Silence » a.i

2.9

The next few days, the boys kept a close eye on Ashton. They made sure he wasn't going to snap or somehow forget everything again. Everyday that he woke up completely fine, the boys seemed to back off a little.

Mrs. Hood confirmed that there was probably some weird reaction to the kiss and the little bit of the immunity potion in me that must've brought Ashton back. She said it was lucky I had to take it, otherwise she thought we would've never figured out how to fix him.

"I won't be in school tomorrow," Calum told me as we sat in the kitchen. Ashton ordered Chinese for us that night and the three of us were sitting around the kitchen to eat.

"Why?" I asked around a bite of a crab rangoon.

"I'm helping out your brother," he stated. "We did a few experiments on Ashton before and figured out we could make it so he could eat and sleep like a living person. We're going to do that on your brother just so your parents don't get suspicious."

"What about school?" Ashton inquired. "They'd get a call from the school and try to ask him about it."

"I'm going to talk to him about that tomorrow. If he wants to graduate, we'll apply him for online classes. If he doesn't care, we'll just say he dropped out." Calum explained with a shrug of his shoulders.

"So who am I supposed to eat lunch with?" I pouted. "And you're my forensics partner! I don't want to talk to anyone in that class. They're all stuck up."

"They're not; they just don't like you 'cause you hang out with me." he said, waving his fork around.

After finding out all my friends were dead, Calum said the only reason people didn't want to hang out with me was because I hung out with Calum. Everyone else already knew Michael, Luke, and Ashton were all dead. When Michael went to go get me from school, Calum and I were the only ones who were able to see him.

"You shou-" Ashton began, but stopped himself, covering his mouth with his hand and walking out of the kitchen.

I watched as he left, my eyebrows knitting together, "Is he alright? Did I do something?"

"No, he did," Calum sighed. "He almost said something that would've...affected you."

"So he left the room?"

"He gets upset with himself. He doesn't want to affect you and it's hard for him to talk to you without doing so. But he knows you like when he actually talks. He'll be okay."

"I'll go talk to him." I decided, sliding off the counter.

I walked into the living room after Ashton only to find he wasn't even in there. I looked to Luke and Michael playing video games from the couch, "Where's Ashton?"

They shrugged.

 "Didn't come through here." Michael replied, not looking up.

"Everything alright?" Luke wondered, glancing up for a moment.

I nodded silently, slipping out of the living room and down the other hall to go upstairs. I went into my room, but Ashton wasn't there either. I sighed as I sat down on my bed. "Ashton? Ashton, I want to talk to you."

He didn't show up. Right, he didn't know I knew he was dead.

"Ashton, I-I know you're dead. You can come out."

He showed up standing by the dresser, one arm resting on it. His sunglasses were held in his hand, "You know?"

I nodded, "Michael told me. I made him."

He groaned. "Fucking hell, no one can keep a secret anymore!"

"Ashton, Ashton," I went over to him and tried to calm him down, "you don't need to keep secrets from me. It's fine."

"No!" he yelled, slamming his fist down on the dresser. He took deep breathes before talking again., "There are things that you wouldn't forgive me for. There are things you can't know, Cooper. I don't want to lose you again. I already lost Chelsea and Mali and-" he stopped himself again. "Fuck, I can't shut up!"

"No, no, Ashton, I knew about both of them," I told him, "and don't get angry about that too. Ashton, I love you and you know I do. There's nothing in this world that could make me leave you. You even forgot me and I still stayed." I let out a tiny laugh.

Ashton cracked a smile, "Yeah, there's no getting rid of you, huh?"

I rubbed his arm soothingly, "You can tell me."

He bit at his bottom lip as he thought about it, "What do you know?"

I hummed to myself as I thought of every secret of Ashton's I knew, "You dated a girl named Chelsea for like, a week. You were engaged to Calum's sister, you were murdered by...your dad? I think. Um, you have episodes when you feel alone, and you can eat and sleep because of Calum's family. And...Michael and Luke think you killed Jeremy."

Ashton started intensely at me, "Why didn't you say anything about that?"

I shook my head slowly, "I didn't want to believe it."

Ashton ran his long fingers through his hair, letting out a gust of air, "Alright, we're going to go downstairs, and I'm going to explain everything."

"Everything?" I repeated, not actually believing he was talking about everything.

He nodded, "Everything. If we're going to work, you need to know everything. And so do they. They're my best friends and I've kept these secrets for way too long. I feel like they're eating me from the inside out. Even I've noticed that I've been more irritable. But just remember: I warned you."