Laconic » a.i

4.8

//ashton//

It had only been two days since we'd moved back to the apartment -- we could transport there this time -- and it still hurt being there. I had to move out of my room -- Michael offered to move my stuff -- to the other one. Annie asked what she should do with Cooper's things but then Calum told her to just leave it.

Michael was still only talking to me -- hardly -- and I was doing the same to him. I still hung out with Jeremy a lot even though I didn't say much. Luke continued to ignore Michael, Emily continued to try to get him to calm down, Annie was still trying to get Michael to say something, and no one had heard from Ella so Noel was incredibly on-edge and constantly spacing out to find out anything about her future.

"How long can we stay here?" Emily asked. The sun was already going down so I didn't know why she was worrying about that now.

"As far as I know, Marcus and the sisters are still in Brisbane and on their way to Sydney," Sarah began. "From there, they'll probably follow us here but we'll be harder to find since we're in the middle of a large city."

"They can follow us?" Noel repeated.

"Ghost hunters have almost like built-in ghost trackers," Annie explained. "Some are better at tracking than others -- it takes practice. Marcus is incredible. He also has this friend, Melanie who's a fantastic tracker. Too bad she's exactly like Marcus. And, while this probably isn't the time to bring it up, I'm almost positive he cheated on me with her."

"You can castrate him for that later, but we need to focus now," Sarah told her. "But let that fuel your anger."

"So what's the plan?" Jeremy asked. He was becoming more talkative now; he had returned somewhat back to normal but not completely, obviously. "How do we know when they're coming?"

"Ghost hunters can tell when other hunters are around too," Sarah said, "And since he's my brother, I can tell when it's him. I've sensed a few around here but they haven't caught onto you guys yet. They're either focused on another ghost already or they simply don't care."

"So when you sense him, we're leaving?" Luke asked to clarify and Sarah nodded once to confirm.

"But we should still have another day at least."

"Is there a max?" Calum wondered.

Annie shrugged, "Maybe they'll get hit by a bus."

"Maybe Michael would like to hit them with it." Luke grumbled.

I continued to sit silently in the corner of the living room with Michael beside me. Annie sat on the other side of him and held his hand but she didn't say anything to him because he never really paid much attention to her anymore. She just figured he needed his space but Michael told me that he just didn't think he deserved Annie anymore. I assured him that wasn't the case but Michael will believe what he wants.

"I think we should get out or something," Emily suggested, trying to lighten the mood and change the subject. She noticed Luke was getting angrier as they sat there talking about the negative. "They're not here yet so why are we hiding? Let's go out and go sight seeing or something!"

"Yeah, none of us have ever been to London before." Noel shrugged. agreeing with Emily.

"I'm down," Calum agreed, looking around the room. "Everyone else in?"

Everyone chimed in with half-hearted I guess so's except for Michael. Calum looked at us and I just shrugged. Yeah, why not just go out for a while? I couldn't stand being in here anyway.

"Michael?" Noel smiled.

He shook his head, got up, and went into my room.

"Actually," Annie said as she stared at the now-closed door, "I'm going to stay here too."

I patted Annie's knee in a way to wish her luck before leaving with everyone else.

-

We'd been out for about an hour or so when I got a call from Annie. I picked up and she started talking, asking if I could go back to the apartment. She didn't say it was an emergency, she was just wondering if I'd mind switching places with her. That also meant I'd have to bring someone along to flash her back. I hummed a "mhmm" as a response before hanging up and grabbing Emily as the one to go with me.

After entering the apartment, the first thing I noticed was that it looked like a tornado hit. Things that were on the counter were on the floor, along with the throw pillows and the little blanket that was over the back of the couch. The door was thrown open to my room and everything was scattered around on the floor. Michael was sitting on the bed with shorts on and no shirt while Annie sat there in the clothes she was wearing earlier: black skirt, black and white horizontal striped shirt with quarter sleeves, and black heels. They both looked up one Emily and I walked in.

"I'll just ask for him," Emily said slowly, looking around before mustering up her best impression of me. "What have you done to my apartment?"

Annie blushed profusely, kissing Michael's cheek before getting up and taking Emily's hand, "I'll explain later. And sorry about the bed, Ashton. Let's go, Em."

So Emily just shrugged with a, "whatever" before flashing them out and back downtown. I turned to Michael who wasn't looking at me.

"What happened?" I asked him.

He shrugged, "Nothing."

"Then what was with the apology about the bed?" I wondered.

He bit his lip before running a hand through his hair, "We had sex on it... But we also did on the counter and the couch and the coffee table and against the wall by the other room so I don't know why she apologized for just your bed."

I almost choked. How did they go that long and all over the apartment?

"Maybe it's because I sleep there- God, Mikey!" I groaned.

Ashton, that's not the point. Breathe.

I took a deep breath instead of freaking out even more at Michael for banging his girlfriend on literally every surface of the house. I didn't sit down on my bed -- I was going to make him go with me to do some laundry before cleaning up -- but I went to stand by him, putting a hand on his back.

"So you're talking to her again?" I guessed.

He nodded with a smile, "We worked everything out."

"Good," I smiled before turning it into a grimace. "Also, you're fucking disgusting! Mikey, seriously?"

He just chuckled and stood up, "I get you're pissed but that was the best I've had since I died so I couldn't care less."