Romeo & Juliet - 5SOS // Ashton Irwin (Book 2)

Liar

I was sat at the counter in the diner that was closed for the day. I was balancing the books, something that I never did in my office because it took so long that if I did it in my stuffy, tiny office, I would be afraid of suffocating.

Pencil being led across the page with one hand as the other rubbed my temple in an attempt to alleviate my headache, silence pounded at my ears. The silence was broken by the bell ringing with the opening of the door, to which I called over my shoulder without looking, "We're closed today. There's a sign on the door. You can come back tomorrow, we'll be open then.

When I didn't hear the repeating of the bell, I turned around to face the customer. Ashton stood before me, hair dotted with raindrops that fell heavily upon the pavement outside the diner. Shifting in my seat to fully face the man I loved wholeheartedly, I said, "Hey, what're you doing here?"

He didn't answer and I noticed the way his eyes studied me like he was trying to make the pieces of an unsolvable puzzle fit, "W-What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Accusingly, he finally spoke, "You lied to me."

It wasn't a question, so I wasn't quite sure how he wanted me to reply, so I just asked him to elaborate, "When was I supposed to have lied to you?"

He broke eye contact, averting his eyes to the floor as he spoke before looking back at me, "The night you found out about Beth."

"I didn't-"

"You did," Ashton argued before I even got a chance to deny it, "You told me you were still with Elliot. You've been telling me that for weeks, Juliet."

I shrugged lightly, staring at the chipping baby blue nail polish on my fingernails, "You were with Beth so it didn't matter whether or not I was in a relationship."

"It did matter," Ashton insisted, stepping closer to me.

"Why?" I asked, jumping up from the barstool and taking a step toward him as well, "You were no longer available so it was irrelevant."

"No, it wasn't. If I had known you were coming to tell me you were in love with me and wanted to be with me, I never would've talked to you the way I did, said the things I did," He placed a hand on my arm like he was trying to apologize, though it was a pretty pathetic attempt at saying sorry.

I pulled away from his touch, his hand dropping to his side. I said, "Oh... you know about that part?"

He wrapped his arms around himself, "I ran into Elliot at the store. He asked if you and I were together. I had found that weird considering I'd thought he was your boyfriend. So, when I said no, he looked confused and asked if I hadn't been in love with you like you had me. By the time he caught on to the fact that I had no idea what he was talking about, I had already had the realization that I should probably talk to you."

There was silence for a few moments as I found myself at a loss for words once again until Ashton continued, "Juliet, you're... you're in love with me?"

"Of course I am..." I whispered back to him, biting down lightly on my bottom lip. Ashton reached out his hand, caressing my cheek. I leaned into his touch on instinct, allowing my eyes to flutter shut.

When they closed, however, Beth's face appeared in my head, making me open my eyes so I could see Ashton once again, "Ashton, you have a girlfriend."

He stared into my eyes not say anything, so I filled the quiet that time, saying, "So please, don't say or do anything more that could be considered cheating because that's not who you are. You're not a cheater and I will not make you into one."

It took a moment as we stared into one another's eyes before Ashton spoke again, "What do you want me to say, Juliet?"

I took a step back, unwillingly pulling away from his warm touch. I felt my throat tighten the way it always did when tears were about to start forming in my eyes. Quietly, I whispered, "I want you to say 'see you tomorrow,' and then I want you to go home and make a choice: me or Beth. Tomorrow I'll know your answer if you show up at the diner and I'll be even more sure of your decision if you don't."

He hesitated for a moment before he placed a soft kiss on my forehead and stepped away from me toward the door. After pulling it open, earning the ring of the bell above the door, he turned to face me in the open doorway, saying with a horribly sad smile on his face, "I'll see you tomorrow, Juliet."

As he turned to leave, the door closing firmly behind him, I felt an awful pang to my chest that I'd never experienced before, not after Joseph died nor when either of my parents left. Truly, I'd never known any of them nor they me.

Ashton was a different story. Thus, the pain was different. Not a good different, but a torturous and cruel kind. For, deep down, whether I was willing to admit it or not, I knew what his decision would be.