Trust || c.h.

Chapter 11

*Calum's POV* 

I regretted what I had done before, it was wrong of me to try to force myself on Elsie, but lately things seemed different around the apartment. Ashton seemed angrier about everything, even the tiniest thing and Luke..well Luke was held up in his room that he shared "conveniently" with Ashton. I quite sure what had happened since neither of the boys talked about it but it wasn't good. 

Elsie hadn't come over for a couple days and Ashton was going downstairs to check on her every 10 minutes. He seemed to be obsessed with her lately, like he didn't trust her. Michael and I just stayed out of it and let them be instead of letting it ruin our lives as well. Why was Ashton so angry though? Did he find out about what I did to Elsie? If he did he probably would have talk--yelled at me about it so that couldn't be it..

We were all sat on the couch in the main room watching Michael and Luke play FIFA since Luke had finally emerged from his room and taken a much needed shower. I wasn't paying attention to the game and was scrolling through my Twitter feed. Ashton sat beside me and was constantly checking the clock, his hands had band-aids on them and he wore long sleeves as if he had gotten in a fight. He stood as the clock struck 2PM and started for the door. I quickly stood and grabbed his arm, "Let me go check on her, relax I'm sure she's fine." He opened his mouth to argue back but quickly let out a puff of air before nodding once and sitting back down on the couch. I was surprised by his reaction but quickly left the apartment and headed towards the stairs. I hope I didn't scare her to much after what happened before, but I had been drinking and wasn't thinking straight. 

I knocked on her apartment door and waited for an answer, after almost a minute of standing there I turned the cheap gold knob and opened the door. I walked in and looked around trying to find her before I called out, "Elsie?" There was no reply so I checked her bedroom but no one was there, then the sound of something dropping on tile sounded throughout the apartment followed by a couple curse words. I walked to the bathroom only to find Elsie curled up in a ball against the wall with blood falling down her wrists. She looked up at me and flinched as if she was trying to push herself through the wall and away from me. I looked at her wrists and carefully grabbed a towel lying near the sink and bent down to her. She had tears streaming down her face and was scared. "P-Please don't hurt me" She spoke weakly and then I saw the bruises along her wrists and arms. I carefully wiped the blood away as I studied the bruises, they looked like finger prints. "I'm not going to hurt you Elsie" I frowned and continued wiping the blood. "A-Ashton don't hurt me. Please" Her sound was muffled and weak but I was able to make out what she said. Her words causing my eyes to go wide. Ashton did this? I knew he had an abusive past with girls but it had stopped, he had went to rehab for it. He was better..right?

"Elsie, did Ashton do this to you?" I saw the shiny dull blade laying beside her and quickly grabbed it, throwing it in the trash. I looked up at her and frowned. Her cheeks were tear stained and her eyes were swollen and red. What the hell had happened lately?

She nodded and finally looked at me, realizing that I wasn't Ashton and I heard her let out a faint sigh of relief. I sat next to her, bringing her to my arms and she gratefully took it. "How long?" I looked down at her, running my fingers through her hair.

"I-I don't know. A couple days maybe?" She started crying again and I could feel the wetness of her tears through my shirt. 

"A couple days?" I looked down at the arms again and ran my fingers lightly over the dark purple spots that ran along her arms and sighed softly, kissing the side of her head. "Maybe it's time to break up with him" As soon as the words left my mouth, her eyes went wide and she looked like a small scared child. "No! I can't! He'll hurt me!" She yelled and pulled away from me. "Elsie this isn't okay, you need to tell someone that he is doing this again." 

"Again?" She frowned and weakly stood up before limping to the sink and washing what blood remained on her off. "He..has a past" I chose my words carefully so I wouldn't scare her further. Damn now I really felt like a dick, this probably happened all the time. Shit I really needed to help her, I needed to stop Ashton and kick the shit out of him for doing this to her but right now she was my main concern. 

"Elsie, did he only physically hurt you?" I stood and padded over to wear she stood, and caught her gaze in the mirror. She looked at me and nodded slowly, causing me to let out a minor sigh of relief. "I'll make him stop, I promise." "Promise what?" A thick Australian voice sounded down the apartment and Elsie quickly froze and looked up at me with pleading eyes. I nodded once before stepping out into the hallway and faced Ashton to wear he stood a couple feet away. 

"Ashton, I know" I narrowed at my eyes at him as he did the same. "You know nothing asshole" He said, pushing me back. "Ashton you're doing it again. You're slipping back into old habits and that's not okay. Do you want to go back to rehab?" His eyes quickly widened at my words and he frowned. He had to go to rehab before because when he cared about someone a lot and was scared they'd leave, he became a different person. An angrier person. He hurt the one he loved to the point of nearly killing a girl once. It wasn't good but he had medicine now that helped him but I had seen a empty pill bottle a couple days ago in the bathroom and that's when it clicked. "You didn't get more pills did you?" He shook his head before the angry look returned to his face. 

"You have no idea what you're talking about!" He pushed me back and swung the bathroom door open. "ELSIE! What the hell did you tell him?!" Ashton's voice boomed through the small apartment and then Elsie let out a small scream, causing me to run into the bathroom and see Elsie with a fresh hand print on her cheek. I immediately grabbed Ashton's arms and pulled him back which was not as difficult as I thought it would be since I was stronger than him. I pulled him back into the hallway and away from Elsie. "Elsie leave" She stood frozen for a minute but quickly moved to stand behind me and i released Ashton from my hold and then grabbed Elsie, pushing her behind me protectively. "Calum get away from her" Ashton growled but Elsie only grabbed onto my arm, holding it tightly in her small grasp. "Ashton stop! You can't keep hurting me like the other girls" Elsie spoke bravely behind me. Ashton stared at her and backed away as if he was realizing what he had done. 

A/N: Sorry about the short awkward chapter, also fair warning that I probably won't be updating for a while since I have camp next week and then the week after I am having another surgery and wont be able to update until I heal up from that. Please don't hate me guys <3 Don't forget to vote!