*Ashton’s POV*
It’s been a month since my friends sat me down and had me talk. I promised them that once a week, I’d let them sit down with me to talk about what I’ve been feeling and they’ve cut off alcohol completely from me. I’ve been doing a lot better, I’d say. I have dinner with the boys almost every night and I actually enjoyed myself when the four of us went go karting last weekend. I smiled and I laughed like nothing was wrong.
Some days I just like to be by myself, though, and they understand it. I’ve been doing so well, that they let me sit in my room when I need space to myself. But then, I’ll come out and sit in the lounge room with them and watch TV.
“You ready, Ash?” Luke pops his head into my room. I told him I’d go to the store with him to buy food and other necessities for the house.
“Yeah, one sec.” I say as I put on my brown boots.
“We’re going to the store!” Luke calls out to Calum and Mikey who are playing video games on the lounge. They grumble in acknowledgement and we laugh at the two as we walk out of the house. I get into the driver’s seat of the car and Luke proceeds to get into the passenger’s seat.
“Okay, so we need milk, bread, butter, chips for Michael, shampoo…” Luke reads off from a list on his phone.
“Okay, Mum.” I tease with a small laugh as I push the cart through the aisles.
“Hey, somebody has to be the mum for you three.”
We walk along the aisles, searching through things we’d need and even putting things in the cart we don’t need.
“We need jam and Vegemite.” Luke tells me and I reach for the grape jam. As I grab the jar, I hear a sound I haven’t heard in a long time. A girl laughs loudly from further down the aisle. It sounds just like hers and I find myself looking around like a mad man trying to figure out where the glorious sound is coming from. I look down the aisle and find a girl with long, dark brown hair and a petite little body and I swear it’s her. It can’t be her, she’s in London and is probably never coming back. She snaps her head this way and I can’t see her face, my eyesight is absolute shit. I’m going mad for sure if I think it’s her.
“Ashton…Ashton.” Someone calls me out of my trance, shaking my shoulder.
“What?” I snap my head to Luke.
“You dropped the jar.” He points to the broken jar of jam on the floor near my feet and I step back from it like it’ll harm me. I didn’t even realize I’d dropped it, I didn’t hear it shatter.
“Oh… I-I’m so sorry.” I stutter an apology to the employee cleaning up the mess. I take one last look at the girl and she’s quickly walking away with her friend.
“What’s gotten into you, mate?” Luke chuckles as he grabs another jar of jam and a jar of Vegemite as well and we continue with our shopping trip like nothing happened.
“I thought I saw her.” I mumble and he looks at me like I’m insane; I feel insane.
“I think you stayed in your room too long.” He jokes but I glare at him.
“No, I swear it was her! I heard her laugh and I looked over to those two girls near the end of the aisle and one of them looked just like her! I couldn’t see though, but I really think it was her!” I push, holding him at arms’ length and shaking him. Now I really look like a crazy person.
“That’s impossible. She’s in London.” He reminds me and I sigh heavily, letting him go.
“You’re right. I’m just imagining things.” I shake my head, managing a laugh.
We finish getting everything we need, check out and we head back home.
“Honey, we’re home!” Luke calls out when we step into the house with bags in both our hands. I laugh at him and Calum and Michael come to help us.
“You got the chips right?” Michael asks first thing.
“Yes, we got you chips.” Luke laughs, pulling out Michael’s chips from the bag and tossing it to the probably hungry boy. I’ll bet anything they didn’t eat anything whilst we were gone, waiting for us to come home so they can eat everything we just bought.
“Don’t eat all of them!” I warn Michael as he pulls the bag open, the smell of corn chips floating through the kitchen. I take some from him, even after he selfishly pulled the bag away and held it close to him. I’m starving. We probably should have stopped for lunch before going to the market.
I take out the last items from the bag I was emptying, those items being the jam jar and Vegemite.
“Don’t drop the jar.” Luke jokes with a laugh, and I glare at him as I place the Vegemite in the cupboard, heading to the fridge.
“Ha-ha-ha.” I laugh sarcastically.
“What do you mean?” Calum asks either one of us.
“Ashton swears he saw Sa- I mean, you know who, at the store today.” I’m thankful they still know not to use her name around me. I think I’m getting better with it though; I said it once just last month. It still hurts me in the deepest parts of my heart, no matter how much progress I make with this…breakup.
“Really? Ash, you know that’s insane.” Calum gently tells me.
“Yes, I know, I’m going crazy. Can we drop it?” I beg, setting the jar of jam carefully in the fridge. Thankfully, Michael moves on to the subject of his and Calum’s video game adventures.
I still believe it was her at the store, and if it wasn’t, then there’s somebody that laughs exactly like her and has her hair color, impersonating the love of my life.
I should have walked up to her, to see it if it was her. But even if I did, what would I say if I approached her. More importantly, would she have ran away if I had walked up to her?
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Sorry this was so damn short. I forgot that i actually haven't finished writing this chapter so i just finished it. I'll try and write more soon, but that means so updates for a couple days until i can get at least five chapters done. Sorry, that's just my process, i like my chapters done in advance.
Leave your questions and comments and stuff in the comments, and pretty please vote! Thank you
Xoxo S. <3
