Unpredictable (A Lashton Fanfic)

Chapter Fifty - Lies.

We spent the rest of the day at Lime Kiln, but for some reason it wasn’t quite as special as yesterday’s trip had been. For one, we didn’t see any whales at all, and secondly, the texts I had seen on Shawn’s phone were still burning in the back of my mind. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get rid of the nagging voice in my head saying that he was keeping something from me, and I was finding that the trust I had put so faithfully in him was dwindling by the minute. I’ve always had a low tolerance for people who kept secrets, especially someone who claimed to ‘love’ me, and, knowing who Shawn worked for and who he was friends with, I felt like I needed to get back to Florida and away from him as quickly as I possibly could. Yesterday I wanted to spend time with him but today I wanted to get away. It was like a switch had been turned on inside of me and had restored all my sanity, because for the past week I haven’t been anything close to sane. Me ‘falling in love’ with Shawn had proven that.

            Another thing? I missed Ashton. I knew I had told him that after I had walked away at Shawn’s concert I would never think of him again, but that was a lie. I think about him every second of every day, and I can’t believe how absolutely stupid I was to let him go, especially now that Shawn was slowly but surely turning out to be someone completely different from who I had thought he was. I wanted to believe he had changed, that he wasn’t under Nathan’s influence anymore, and after the whole situation with Gemma I needed someone around to fill the void I felt without Ashton. He was the perfect person to make me happy again, or so I thought, and I had completely ruined the best thing that’s ever happened to me all because of my own selfishness. I knew Ashton couldn’t help that he was with Gemma. It was all management’s fault, so why did I blame him? Why had I walked away?

            This morning when I looked at myself in the mirror, it felt like I was looking at a completely different person. I had shut out the one I loved more than life itself and instead started a new relationship with an evil Strigoi who, just because he was attractive, had made me believe I actually loved him. I didn’t love Shawn, even though I had tried convincing myself and him of that, and as I stared out the window at the cars passing by I realized that I would only ever love one person and that one person was Ashton Irwin. I had to get him back. I had to.

            Shawn had manipulated me, and, just like in the text he had sent, he tried to make me believe that he loved me and I felt the same way about him when in all honesty, I didn’t. He had taken advantage of me because I was vulnerable and as I thought about it further, I realized that he was just as malicious as Nathan was, whether he knew it or not. The sad thing, though? I wasn’t angry at him. I was angry at myself, for being so completely stupid. I had always thought I was strong, that I wouldn’t let anyone or anything mess with my emotions but yet Shawn Mendes had done just that. He had come between Ashton and I and that was one thing I would not stand for, not anymore.

            I made up my mind that once we got back to Florida, I would go straight to Gemma’s apartment where Ashton was staying and talk to him. I would apologize, apologize for pushing him away just because of a stupid decision management made, and I would hold him close to me again and swear to him that I would never walk away from him ever again. I needed him in my life; after all, it’s just like Calum said—he’s my oxygen.

            A voice broke through my jumbled thoughts, and I looked up to see Shawn staring at me with a concerned expression that was almost as fake as he was. “Are you okay, Luke? You’ve been really quiet and distant all day.” We were currently in a van on our way to the airport, and I had tried my best to make as little conversation with him as I possibly could.

            I started to yell at him and say no, I was far from fine, but then I remembered that he is very possibly reporting everything I do back to Nathan and in order to keep myself safe I needed to make him think I still loved him. I couldn’t let him know that I had gone through his texts because if I did, my nosiness might just cost me my life. “I’m fine,” I said after a few moments, trying to give him my most reassuring smile. “So, what are our plans once we get back to Florida? I know we’ll be getting there late, but maybe we can go to a movie or something.” I didn’t want to go anywhere, especially with him, but in order to keep Shawn from getting too suspicious I had to tell him otherwise.

            “Oh, we’re not getting into Florida until tomorrow,” Shawn said simply. “I don’t know if I told you this, but tonight we’re flying into Los Angeles.”

            “California?” I didn’t know why in the world we were going there, but I knew it couldn’t be good. “Do we have a layover there or something?”

            Shawn started laughing, and I can’t believe I ever once thought it sounded beautiful because right then it was one of the most annoying noises I had ever heard. “No, we don’t have a layover there. Cameron and Nash called yesterday and wanted to hang out, and I figured tonight would be the perfect opportunity.”

            As soon as he said that, the uneasy feeling inside of me grew. Shawn knew how much I disliked Cameron and Nash—especially Nash, since he tried and almost succeeded to kill me—so why would he make me spend a night with them?

            Once I thought about it further, however, all of the pieces clicked together. This was Shawn’s plan all along—take me with him to Seattle, make me think he had changed, and then, right when I was starting to fall in love with him, he would hand me over to Nash, Cameron, and probably Nathan as well to finish me off. I had fallen right into his little trap. “Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?” I managed to say, trying desperately to hide the nervousness in my voice.

            “I don’t know,” Shawn shrugged and put his arm around me, and I had to fight the urge to shake it off and move to the back of the vehicle. “It didn’t seem like an important thing to bring up.”

            I wanted to say yes, yes it was very important that he failed to mention he was taking me to a place with two guys who probably wanted me dead as much as Nathan, but instead I once again smiled at him and quickly turned my head to resume staring out the window.

            We reached the airport half an hour later, but instead of going through security like we did last time we were led straight to the runway and onto a small plane that I could only assume was a private jet. “How did you rate this?” I whispered to Shawn. I couldn’t figure out for the life of me how in the world he had managed to be able to afford a plane like this almost overnight.

            “Let’s just say I may have used some compulsion to get the airport to rent me out a private jet,” Shawn said quietly, lowering his voice when a tall guy who appeared to be a flight attendant walked over to us. The name on his uniform said Jack Gilinsky, and Shawn smiled at him brightly when he walked by, leading me to believe they must be friends. I immediately grew suspicious—from what I’ve seen Shawn only hangs out with other Strigoi like him, which means this Jack guy must be one as well.

             I put on my headphones as we left the runway, indicating to Shawn and whoever else tried to talk to me that I was not in the mood for conversation. I didn’t want to talk, and as I closed my eyes I realized that I didn’t want to sleep either. I was nervous, so much so that I had to clasp my hands together to keep them from shaking. All I could think about was that if things played out like I thought they were, my hours here on this earth were limited.