Flatmates

Realisation

Sorry for the delay, but this chapter is really long, and really important. So i hope you'll enjoy it :D

          Even if you were blind you would still see how much his friends were worried for Ashton. Calum had left the apartment a few hours later. Saying he had to go to 1200 seconds' and work, but he assured his boss that he could take a few days off if he didn't feel like going back. Ashton both liked it and hated it.

He liked that his friends were so considerate to him, and did everything to make him feel okay, or at least, a little bit better. But I couldn't help but feel like he was treated like a child. And that he was a burden. He wanted to be left alone because he thought he didn't deserve any attention. He felt so damn guilty and so low.

He also wanted to drink, pretty much all the damn time. But that was something his friends knew all too well themselves. Calum had left but had asked his sister, Mali, to come at Ashton's. And basically babysit him. Mali was in England since the dinner they all had together and until the wedding, which was getting very close now. She could work from home so she decided to make a long stay in London, to help with all the preparation. She knew her brother and soon-to-be brother-in-law were too busy to be ready of the D day on they own. And she loved being in England too.

Ashton had tried to discourage her to come, saying she didn't have to change her plans for him. But she argued she could just as well work form Ashton's. To that Calum added that curly-headed man shouldn't say alone, with a pointed look. So Ashton just sight and gave in. Although, it was clear from the second she stepped into the apartment that she wasn't here to work. She came with nothing but her small handbag and a companionate smile.

She made tea for both of them. And even if it was comforting to Ashton, it wasn't a great help. The Kiwi woman had asked him if he wanted to talk, but Ashton had answered with the negative. He hadn't felt like talking about Luke, or him, or both of them.

Ashton wanted to keep his thoughts to himself. As if, if he didn't voice them, then they wouldn't be real. He was just not ready to grief the loss of Luke already. He wasn't dead for sure, but he was completely out of his life all of a sudden.

Mali understood and didn't push him further to talk. Instead she tried to keep him busy. They cook together their lunch and try to pretend nothing had ever happened. The Kiwi woman was impressed by Ashton's skills.

"I used to cook a lot" the curly-headed man sadly smiled. "But then I stopped and started... to drink a lot." There was a lump in his throat before he even started the next sentence. "And then, there was Luke."

Mali placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and opened her mouth to say something probably very sweet and supportive. But Ashton didn't want to hear it. It was his fault. He didn't want compassion. He cut her. "He made me cook again.", he stated firmly, chasing the gloss on his eyes and the breaks in his voice. Mali seemed to get the hidden sense behind the simple sentence.

For a while it was silent, beside the sound of the knife chopping carrots and pepper bells. Ashton thought he preferred this to talking, even if it was a tensed atmosphere. But Mali thought otherwise as she started again.

"He changed you, didn't he?"

'He had a huge impact on my life, despite entering it not long ago', he thought. "Yes.", he just said

Mali saw a crack in the mask he was trying so hard to keep on, for the public eye. She engulfed in it, before it would be fixed again. She was very curious to what happened exactly, as everybody else, and probably less reticent to act nosy.