Unpredictable (A Lashton Fanfic)

Chapter Twenty Five - My getaway, my favorite place.

*Luke’s POV*

The best thing about the flight was that Ashton was finally able to sleep. My restlessness had been keeping him awake for the past three nights, and I hated it. I felt so guilty, but what could I do? Sleep was impossible with all the thoughts I had running through my mind. I kept telling Ashton I was fine, but I wasn’t. Not entirely, anyway.

            If it wasn’t for Ashton, I would be utterly and completely lost. No matter how many times I felt like falling apart, I managed to stay strong for him. He needed me as much as I needed him, and I couldn’t let him down. I had saved him, and he had saved me—in more ways than one. Without each other we’d be nothing. With that said, I hated having to be the one to wake him up five hours later once we arrived in Seattle. “What’s wrong?” he asked sleepily when I tapped him on the shoulder.

            I shook my head. Apparently he thought every time I woke him up, it meant something was wrong. “We’re here in Seattle, Ash. Nothing’s wrong.” When I said that, he stood up excitedly and quickly gathered his belongings from the overhead compartment. “Let’s go, then!” In times like this, if someone was talking to Ashton on the phone and couldn’t see any differently, they would swear he was nine years old instead of nineteen. I grabbed his hand like I always do before stepping off the plane into the bright Seattle sunlight, following Michael and Calum into the busy airport. Cody, Austin, and Colin had flown in on a different plane, and so we met up with them when we reached our rental car—a black Range Rover as usual—which was parked near the front of the large building.

            It didn’t take long at all for us to reach the huge building that was our hotel, and soon I was sitting on the end of a king-size bed flipping through the channels on the television. Ashton was laying beside me with his head in my lap, scrolling through his Twitter account on his phone. After a few moments of searching I realized there was nothing good on TV, so I turned it off and instead focused on running my hands through his hair, my fingers getting tangled in his soft curls. “What’s on our agenda for the rest of the afternoon?”

            Ashton set his phone down on the bed beside us and smiled up at me. “Nothing important that I know of, which means we can finally spend some quality time together.”

            I returned the smile and was about to say something, but the sound of my phone beeping stopped me. I slowly pulled it out of my pocket and hesitantly clicked on the notification button, the same sinking feeling as before creeping into my chest. Ashton sat up abruptly, as if he too was dreading what the message would read, and leaned over me to get a better look at the phone. “It’s from the same blocked number,” I took a deep breath and tapped the blinking message icon, and when I saw the content of the message I had to hold on to Ashton for support.

            Three words. Only three words were on the screen, but those three words scared me worse than anything I’ve ever read before. “Four more days,” Ashton read the message aloud, a confused tone to his voice. “What does that mean?”

            “It means…” I had to stop for a second to catch my breath before I spoke again. “It means I only have four more days until Nathan comes and kills me.”

            Ashton was silent, and the look on his face broke my heart. His expression was a mixture of fear and sadness, and all I could do was wrap my arms around him as tears began to fall from his hazel eyes. “No,” he whispered. “No. I won’t let him hurt you.”

            “There’s not much you can do,” I replied sadly, trying to keep my voice steady. “If Nathan wants me dead, I’m dead. It’s as simple as that.”