Here to Stay || Ashton Irwin (completed)

Chapter 14

"Ash, I think you should tell them."

We had been playing Mario Kart for the past 4 hours, since the crack of dawn until now. I had watched the sun's shadow cast shapes across the carpet before us and now it barely reached our legs. Ashton paused the game and turned to look at me, raising an eyebrow.

"Tell who."

I darted my eyes to his phone which had been lighting up all morning. Every time he looked at it, he would shurg and ignore it. After the sixth time, I decided to look at the screen. His group chat with Luke, Michael, and Calum had grown to a total of 60 messages. All unread. Every time one of them asked the slightest question, he'd ignore it. 

About an hour ago, after Michael's invite to hang out with them, we made eye contact and I almost opened my mouth to say something, but he looked away and continued to play the game. The next few times his phone lit up, he didn't even move to look at it.

"I think you should tell your friends why you're ignoring them," I spoke up, clearing my throat.

"I'm not ignoring them," he answered, his attention obviously still on the screen.

I had given up on my racer and had flung myself off a cliff when I turned to him, "Ashton," I started, scooting closer to him, "I'm serious."

"And I am too," he looked back at me, pausing the game, "I'm not ignoring them."

I sighed and reached forward for his phone, picking it up off the ground. 

"Okay then why do you have 110 messages from a group chat with them, and 30 from each of them individually?"

"Because we've been playing a game and I need to beat you and in order to this I need to stay focused," he shrugged. His finger reached up and resumed the game.

I groaned and paused the game again, grabbing his shoulder and turning him around, "Ashton."

"Look Emma," he started, his hands rubbing his wrists, which had gotten significantly skinnier since his treatment started, "I can't just tell my friends I've been ditching them for video games. That's such a dick move."

"I'm not saying to tell them about the video games," I whispered, my voice nearly audible.

Ashton looked at me. His eyes locking on mine as they opened in realization. He shook his head.

"Why not," I demanded. "They're your friends, they care about you. I've seen the messages, they're worried."

"Oh so you've been looking through my phone," he said, his voice rising and tinted with frustration.

"No, you've just been ignoring it all morning."

"Look," he said, taking my hand, "I like you, I really do, but I can't tell my friends that I've been ditching them to hang out with the girl who died and who I now have fallen for. Do you know how crazy that sounds?"

 I nodded. I did know how crazy it was, but he needed to see his friends as much as he saw me. They were worried about him, I knew they were worried. They had only been over once after the whole night Ash didn't remember, and I knew I wasn't the only one growing worried.

Ashton's mom came in halfway through the day on countless occasions claiming the phone was ringing off the hook with calls from the others. They had asked if they could come over today, spend time with their friend, earlier in the week and he had turned them down. 

I looked back at Ashton. His eyes were studying me. He scooted closer and took a deep breath. His hands closed over mine and he leaned in.

"If it'll make you happy, I'll tell them that I met a girl."