Behind the Glasses || a.i.

Chapter 34

More intense stuff ahead.

 “Hey, you bought me a turtle, right?”

 “No, I didn’t, I’m still talking to you.”

 “Aw! You’re so nice, talking to me an’ all!” Giggles poor from Ashton’s mouth, drugs controlling his tongue and speaking for him.

 I laugh, the sound of it coming across as fake. “How are you feeling?”

 “Pretty damn good, I tell ya!” he shouts. I shush him, putting a finger to his lips. He crosses his eyes to look where my finger is pressed, raising his eyebrows. “Oh, I see how it is,” he says cheekily with a smirk.

 “Ashton,” I hiss. I take my hand away, standing up from the chair.

 “Hey! Don’t leave me!” he whines.

 “I’m staying,” I assure him.

 “No, where are you going?”

 “I’m stretching my legs.”

 “Wait.” His face falls, scaring me.

 “Wait, what?”

 “Wait, I need a hug.”

 I huff, leaning down to hug him. “Better-” He pulls me down on top of him. “Ashton!”

 “Cuddle with me.”

 “No, Ashton, not right now,” I say from above him. I blush at our position.

 “Please, babe.”

 “No, Ashton, we are in a hospit-”

 “Excuse me- What are you doing?” a nurse shouts, entering the room. I climb off of him as quickly as I can, scrambling to the floor. “There will be no-”

 “You don’t understand. He pulled me-”

 “I don‘t care who did it, there will be no sex in here!”

 “I know, we weren’t-”

 “Go wait outside.”

 I scowl at her. “You got in trouble,” Ashton sings, and I want to slap him, but I don’t; a: because that is not what a girlfriend should do and b: because the nurse is in the room.

 I trudge out into the hallway. Not feeling like doing anything, I wander down to the toy area of the lobby to find the girls. While I’m in the elevator, my right hand fiddles with my left sweatshirt sleeve. I wince at the fabric touching my skin.

 I walk over to the toy area to find Phoebe doing a puzzle, lying on her stomach and Caroline reading a Dr. Seuss book. “Are you girls okay?” I whisper to them.

 Caroline looks up, nodding. “Yeah, how’s Ashton?”

 “He’s okay.”

 She glances over to Phoebe who has not looked up from her duck puzzle. “She hasn’t said anything since we left the station,” she whispers to me. I frown, watching the sad little girl. “She’s never gotten this upset with me.”

 I look at Caroline with pity. “You’re a very smart girl, you know that?” She looks from her sister to me, locking eyes with mine. She wears a blank expression. “You’re smart, and you’re brave like a warrior.” She moves her gaze to her little red sneakers that look as though they have been put through utter hell. “And you’re pretty, too, a warrior princess.” She doesn’t say anything in return. She simply seems rapt in her small feet. “You don’t realize it, do you?”