips from my scar. "I can't go through losing my best friend again." A tear rolled down his cheek and I swiftly wiped it away as I nodded. Smiling, I grabbed his hand in mine and interlocked our fingers together.

I brought his hand to my lips and softly kissed the top, "I promise. Never again." a smile formed on his face as I spoke the words.

"Romie?" he whispered turning onto his side, propping himself up with his elbow. "You have a week left till your timer is up. I know you hate talking about it but you need to. You know this guy, whoever he is, will be perfect for you and you'll be so happy. I promise you that." He took a deep breath and continued. "And you and i," he waved to the space between our bodies, "we'll always be best friends. Even when we both find our 'one true love' you'll always be my number one." He smiled moving a strand of hair begin my ear. "I'll always love you. No matter what." He whispered.

"God ashton! why couldn't you just be my perfect match. I could deal with that!" I sighed. "We're so perfect for each other. I can't imagine being this close to any other guy. I don't want to be this close to any other guy." I whined.

Ashton pulled me closer to him, wrapping his hand around my waist as I rested on his chest. "I know Ginge. I know" he said into my hair before kissing the top of my head.

"How much time do you have on your timer?" I questioned Ashton after a few minutes of silence. We always talked about mine but never really about his. He wasn't as upset by it as I was.

After a few more moments of silence he reached his arm up and showed me his timer. "About 3 more months." He didn't sound so enthusiastic about it.

"Ashton?" I shyly asked.

"Yes darling?" he looked down at me.

I took a deep breath and asked the question that had been on my mind for a while. "Have you ever been in love?"

I felt him take a deep breath and then he began playing with my hair. "I'd like to think so."

"Is falling in love scary? Because I've never been more terrified than to fall for whoever this mystery boy is. " I said pointing to my timer as if it were the boy.

"I mean ya, it's scary because anything can happen but it's also the greatest feeling ever and I wouldn't give it up for anything." He explained.

I nuzzled my head farther into Ashton's chest and closed my eyes." I guess I'll have to wait for my timer to zero out."

Oh shit! Three updates in one day! I hope this chapter is a little longer than the others. I can't tell because I'm typing on my phone! But I'll start doing it on my laptop so I can actually see how long they are :) sorry for any typos. Like I said I'm on my phone. well I'll update again tomorrow. Btw anyone else want Ashton and Romie to get together bc I do. They're so cute I can't even!