Honeymoon Avenue || a.i.

Chapter Eleven

I wake up to pounding on the front door of our beach house. I groan and sit up, Zoe still asleep.

I stand up and walk out to the front door, my hair in a messy bun from my slumber. I open the door to see Ashton.

"Yes?" I ask and he smiles.

"Rise and shine beautiful. It's time to party." He says with a smile and I blush at him calling me beautiful.

"You woke me up." I complain.

"Good. C'mon." he says and pulls me out if the small house and takes my hand. He drags me out to the pier.

"What are we doing here?" I ask.

"I don't know. I woke up and was bored." he says and sits down. I sit down and face him, crossing my legs underneath my body.

"I'm actually really glad we are here. I can get away from my mom." I say quietly as Ashton pulls out his phone.

"Yeah. I know what you mean." he says. "Smile." He says and I throw a peace sign and do a duck face as he takes a picture of me.

"So Zoe told me about your band." I say and he smiles at me.

"Oh yeah." He says as I smile.

"You guys should play for me someday." I say and he nods.

"Definitely." he says an I look out at the ocean. I hear the click of a phone camera and quickly turn my head to look at Ashton.

"Stop taking pictures of me." I say and he shakes his head.

"No." he says.

"Why not?" I ask.

"Cause you're beautiful." he says quietly and my cheeks redden.

"No." I say.

"Yes." he says and I roll my eyes and look at him.

"Ashton can I tell you something?" I ask as I play with a string on my shirt.

"Yeah totally." he says an I take a deep breath.

"Um... this is really hard for me..." I say and he takes my hand and rubs circles with his thumb on the top of it.

"Um... so about a month ago, I was being bullied pretty bad. And my dad had left a month before that. And I didn't have any friends. People told me I was fat because I'm not a twig like all the girls at my old school were. And I-I.... I tried to commit suicide." I say, a tear dripping down my cheek. "I'm not beautiful." I whisper more to myself. Ashton pulls me onto his laps and hugs me.

"Carter. You are beautiful. Those people were just jealous of you. Carter listen." Ashton says and tilts y chin up, making me look at him. "It's al okay now." he says and hugs me as the tears fall freely down my face.

"Thank you Ashton." I say and he kisses my forehead.

"Um...." I hear someone says and we look up to see Luke standing there all awkward like.

"Oh." I say as get up off Ashton and hold a hand out to help him up. I quickly wipe away my tears.

"We were all gonna go to the diner down the street." Luke says and we nod.

"Yeah let's go." Ashton says and I force a smile. We walk down back to the beach houses and I run inside mine and see Annie watching tv.

"Good morning." I say and she smiles at me as I walks quickly back to mine and Zoe's room.

"Well good morning." Zoe says and I smile and quickly change into my bathing suit with an English flag crop top and a pair of black high waisted shorts.