Shattered (Continuation of: The Chase) ▹ Ashton Irwin

Chapter Twenty Two

The most annoying and disappointing sound jolted me awake the next morning. My hearing was muffled, my vision was somewhat blurry, and when I tried to lift my head up to see where this annoying sound was coming from, I had to lay back down and wince at the throbbing pain. My head felt like a 2-ton weight; heavy and painful. I shut my eyes again, groaning and cursing to myself.

What the hell even happened last night? I know Ashton and I went to that party Leila had asked me to go to...but I can't remember anything past getting to that big house. I would have thought I would be waking up next to Ashton this morning, but I guess for some reason that I couldn't remember, I didn't wake up next to him. Obviously Ashton and I got drunk last night since I couldn't remember a thing...I wonder if we had fun or not.

The sound that had woken me up stopped for a few moments, but then started ringing again. I recognized it to be the sound of my cell phone going off, and someone was calling me. I groaned again and slowly sat up, wincing and shutting my eyes in the aching pain in my head and in my spine. I leaned down and held in my yelps of pain as I snatched my phone into my hands. I looked at the screen, thinking it would be Ashton, but to my surprise it was Natalie. I saw that it was only 9:00 am, and I wondered what she was calling me about.

"Hello?" I said hoarsely, clearing my throat.

"Brooke?!" Natalie breathed. "Are you okay?" Her words were fast, rambly, and full of concern.

"What?" I asked.

"Oh my god Brooke I was worried sick-" her voice got louder, and mumbly. I felt my lip come in between my teeth, looking at the blank wall across the room and feeling extremely confused.

"Wait what?" I asked again. "Natalie calm down, what are you talking about?"

"Huh?" Natalie replied. "Didn't you go to that party last night?"

My eyes widened a little, and my grip on my phone was tighter. "Yes," I replied. "I did."

"Are you alright?!" She asked again.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I persisted. Why did she sound like she was on the verge of crying? Natalie's never like this, and she's always so happy and bubbly.

"I thought you got hurt!" she said.

"What?" I asked.

"Did you not hear?" she said back. "There was a fucking car crash and I thought you got hurt!"

As soon as the words left her mouth, every single moment from last night came flooding back into my mind. Even though I was drunk last night, I could remember every single detail. I remembered the people who stared and snickered at us, I remembered me being the only one who was wasted out of the two of us, and I remembered every single thing that I said to Ashton. I remembered staggering towards that car, full to the brim with alcohol and Ashton dragging me away from it.

"I...I.." I tried to say something, but I couldn't find any words to stutter out. I was surprised, shocked, and really really worried.

"I called around," Natalie fortunately kept talking. "And now that you have confirmed that you're fine, I can tell you that no one was well...seriously injured."

"Is everyone okay?" I asked.

"Yeah," Natalie replied. "It wasn't fatal, but the driver and the passenger are in the emergency room and I think Leila broke her arm."

"Oh my god," I breathed, overwhelmed with a lot of shock but relief at the same time. No one was killed, which is good news. But...

"I could've been killed." I croaked.