Together | A.F.I

⁂ 6 :: parental guidance ⁂

As soon as Joelle opened her eyes, she found herself longing to close them again. Her bed was so warm, and soft, and there was a grounding hand around her waist that - beds didn't have hands, oh no. Did she rebound with Anabelle again? Gently turning her head, she realised that she was asleep on top of Ashton, and it was his freakishly large hand around her. Well, she didn't mind it exactly.

She took the not-alone alone time as time to think without working herself into a frenzy about the future. Joelle was more than sure that she was slowly falling in love with the boy she was on top of, and she was more than sure that if she ended up in Oxford, and he ended up touring, the relationship would be strained and surely Ashton would want to tour the world and meet new people and have someone who could be with him. Not a secret nerd studying History and Politics who could see him maybe once every two months.

Though Joelle wasn't at all capable of handling loneliness, she could stomach it for him. A phone call each other day would suffice until they met again, wouldn't it? But what if she ended up hurting the beautiful boy running his thumb over her hip in his sleep.

"...Joelle? What happened, man?" Luke asked in a whisper, walking into the living room and spotting them "Did you two finally do it? Dude, that's so awesome!"

"No, we didn't 'do it', Luke" Joelle told him, whispering too "Help me get up! I wanna have breakfast but I don't wanna wake him up"

"He sleeps like a log, man! Want me to get you some cereal? And then we can talk a bit" Luke grinned, like an adorable puppy.

"Yes, please." Joelle nodded, laughing as she sat up a bit, almost jumping out of her skin when Ashton shifted in his sleep to pull her closer. Maybe she should wake him up sometime, but also he was pouting in his sleep and it was cute.

Luke came back in with a bowl of lucky charms, carefully handed it to her and giggled before sitting on an armchair "So, you and Ash, huh?"

"No, not 'me and ash'. The distance of me in Oxford and you guys doing the whole band thing... I just feel like he could have more"

"But he doesn't want more, Joelle, does he? He wants you" Luke explained, eating his own bowl of lucky charms "No point in making yourselves miserable out of fear. Fucks sake, man, you're badass! If anyone can do this, it's you. Plus you're practically already a couple... revision sessions my ass"

"They are revision sessions! We just come back here to you guys to chill. I actually have to mark the mock tests we did"

"These finals really mean a lot to you, huh?" He commented lightly, enjoying the marshmallows littered heavily in his cereal.

"Yeah, I've gotta get into Oxford, haven't I?" Joelle told him, running a hand through her hair "One mark could be the difference between my place and someone else's"

"But you're gonna get in, so relax. What university wouldn't want you? Plus your Dad's rich, so..." Luke shrugged

"Morning" Ashton mumbled, his hand still resting on her waist as his other went to rub his eyes and sit up.

"Morning sleeping beauty" Joelle smiled, looking over at Luke to persuade him not to say anything.

Luke nodded solemnly and pressed a finger to his lips in a smirk, which Joelle immediately signaled for him to stop. It was too late though, because Ashton had already coined on.

"What?" Ashton asked, sitting up and moving them around so that she was sitting on his lap like before, but now he was sitting up too.

"We were talking about what I want to do in the future, and I was talking about how the distance will suck major dick if I get to England" Joelle told him, trying to get his opinion on the subject so she could ground her basis for not going into a relationship with him off of it.