Delete --> a.i au

Chapter Fifteen --> Strange Behavior

There had to be something wrong with Ashton, or at least Alexis concluded that from the text messages she sent that were unanswered and the calls that went straight to voice mail. Normally, if anything, she would be the one who was ignoring Ashton, not the other way around. Having him cutting himself off from her was new, and a change that she did not like. She finally reached the point where she was fine being with Ashton, so why was he not answering?

Walking up to the apartment door, she stopped and sighed. She had no idea what she would find when she entered the apartment. Lifting her knuckle, she knocked on the door and waited. In a couple of minutes she could faintly hear someone shuffling over to the front door.

As the door swung open, Alexis expected to see Ashton, but she saw Michael instead.

"Is Ashton home?" Alexis asked, standing on her tip-toes and looking over Michael's shoulder.

Sluggishly, Michael nodded. "Yeah...but he looks horrible."

Hearing that, Alexis froze up with wonder and fear. What possible reason could there be for Ashton to look horrible? In all honestly there were a hundred different reasons why he could look horrible, but Alexis did not want to think of any of them.

Rushing past Michael once he stepped aside, she came into the living room and did not see him there. Frowning, she headed to his bedroom and pushed open the door that was already open ajar. There, on the bed in a fetal position, was Ashton. Chewing on the inside of her cheek and lowering her eyebrows, she was beyond confused.

"Ashton?" Alexis said cautiously. Stepping towards the bed, she climbed onto the soft duvet and sat down next to him. "What's wrong?" Reaching out she took his hand and weaved their fingers together.

This motion caused Ashton to look up. A weak smile came to his face, but shock and worry were evident in his hazel eyes. "Oh, nothing much."

That was not the answer that she wanted to hear. Sighing, Alexis shifted some on the bed. "You can tell me," Alexis encouraged, knowing very well that Ashton was keeping something from her.

Sitting up, Ashton pulled Alexis closer until she was sitting in his lap. Pressing a chaste kiss on her forehead, he gathered his thoughts. "Have you ever broken a bone?" he asked, simply out of curiosity of what her answer would be.

Lifting an eyebrow, Alexis had no idea where the question was coming from, but there was no harm in answering. "Yeah, when I was seven -"

"You were trying to ride a bike, right?" Ashton said, interrupting Alexis.

A look of shock flashed across Alexis's face, since she had no idea how Ashton could know that. "Yeah, I was trying to ride a bike. I did learn once my arm was no longer broken."

"What about boyfriends, how many have you had?"

"I have had two, not including you.”

"Are you sure? I think three would be the correct answer. There was one that only lasted a couple of days, so you tend to push him aside."

Moving off of Ashton's lap, Alexis was trying to piece together how he knew about her ex-boyfriends. Her aunt and uncle knew about them because they had met all of them except for the one that, like Ashton mentioned, she did not think about because the time they dated was too short. There were people in school who had known, obviously, but none of them were friends with Ashton as far as she knew. Even if someone from high school was friends with Ashton, why would they tell him about her past boyfriends?

The questioning did not stop. Ashton kept on asking Alexis question and she kept on answering them, or tried too. Each time Ashton would step in and correct her on her own past. Each time Alexis moved further away from Ashton, almost scared of how he knew all of these things about her past. Some of the things he asked were from 15 or 16 years ago when she was three or four. Her memory was good, but not that good.