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Chapter Nine --> Lock and Key

Ever since that night when Alexis ran into Ashton at the club when she had to retrieve a drunk Brooklyn, her mind was full of thoughts circling around. All of the thoughts were about Ashton and how they could possibly make a relationship work.

Both of them had admitted that they had feelings for each other. That was scary for Alexis because she was supposed to hate Ashton and everything about him. Yet, here she was letting her heart control her emotions and her brain could not override the action.

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A couple of weeks later Alexis sat in front of the apartment building, her hand shielding her eyes from the suns' rays that poked through the smog. Lost in thought, she did not hear anyone come up behind her. So of course when Ashton came up and shouted in her ear, Alexis nearly jumped out of her own skin.

"Don't ever do that again," Alexis snapped, turning her head and glaring at Ashton. Crossing her arms over her chest, she tilted her head up and seemed to be asking for a fight.

"Oh you know that I was playing around," Ashton retorted quietly, moving so that he could wrap his arm around Alexis' shoulders. From all of the time that they had spent together recently he knew that her mood changed depending on who she was talking to and what was going on around her. "Let's go have some fun now."

Lifting an eyebrow, Alexis was about to say something when Ashton took her hand and then started to walk away from the apartment building. After a few feet though, Alexis pulled her hand away and made sure to put some space between her and Ashton. Not once did they step out into public as a couple and Alexis sure did not want to start now.

Arriving at the store did not take long at all, for it was a tiny market that promised to have the best customer service according to a sign in the window. When they walked into the store it was hard to believe that you could have any type of customer service. There were no employees in sight and almost no customers. It would not be surprising if this was the one store that did not even seem to keep track of what they had in stock or if people would walk in with nothing and then walk out with items without paying.

"Are you sure this is okay?" Alexis questioned, glancing around as if a hundred people would pop out of some hiding place and find out the truth about them.

"I am sure," Ashton replied, stepping forward to take her hand. With doing so, he also started to drag her off towards a corner of the store that had a bunch of coupons on hooks on a board.

Reluctantly Alexis followed him without saying a single word. There really was nothing to say, since believe it or not, she trusted Ashton, even if she did not trust their relationship to become public. If he thought that it was safe to go out in public with her, then so be it.

When they reached the corner of the store, Alexis glanced over her shoulder.  There was not a single person in sight, but if one person saw them, all it would take was one Tweet and girls would be swarming the store like a hoard of angry bees.

"You need to calm down some," commented Ashton, studying Alexis's face with concern. "No one is going to find us here."

Perhaps that was what worried Alexis, though. This store was not busy, so people could walk in and pick Ashton out right away, for he did not blend in with the shelves of canned food. It would be less obvious if they were surrounded by other people, unless those people were crazy fans. Everything just circled back to the fans and their mania.

"You say that now," Alexis replied with a sigh. Pushing the worry away was not easy. For some reason that girl who was not afraid to take the risk of breaking into the Skyscraper or speaking her own mind was on vacation, leaving a girl who over thought everything in its place.

For the rest of the time they spent in the store almost no one came in and almost no one left. The only people who did enter the store were a group of elderly people who were in search of prune juice or some other drink that the elderly lived off of. None of them recognized Ashton, even though one lady who had blonde hair with gray peeking through mentioned how he looked like one of those guys that her niece was in love with. That caused Ashton to shoot Alexis an amused look and Alexis ended up glaring back at him.

"That was not that bad, was it?" Ashton questioned, taking Alexis's hand and lacing their fingers together as they walked out of the store.

Shrugging her shoulders, Alexis glanced down at their hands that fit together perfectly. "I guess, but if that woman would have recognized you and then called her niece then hell could have broken loose." Alexis knew that she was exaggerating slightly, since there would have just been this spasm of excited fans rushing into the store and asking for pictures, autographs and asking a million questions until some type of security or police force showed up.

Chuckling, Ashton placed a kiss on the top of Alexis's head and then grinned. It was one of those dopy grins that he seemed to give when he was admiring Alexis for whatever reason.

At times Alexis found it annoying, but she also could not help but let a smile come to her face every now and then when she thought about or saw Ashton in the flesh.

Liking another person was complicated. Loving someone had to be even more confusing.

For the rest of the walk back to Ashton's apartment, there was silence between them, but the noises of the city surrounded them. Every couple of feet Alexis would start to swing her arm back and forth, causing Ashton's to do the same. Then she would stop and walk normally.

Coming up to the apartment, Alexis frowned when she saw a group of people standing around the glass doors that led inside. Every single time that she had come over there had never been anyone else around who seemed intent on waiting outside the doors and not heading inside. The number of people was too small to be all of the other patrons that lived in the apartment building. There was no fire department or police, so there obviously was no fire or crime committed.

Slowing down to a stop, both Alexis and Ashton watched the people from a distance. "You know they kind of look a little young to be living on their own. Also all of them are girls," remarked Alexis, her brows lowering as she thought. Then it came to her in mere seconds. These teenage girls were outside the apartment complex for one reason and one reason only: 5 Seconds of Summer.

Glancing up at Ashton who was still staring at the girls, a frown came to Alexis's face. "Yeah, no one is going to find you specifically. They will just find the apartment building you happen to live in along with the rest of the band."

"True, very true," Ashton replied, now focusing his attention on Alexis.

The two of them did not get to say anything else because soon the shrill sound of girls screaming cut through the air. All hell was breaking loose.