Coming Up For Air

2.6

"They say before you start a war,
you better know what you're fighting for.
Well baby, you are all that I adore,
if love is what you need, a soldier I will be."
-The Cab, 'Angel with a Shotgun'

☂Ashton☂

"Hey, it's Michael. Since I didn't answer, it's probably because I don't like you and or you're my ex-girlfriend. If you are my ex-girlfriend, I hope you have a terminal illness. If it's someone else, know that I'll only listen to your message to get rid of that annoying red number next to the icon on my phone."

The answering machine beeped, and Ashton hung up, hanging his head for a second as he sat in the diner. He'd texted Zayn four times to meet him and gotten no response, so he decided to try Michael because he still had this tiny, desperate hope that maybe Zayn's phone was dead.

He looked regretfully across the table at the coffee he'd ordered for Zayn that was going cold, and then did a double take when he saw a pale, long-fingered hand wrapped around it.

"And he's back on earth again. Zayn doesn't want to see you. He says he's not mad but it hurts too much. So you should probably stop blowing up his phone." Michael told him, sipping at the coffee and then pulling a face. "This is disgusting."

"I--fu--how long have you been sitting there?" Ashton was still bleached with surprise after Michael's miniature tirade. Michael was staring at him with his unnervingly pale green eyes as he took another long drink of coffee, grimacing.

"About forty seconds--still too long for you to have not notice my presence. What's on your mind, kid? Are you already fantasizing about Luke's--"

"Jesus, shut up. God. No. I called you right before you got here." Ashton spluttered, trying to think pale thoughts so his body would send the blood in his cheeks back to where it belonged.

"I know. But I had you in my line of vision so I figured, why answer? Plus I don't like you and I have to stay true to my voicemail-recording thing. Zayn helped me write that, you know? He really has a way with words. You should see all the goddamn poems taped to the kitchen counter that he's written up over the last 72 hours. They're sickeningly--well, good, but mostly just sickening. They're all about heartbreak and blood metaphors and shattered vases and shit--,"

"Michael." Ashton groaned, burying his face in his hands.

"Save that kinda pillow talk for Luke. I don't swing that way, and even if I did, I definitely wouldn't date you because I actually care about Zayn's feelings and I'm pretty sure if he gets any more destroyed than he already is he'll probably have a heart attack or something equally as traumatic and shocking. This coffee's really gross."

"Then stop drinking it." Ashton said, all of a sudden exhausted and fed up with Michael. Fed up with people who kept judging without knowing, Louis and Michael and his grandmother because it wasn't like he was trying to break things, it just kept happening.

"I'd rather just keep complaining about it. You know, drinking bitter coffee is kind of like loving somebody who'll never love you back. Oh wait, that's not my life, that's Zayn's--,"

"You know what, Micheal?" Ashton said suddenly, loudly, bravely in the empty diner. "That actually is your life. It is, and the coffee's not bitter, you are because your girlfriend cheated on you and you're such a classic little rich boy, so used to getting everything you want that now that you didn't get her you're just using me as some sort of coping punching bag."

"I am not bitter--," Michael started, his cheeks the color of bruised peaches.

"Yes, you are. You are and you're also so fake because you didn't give two shits about Zayn until your girlfriend slept with Liam and you guys broke up. You were never there, at your flat, and when you were, you were either sleeping or having sex and you barely talked to each other and you were always kind of rude to him whenever I was there and now--," Ashton paused, practically shaking with anger, "--now you have the fucking nerve to come act like some sort of Mother Theresa? No. I'm not going to take it from you."