Confiding in You ϟ a.i.

Chapter 44

Once the weekend comes, trusting that Ashton isn't cheating on me has become easy. Forcing myself to forget about Cooper cheating on his girlfriend with someone who is quickly becoming my best friend, however, has become much harder.

It's stuck in my mind: Perfect relationships are always doomed to end even if you manage to stay together for a whole four years. I try to push the idea that Ashton and I can't be much different from my head, especially since our relationship has been far from perfect from the beginning. It doesn't work. Cooper never fails to remind me, just by looking at him.

He tries to look so innocent, like he hasn't done anything wrong. He hasn't said a word to me about making out with Milly all week. I can see right through him, though. He constantly asks about me and Ashton, yet avoids the subject when I try to bring up Lily. He couldn't be any more obvious. I want to flat out ask him about it at this point, but I know he would kill me if I did. Either that or deny it the entire time until I gave up.

"So, you guys are going to do the grocery shopping for me, right?" my mom asks as we finish dinner that Saturday. She's been punishing us all week for the party, even though we've made a conscious effort to prove to her that neither of us had done anything to do with it. She persists anyway.

"I have cleaned the entire house and done everything for you, mom!" Cooper remarks, scrunching his face up into a scowl.

I haven't had to do as much as him. I guess it's more obvious that I didn't want that party to happen. She knows all of the parties that Cooper has been to the past four years, yet I don't think she's aware of any of the ones that I've been to. It's not like I enjoy them, anyway.

"You guys are doing the shopping, that's final," She sits back in her chair, smugly sipping her wine and shrugging. Cooper could murder her with the way he glares at her.

"Screw you," he says under his breath, scooting his chair back loudly on the hardwood floor and picking up his plate from the table. I know she hears him and there's about to be another argument between them.

If you want my opinion, Cooper should just accept things and do them. Grocery shopping isn't even that bad, and with the way he handles things it only makes our mom want to give him more stuff to take care of for her. By now, the reason for his punishment isn't to make up for having a party, but to make up for all of his back talk. I understand exactly where he's coming from, considering she isn't even a mom to us until we do something wrong and she administers the punishment, but come on. He should know by now to keep his mouth shut.

"Excuse me?" She raises her voice, standing up too. He's rinsing off his plate in the sink and he looks back over his shoulder.

"I said screw you!"

I sigh, leaving the room before he gets me in the middle of it. I know how it will go.

He's only going to push that someone else invited all of those people, which mom doesn't believe one bit. She's then going to ground him for another week or end up making a list of chores for him to do that's, like, eight pages long. If I get involved, I'll be at the brunt of that.

As soon as I'm safely up in my room, I pull out my phone and send Ashton a text. The two of them can be heard yelling below me and I'm honestly fed up with them fighting. It's only been a week and if it lasts any longer, I'll go crazy.

Want to hang out tonight?

The two of us haven't spent much time together outside of school, mostly because of all of the errands my mom forces me and Cooper to run. Talking on the phone isn't substantial anymore and it's certainly made trusting him harder than it should be. I keep telling myself, just because he isn't with me doesn't mean he's with another girl. I've said it enough that I've at least started to believe it.