West Coast Love {A Why Don't We Fanfiction}

Chapter 12

"Ashley.. Are you sure?" Christina asked. We were standing on the patio. Aspen was beside me. August behind me. Lucy was beside August. I gulped. I couldn't do it. Not yet. 

"I can't." I backed away from the balcony, pulling the stuff panda that I had named Harold to my chest. It had been a week since everything had happened. Daniel and Jonah had called me twice. I ignored them. 

Lucy's hand hurt all the time. She complained. She was also groggy and just laid around. I think it was finally hitting her what Zach did. What she did. I felt sorry for her. But I was doing the same thing but with Daniel. Even thought we still had talked. It wasn't much, but he still cared. Aspen spilled one night how she liked Jack, but that she also liked Jay. Christina talked about Corbyn. The girls had stayed at our apartment all week. They were going back to the boys house tonight. I was going to miss them. 

The Next Day 

I got a text from Daniel. Groaning, I decided to open it. 

danniphantom  

danniphantom ashley? we need to talk.. please??

danniphantom ashley i know your reading this..

danniphantom did u really mean it??

danniphantom c'mon ash, you're one of my bestfriends.

fine. meet at chesscake in 30 ashleythehawtone

I sighed. I didn't want to do this. Maybe it'll get him off my back. He's being fed lies by Jordan anyways, whatever I say she'll say i'm lying. He'll believe her. Because thats his girlfriend. I went to get ready, I wore a maverick tank top, shorts, and burkenstocks. I put my hair in a ponytail and shades. 

I arrived 10 minutes late. Daniel was already seated. His foot was shaking, nervous. Smirking I slide into my seat. I pulled my shades to the bridge of my nose so he could see my eyes. "Ashley.." He said, I motioned for him to stop. He quickly shut his mouth. 

"Why did you make me come here? No matter what I tell you, you won't believe me." I said, opening the menu. The waitress came up, "Hello. My name is Haley, what can I get you to drink?" "Water and he'll have a water. No lemons." She walked away. "Dani, you'll never believe me. We will never get anywhere. As friends, as anything." I gulped, this was harder than I thought it would be. 

"I don't know what you want me to say. What you want to hear Danni." I was glad I had sunglasses on so he couldn't see my eyes. Because, I was honestly about to cry. He gulped, unsure. "Ashley.... I want you to know. That I'm here for you. So is Jonah. He misses you. Please come back." His eyes were staring at mine, he couldn't see my eyes, so he searched the shades. 

"I can't. For Lucy." I said shakily. He reached out to touch my arm. I moved it. Biting his lower lip he asked, "What even happened?" My mouth dropped.

 "Didn't Brooke give you some fake story? Maybe Zach told you." I said, resentment in my words. I felt like I had  spat acid. Before he could answer Haley came back with our drinks. She sat them on the table, "What can I get you two to eat? Or do you need more time?" she asked sweetly. "We'll both have grilled chicken salad." Daniel looked at me hatefully. "You're going on tour soon, you have to eat healthy." I said smirking. He rolled his eyes. Haley wrote everthing down, and walked away. "Zach has been holed up in his room. Hasn't even came out to reheasre. Brooke? Told us Lucy attacked her and Jordan." Daniel said, staring at his water when he talked about Zach. I gulped. I don't think Lucy expected Zach to react this way.

"Lucy hasn't done anything since. She finally broke. Zach broke her. She doesn't want to do videos. Doesn't give a shit about Starbucks.. Or even the morning Pretty Little Liars. But Brooke's right." I said, my breathing quickened. He just nodded, understanding. "Jordan doesn't know, I'm here..." He said, quietly. I could almost not even make out what he said. 

The waitress brought our salads. "Are you an August a thing?" He asked. His eyes, full of curiosty. But I could hint a bit of jealousy. "No. He's just a really good friend. I mean he did pick up the pieces you broke." I said, shoving a piece of lettuce and chicken in my mouth. Daniel almost choked on a piece of lettuce. "I'm sorry, I didn't know." I glared, even thought he couldn't tell. "Yeah, maybe because you were half-way up Jordan's ass to notice." "Ashley... I'm sorry." He said again. I rolled my eyes. "Stop. Saying. That." I said, wiping my mouth with a napkin. I checked my phone. "Sorry. I have a meeting. Don't call me." I said, droppng a twenty on the table. I left. 

TMZ was outside the resturant, stalking me. Normal. The reporter came up to me. "HELLOO.. Are you Ashley?" I nodded. "Can I ask you a few questions?" I agreed. "Okay, is it true Lucy broke her hand?" "Yes." "How?" "She would not like the public to know." "Who is the boy you were eating with." "Business." "Do you have any romantic relationships with anyone?" "Not anymore." With that I was done. I got into my Uber. I looked back and they were talking to Daniel. He glanced in my direction. I turned in the seat and faced the road. 

*A WEEK LATER* 

I started getting tweeted a TMZ video. It was of me. It had my interview outside the chessecake factory. But then it included Daniel. "She said I was just business?" He looked hurt. The reporter asked him if there was more than I was letting on. Suddenly his face sort of hardened and his jaw clenched. "No, we're barely even acciquatances." Then the video cut off. I started to cry. I can't believe it. I've offically lost him.  

Lucy was finally starting to get back to normal.

*TWO MONTHS LATER* 

Lucy was out of her cast. Aspen and Lucy, sometimes Christina had joined me and August on Monday's when we'd go to Kaffeine. It was nice. I started to forget about Daniel. Even thought when his name came up, when a picture on his instagram came up on my feed. My heart throbbed and I longed to have him by my side again. Joking, flirty text messages. The fair, the pool. His beautiful eyes. His smile. I missed it. I missed him.

Lucy was having the same problem. We'd talked about it a few times. It was diffcult. 

It was a Friday, Lucy just got her cast off and was begging me to go to the beach. I finally agreed. It was almost October. I don't know why she wanted to go so badly. Thankfully Los Angles allowed us to still go to the beach. 

We invited August and Aspen, but they said they were busy. So it was just me and Lucy. We laughed and goofed around the whole way there. We got out our bags and headed towards the beach. We were wearing floppy hats, and flip flops. The sun was out. It was perfect. We walked to the beach and headed right.

 We walked a little ways, when Lucy froze. She immedatily tuned around and started walking in the other direction. 

I looked around, trying to figure out what she ahd seen. "Lulu what is-" My stomache dropped, my throat tightned. I couldn't breath, tears threatended to blind me.