Shattered (Continuation of: The Chase) ▹ Ashton Irwin

Chapter Thirty Five

The next morning, I woke up to the sound of my phone vibrating. It only vibrated once, indicating I just had a text message, but it was still loud enough to wake me up. I was never really asleep, after I helped Ashton out of one of his stupid episodes last night, and I guess thats why I was able to hear it. I did eventually get back to sleep after Ashton did, but it wasn't as comfortable as it was before he had woken me up with his crying. Still, I believe that last night was just a waste of time. Nothing great happened, that's for sure.

Speaking of Ashton, I sat up and glanced down next to me, to see that he was still sound asleep. He layed on his side, with his top arm draped over my lap and his face buried into the pillow I was laying on. He looked quite peaceful, with his little snores and furrowed eyebrows, which is a huge difference than maybe 8 hours ago. At fucking 3:00 in the morning, he was sobbing and stuttering and mumbling. I don't remember much from it all, but I do remember I had to force that comforting tone into my voice when we talked about "happy things". I spoke to him like he was 6 years old again, and I was getting sick of doing that. I'm sorry, but in those situations he just needs to man up.

I pushed Ashton's arm off of my lap and got up to my knees. I quietly climbed over Ashton's limp body, and reached down to snatch my phone off of the floor. I held it tight in my left hand while I settled back down to where I was before. As soon as my back came into contact with the matress, Ashton's arm unconsiously wrapped around me again, pulling me up to him. I shifted onto my side, so we layed there with our foreheads brushing against one another. I slid my finger over my phone's screen to see what Leila had texted me.

"Hi!!! we missed you last night. What are you doing later?"

"nothing" I sent back, glancing up at Ashton for a few moments while his body stirred.

"you should come and chill. im gonna be with lauren and my parents are at some work thing. i found the key to my dads liquor thingy." Leila had said.

At the sight of Leila's message,I shut my eyes in relief, exhaling a breath that I didn't know I was holding in. Finally, I can do something tonight and not feel compelled to fake a smile. Even if I missed out on whatever happened last night, there's still hope for tonight. Last night was pretty pathetic, now that I think about it, and I don't want to deal with it again. If Ashton really needs someone, he can call his clingy best friends.

Ashton's body shifted next to me, causing a small grunt to escape his lips and his arm to come around me tighter. I looked to the time that was displayed on my phone, to see that it was surprisingly late. It was 11:00 am, which is probably a new record for Ashton. I wasn't sure when he was going to wake up, but I didn't really want to wait up for him. I wanted to leave, to be completely honest. I wasn't tired anymore, that's for sure. I could still feel the sad and empty feelings in the air, left over from last night at 3:00 in the morning. I wonder what would happen of I just...left.

I decided to try it out, because I wanted to leave. I also didn't want to wake him up...but at the same time, I still don't have a car. I don't think my mother would be willing to buy me one, especially now. She's been a little suspicious with me for a couple weeks, and everytime I'm in the house it's the same things:

"Where have you been?"

"What have you been doing?"

"Who were you with?"

"Were you smoking?"

Of course I deny the last one, and I always say I'm with Ashton. My mother trusts Ashton a lot, as I could probably guess why. My father still isn't home, but my mom had told me he would be home soon. I would think he would be missing all these work days, but it's his compant so I guess he can do whatever the hell he wants. But yeah; I try not to be home a lot, because I don't want to be pestered by my mother's questions and I don't want to be around when my father finally shows up.