Invisible || Ashton Irwin

Chapter 54

Zoe's POV

the day of the boys gig has come and I'm nervous about Ashton. It's only been a week and a half since he fractured his wrist and he tried playing yesterday and that didn't go well. He's convinced the boys to let him do it which I think is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

"I'm going out." I say as I walk past my mother. All she bothers to do is glare at me. I walk to Ashton's house and my heartbeat won't slow down. What if he hurts himself even more? He's only got two months until he leaves for the tour.

"Hi Zoe." Lauren answers the door and invites me in telling me Ashton's in his room. All the other boys are meeting us at the venue and I don't know whether I should talk Ashton out of this or not.

"Hey Ash." I say with a shaky breath. My nerves shouldn't be taking over right now. I need to be supportive of Ashton even if he is going to break his wrist even worse.

"Hey." He looks up from a page on his desk and comes over to me. He kisses me on the top of my head and pulls me into him. I wonder if he can feel my heart beating one thousand times a minute.

"Please don't do this." I say to him as I bury my face in his chest and he plays with my hair.

"I have to." He says with a sigh.

"You're going to ruin your wrist." I say to him. Why does he have to be so stubborn about this?

"I have to do this for the boys. There are going to be promoters in the crowd."

"But you've already got the opening act for the One Direction tour, why do you need this too? You don't know where that gig could lead to."

"You don't know where this gig could lead to!" At this point we're yelling at each other and it makes me really annoyed Ashton can't see my point of view.

"What are you fighting about?" Harry walks into Ashton's room and I sigh.

"We're not fighting about anything, Harry." I say and give him a week smile. "Why don't you go see what Lauren's doing?" I say and when he walks away I turn back to Ashton. "All I'm saying is I'm worried about you." I say in a softer tone. He sits on the edge of his desk and pulls me in between his legs.

"I don't know what else to do." He says and I sigh.

"I'll have the ambulance on the phone the second you look in pain." I say trying to lighten the mood and he cracks a smile at me.

~*~

When we arrive at the venue my nerves come back. This place is huge. Ashton has to carry the parts of his drum kit one handed which is like a knife straight through me. I don't know why he insists putting himself through this. He sets up slowly and the other boys cautiously fiddle with their instruments and amps around him. I pray that nothing goes wrong tonight.

"Hey Zoe, hows he doing?" Lucy, Maya and Kat come up behind me and join me at my table.

"I'm not sure." I say. "I tired to talk him out of it but he was stubborn like usual." I watch a few men in suits walk up to the boys and shake hands with them before speaking. They must either be the owners of the club or they're the promoters. I watch them as they question Ashton about his wrist and then point to me. They all turn around to look at me and my face goes red. Why would he be talking about his girlfriend with these people?

"Zoe Leigh Anderson." I hear being hissed behind me and my eyes go wide. That snarl could only belong to one person and that person I do not want to see here.

"Mother what are you doing here?" I turn in my seat and see her practically seething at me.

"I could say the same for you. Is this where you've been going? A club?" She acts shocked and I try not to roll my eyes. "Have you been hanging out with that idiot you were tutoring?"

"He's not an idiot." I counter back at her trying not to match her anger as we are in public.

"Surely yo can't be-"

"Zoe we made it-aaaaah, hi mum." Zali walks up to us with Aaron and my mother whips her head around to look at Zali.

"You've been with her? I thought I told you not to go near her!" She starts going off at Zali.

"Well it's nice to see you too." Zali says before walking off to probably get a drink.

"Zoe you are coming home with me right now!" She grabs ahold of my wrist and makes me feel like a child. As she starts to drag me away I start to panic. What about Ashton? What about this life I pine for? The boys start their warm up and Ashton's steady beat rings through my ears.

"No." I say digging my heels into the concrete floor to stop her dragging me. "You don't own me anymore. This is my life now. I have my sister and good friends and a boyfriend that cares about me. I don't need your negativity or controlling anymore." I say and her face falls to shock for a moment before returning to anger.

"You think that boy cares about you?" She laughs. "He's in a band, he has girls throwing themselves at him, he doesn't need you." She continues to pull on my arm despite everything I've said to her. She can't do this! I struggle against her as she pulls harder and makes it to the door. She can't win! Amongst my struggling I hear the drumming stop and a gasp fall over the crowd. My head whips towards Ashton's direction. He's really done it this time. He cradles his wrist with his other hand and the other boys look back at him. This only makes me fight harder against my mother. I start kicking at her and I wiggle out of her grasp and start sprinting towards Ashton.

"Ashton!" I yell as I make it to the stage stairs and he looks up at me and sees my mother following close behind me. When I reach him I kneel in front of him and look between him and his wrist. "Did you hurt it worse?" I say while trying to help without hurting him.

"Why is your mum here?" He says softly, ignoring his probably now broken wrist.

"That doesn't matter. All that matters is you." I say, probably sounding hysterical.

"Zoe calm down. I'm alright. I don't think I'll be able to play though." I look up with him with tears rimming my eyes. "Zoe I need you to play for me. For this band. Can you do that in front of all these people?" He asks and I'm not sure. "All the focus will be on Luke. All you have to do is play the drums. You know the set list. You know the songs. Can you do this for me?" He asks and I can see home much pain having to ask is causing him.

"Promise me you'll look after yourself." I say anxious about doing this. I've only ever played in front of the boys now I'm going to be playing in front of a crowd full of people.

"I promise." He says while standing. I give him a quick kiss on the lips before taking his place on the stool behind the drum kit as he walks off the stage. The security guard steps in front of the stairs blocking my mother from coming up and the lights dim to indicate the start of the show.

"How are we doing tonight?" Luke asks and gets a good response from the crowd. "We're Five Seconds of Summer and we have the wonderful Zoe joining us tonight. Hope you enjoy the show." Luke jumps straight into the first song and I play my parts trying not to think of the crowd.