Ella's POV:
Another week of school had pasted. Ashton still hated me which wasn't really that big of a shock. If he doesn't like me I don't understand why he's nice to me sometimes. There's moments where he will talk to me like everything is fine then it's like something switches inside of him and he gets mad at me again. I like talking to him, like old times but after a while he ruins it by yelling at me. Well actually he didn't ruin anything it was me who ruined everything. It was my fault, all my fault.
I was sitting on the couch watching reruns of greys anatomy with Townes when I heard the doorbell ring.
"I'll get it." I got up and walked to the door. When I opened it Ashton, Luke and Calum were standing there. Luke and Calum were smiling and Ashton looked like he wanted to kill himself.
"Hi?" I said more as a question because I don't know why they were here.
"Did you know you live right down the street from Ashton?" Calum walked in without me asking him too, Luke and Ashton followed him.
"Uh yeah?" I furrowed my eyebrows still not understanding why they showed up.
"Hi Townes!" Luke waved over to Townes who walked out of the kitchen with a water.
"Where's Michael?" I realized he wasn't here.
"Oh he had a um." Luke scratched the back of his neck.
"Just spending time with his family." Calum spoke up and smiled at me.
"Okay." I sighed.
"We wanted to hang out with you guys." Luke laughed. I felt like this whole thing was really awkward. I look at Ashton who just shrugged.
"Well what do you want to do?"
"We could go to the pier." Calum suggested.
"Sounds fine." I play with my hands.
We had an awkward walk to the pier. Of course Calum and Luke talked to each other and sometimes Ashton but he reminded silent just like I did.
Ashton's POV:
When we got the pier we brought ice cream and were sitting down on this bench along the pier. Calum and Luke sat behind the bench on the edge of the pier since there wasn't much room on the bench.
"Dude." I heard Calum whisper to Luke when Ella Kate and Townes were talking about their mom and how she wanted them home soon. Her mom was weird she used to not care at all about what Ella did. Maybe it was her stepdad who knows. Calum nudged Luke and nodded his head into the direction of two people walked on the pier holding hands. I squinted my eyes to get a better look at their faces.
"Holy shit." Luke whispered. It was Michael and Mia walking right towards us. I whipped my head back to Luke and Calum and we all stared at each other wide eyed trying to figure what to do next. Calum cleared his throat getting Michael's attention a bit. Michael froze and hid behind some cart that someone set up for face paint or something.
"Mia? Is that you I haven't seen you in like ages!" Luke jumped off the edge and made his way over to Mia who has not caught on the anything yet. Ella turned her head into the direction of Luke and Mia.
"Mia, I'd like to introduce you to our friends." Luke brought Mia back over to where we were sitting. "This is Ella Kate and Townes."
"Hi it's nice to meet you." Ella smiled. Luke shouldn't have done that. He doesn't know Mia that well, actually none of us do. All I know is that she seemed the like kind of girl who would ruin a relationship for the hell of it. Michael could of picked a better girl to cheat on Ella with, really. Mia will end up telling Ella and Ella will turn into a big mess. It would just go all down hill.
"Yeah you too." Mia gave a forced smile. She was clearly annoyed that we ruined her date. Not our fault though. Michael should not be dating two girls at once.
"Ella, I'm sure your mom wants you home, let's go." I grab her hand and pull her away and Townes follows.
"She seems nice." Ella says softly as we walk home.
"Trust me Ella, you've been gone for an awfully long time you don't know anything anymore." I scoff. "She's really not, I wouldn't talk to her okay?"
I lied a bit but I can't let Ella get hurt by Mia. Even though we aren't friends I can't see her upset.
"Oh." Ella mumbled. She didn't seem like herself. She was always quiet now, she used to be so loud all the time and she would always talk and now she rarely does. And if she talks she sounds scared, like she doesn't know if she should be talking. She seemed awkward now too. It was weird seeing her like this, she was always hyper and funny.
"Ella?" I asked once we got to her house.
"Huh?" She turned around towards me.
"Can I come inside?" I looked down at my feet. I felt awkward asking her because usually she would invite me in or I would just walk inside.
"Uh yeah sure if you want to." Ella said confused but held the door open for me. We stood in her kitchen in silence for awhile.
"Do you wanna help me find those pictures?" Ella spoke up.
"Yeah." I laughed awkwardly. She smiled and lead me into the office where all the boxes were.
"I think they are in this one." She stood on her tippy-toes to reach the box and pulled it down.
We sat criss cross on the ground for 15 minutes until we actually found the pictures.
"Oh yes! I found them!" She laughs and holds up one of the pictures and unwraps it from the tissue paper.
"Oh my gosh we were so little." She smiles. I lean over to get a better view of the picture.
"This one was my favorite." I look at it. It was a picture of us in the neighborhood pool with our arms resting on the edge of the pool. And we had our heads poking out of the water with these huge grins on our face.
"There's more." Ella sighed and dug through the box again. She grabbed tons of pictures out, they used to all be hanging up on the walls before she left.
We sat there for 30 minutes talking about the pictures and the memories we had.
"Ashton?" Ella laid down on the floor.
"What?"
"Do you think it's weird me and Michael are dating?" She sat up a little to look at me. I was kind of shocked she asked me this because of course I thought it was weird they were dating.
"Uh." I said trying to think of something to say.
"Because I think it's weird, and we've only known each other for like a month." She ran her fingers through her hair. I thought about telling her.
"He's a really nice guy Ella Kate." I shallowed.
"He like barely calls me anymore, we just hang out at school."
"Ella." I start but she cut me off.
"I think I'm being a little over dramatic right?" She laughed.
"Right." I awkwardly laughed with her.
"Okay well Ella I have to go now." I got up.
"Wait!" She stood up too. "I want you to have this one." She handed me the picture of us in the pool.
"You sure." I raised my eyebrows.
"Yep." She nodded and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.
"Oh okay thank you Ella." I pulled her into an awkward hug and she seemed shocked at first but then she put her arms around me and hugged me back. I walked out of this office to the their front door to go home.
"Bye Ella." I yell with a smile as I open the door.
"Bye Ash." She calls from the office. I was still mad at her for sure but there was nothing I could do about it. She was back now and I should just be happy about that. I wanted to be mad at her I wanted to tell her not to call me that but I got my best friend back and that was all that mattered to me.
AN: this took me forever omg sorry if it's short I promise it will get better within the next two chapters.
