Invisible || Ashton Irwin

Chapter 40

Zoe's POV

"Mother! I'm going to Ashton's. Please don't embarrass me like last time!" I call through the house and when I don't get something yelled back at me, I take it as the go-ahead. Like the last time we went on a date I'm wearing casual clothes over to his house and I'll get changed when I get there so I don't cause suspicion.

"Hey Zoe!" Lauren says when she opens the front door for me. "Are you here for another 'date'?" She winks at me when she says date. I'm assuming she still thinks Ashton and I are sleeping together and not actually going on dates.

"Yes I am Lauren. I'm here for a date date." I ruffle her hair and she rolls her eyes at me before smiling.

"Ashton's in the kitchen." She says as she walks up the stairs.

"Well your sister better not be right or you'll be doing all your work downstairs." Ann Marie and Ashton are both in the kitchen when I get to the doorway and by the way she was talking, I don't think I was supposed to hear.

"Hey Zoe." Ashton says as soon as he spots me. Why couldn't he just let me turn around and wait anywhere else but here for him.

"Oh Zoe!" Ann Marie turns around. "Ashton can you go upstairs please? I want to talk to Zoe for a moment." Ashton looks frustrated and embarrassed and I understand if this conversation is going to be about what I think it is.

"I'll go get dressed." He mumbles before leaving the kitchen.

"Zoe I just wanted to talk about what Lauren has been saying. Ashton says you're not sleeping together but I just wanted to make sure." I think the only way this could be anymore awkward was if I was talking to my own mother.

"Of course we're not. I would never want to disrespect you and your house like that." She looks over at me and gives me a smile.

"Alright. I just don't want Lauren to be saying things like that. But you know if you were I would want you to be safe and I would prefer if no one was home when you did." I would like to die now please. Although, at least she cares enough to ask. My own mother would never.

"You don't need to worry."

"You should go get ready. Wouldn't want to keep him waiting." She rolls her eyes with a smile on her face which lightens the mood. I couldn't get out of there fast enough.

"Still want to go out?" Ashton laughs when I get to his room.

"I don't want to have that talk ever again." I crack a smile and he comes over to me and wraps his arms around me.

"I'm sorry about that." He rests his chin on top of my head.

"Well if someone had told their sister to keep their mouth shut like they should have we could have avoided the whole thing."

"Ok that was totally on me." He laughs before giving me a short and sweet kiss. "You should go get ready."

~*~

"Where are we?" I ask Ashton as we park.

"The greatest place ever." He says as he looks over at me. "Duh." He gets out of the car and we head over the front doors. The building doesn't actually have a sign on the front so I have no idea what I'm in for. When he pushes the door open for me, I'm met with the sound of buzzy little engines.

"Go karts?" I look over at him and he has a huge smile on his face. He takes my hand and drags me over to the sign up booth while I try to take everything in. I mean I'm down for it but I thought we were doing something else.

"Ready?" He asks as we head over to the go karts. Once we get strapped in and wheeled to the starting line I start to get nervous. I've never driven one of these before! What if I crash? How fast do they even go? A few other people get wheeled in behind us so the race can start. The lights start changing and I grip the steering wheel nervously. I shouldn't be this nervous. It's just go karting with Ashton.

The green light comes on and I plant my foot on the accelerator. Ashton had quicker reflexes than I do so he leads by a tiny bit. He starts pulling away so I try to speed up to catch him without crashing. After the first few laps I gain enough ground that we're racing side by side and when it comes to the final lap I'm pulling ahead. When I cross the finish line in first place I look back at Ashton with a smile on my face. Why was I so worried?

"You won!" Ashton comes over to me once we're out of the karts.

"I know. I'm just a great driver like that." I say with an eyeball like it was no big deal when I was actually terrified. Ashton kisses me before we get asked to take a "winners photo". Ashton, this other guy and I all stand on their makeshift podium and they take a photo for each of us.

"Come on, lets go upstairs." He says after taking me by the hand with a smile on his face. He's like a kid on Christmas.

"What's upstairs?" I ask although I probably won't get an answer until we're up there. When we arrive their are less people but the area is tightly packed with arcade machines. "Look at all of this." I murmur to myself more than Ashton.

"They also have mini golf." He whispers and I laugh. I'm not sure mini golf is something to be whispering about.

We play a round of glow in the dark mini golf before coming back into the main room to play the arcade games. I won the mini golf and as a consequence Ashton had to play five arcade games with one hand behind his back. It really wouldn't have been a hard challenge if he didn't keep picking all the games that required both hands.

"It's ten thirty." He says after we finish another game. "Want to head?" We take our tickets up to the counter and Ashton has enough for a pair of socks while I get a pencil. "Why are they even giving out socks?" He asks as we walk out of the building.

"At least they have dogs on them." I say with a laugh.

"I do love dogs." He nods his head like my point was really valid. As we walk to the car he puts his arm around me and pulls me close. It makes it difficult to walk but I'm not going to say no to being close to him. "I had a great night." He says into the still night air and after a moment, I agree. I can't remember the last time I had this much fun. There's just something about Ashton. He shouldn't be allowed to be funny and fun, the rest of us have no chance.