The next morning I woke up to screaming.
Beyond confused, I shuffled out of the room, careful not to wake Destiny or Calum and made my way out to the hall where I saw a furious looking Harry chewing out Niall who was standing in nothing but his boxers, with Ellie behind him, covered only by the sheet she had wrapped around herself.
“Ed is my friend!” Harry shouted, “You’re such an ass hole Niall!”
“I was drunk!” Niall cried.
“I don’t know about you but when I’m drunk my brain doesn’t fall out of my ass!” Harry spat, “You knew what you were doing!”
“Don’t yell at him,” Ellie sighed, “It was my fault.”
“She was gonna make me do it in my pants the way she was touching me!” Niall spat.
“Oh, good, very gentleman like of you Niall!” Harry shouted, “Throw her under the bus!”
“It’s her fault!”
“No!” I spat, “It’s both of your fault! You both fucked up!”
Deciding that this was not something I wanted to get in the middle of, I slipped on my tennis shoes and a sweatshirt before making my way down to the lobby for coffee.
Finding it more or less empty since it was pretty much the ass crack of dawn, I poured myself a cup and had just finished sugar and crème and was going to go back up to my room when I saw Ed, hunched over a mug of coffee sitting at a table in the corner of the room.
Figuring the polite thing to do was say high I shuffled over.
“Hey Ashton,” he sighed without even looking up.
“Hi.” I mumbled.
“You can sit,” he replied.
Nodding I sat down opposite him, and for the first time noticed that his eyes were puffy and red.
“Are you alright?” I questioned.
“Are you alright is such a bullshit question.” Ed muttered, “Like you go to the grocery store and they ask how are you, and you have to say fine, it doesn’t even have meaning anymore, it’s like you’re expected to say fine. Can you imagine running into the grocery store, the lady asks how you are and you reply with horrible, my dog just died, my son doesn’t talk to me, my arthritis is acting up again, my husband left me last night and I slipped on spilled milk in the dairy aisle and now my hip is acting up again.”
“Um, yeah,” I mumbled.
“Nobody cares anymore.” He sighed, “We’re all just people watching the other people watching us.”
“That’s good.” I informed him, “Not that no one cares anymore but the way you said it, it would make a good song.”
“Already been done.” He sighed, “Jack Johnson, People Watching.”
“Oh,” I mumbled, “Well, are you… are you okay, for real?”
Smiling, Ed shook his head, “No, I’m terrible, thank you for asking.”
Biting my lip I hesitated for a moment before asking, “Do you…. Do you want to talk about it?”
Ed’s eyes widened in surprise, as he sat there just staring at his coffee for a moment before answering, “I never saw him as a threat, until she disappeared with him to have sex of course. I mean it’s not like I was looking for a promise or commitment, but it was never just fun and I thought she was different.”
