*Ashton's POV*
"Guys? I hope you're all still home!" I hear Luke over Calum's and Michael's video games, thankful that he's back home because I was just about bored out of my mind, only somewhat amused when one of the two boys would lose and they'd scream at each other.
"Yeah we're home!" I call back to him, watching as Calum shoots a goal for his team, therefore winning their intense game of FIFA, the 10th one today.
Luke strolls in, setting his keys on the table.
"Hey, guys could you turn that off for a second?" Luke asks the boys calmly.
"No way! We just started a new match!" Michael complains and Luke gives them a motherly glare. I want to laugh; Luke is the baby yet he's becoming more and more like all four of our mums every day.
"I'll turn off the TV if that's what it'll come to." Luke warns them. They sigh and pause the game, setting their controllers on the coffee table and I silently breathe out a sigh in relief. I can't stand to watch another match of FIFA. Why can't the guys get their asses off the couch, go outside and play soccer themselves?
Luke smiles in victory and sits opposite us on the coffee table.
"How's Linds?" I ask him.
"She's good, but I have a confession to make."
Furrowing my eyebrows, I intently look at him, watching each of his nervous ticks. He runs his fingers in his quiffed hair, bites his lip ring and plays with the ring on his pinky finger before clasping his hands together.
"Is everything okay?"
"Lindsay wasn't really sick." He admits. Okay that was a lot less than I was expecting.
"Okay..." Calum trails off, asking for more information.
"Sorry I lied to you." Luke tells me.
"Well why would you lie that Lindsay is sick? Seems kind of stupid." I chuckle a little.
"Well, she told me she was sick but she wasn't really when I went over. She just didn't want me seeing something... Or someone, I should say."
I catch on immediately, and my eyes widen, "Oh man I'm so sorry. I can't believe she cheated on you! That's so fucked up! Is that why she didn't come over last night, because she was too afraid to face you? Man that-"
"No! She didn't cheat on me!"
"Then why was she hiding something and why would she lie and say she's sick?"
"Well I went over yesterday and found something out. Ashton, you have to promise me that you won't freak out." Luke warns me and my heart starts beating about ten times faster than a normal rate, feeling like it's about to burst out of my chest if he doesn't fucking spit it out.
"Why? Is Sabrina really hurt?"
"No, she's fine. She's so, so fine. I know that because...." He sighs heavily and I want to grab the collar of his flannel shirt and shake it out of him. "Sabrina is the one that Lindsay was hiding. She's here, in Sydney again."
What. The. Fuck.
I need to sit. Oh I am sitting. Good, because I feel like if I was standing, I'd faint. There's no way she's back.
"You're lying to me." I test it out to see if he is. If this is a lie, we're no longer friends.
"I'm not. She's been here for a month. You did see her at the shop the other day. She's really back, I spoke to her yesterday and just a few minutes ago."
Holy shit. I grab on to the cushion underneath me just for something to hold onto. I don't even know if I should be happy or sad. She's been here a month and hasn't once made a move to see me, even running from me when I saw her in the market. She's been hiding, from me. She doesn't want to see me.
"But what is she doing back?" I think out loud.
"Lindsay brought her back. She sent her a voice memo of that time when Linds asked you those questions you thought were stupid and believe it or not, it convinced Sabrina to come back. That, and a little good old-fashioned Lindsay persuasion."
How am I supposed to wrap my head around this? She's been just a few miles away from me, fifteen minutes even and I never knew. Lindsay's done a damn good job of hiding this massive secret.
"Why the fuck didn't Lindsay tell me, or Rebecca?!" I yell, jumping to my feet out of an anger impulse.
"They're her best friends and I assume she made them promise not to tell you. Hell, they didn't even tell me until I found out on accident yesterday, and Lindsay's my girlfriend!" Luke defends.
"And you waited a whole day to tell me? Do any of you realize how important this is?! Did you two know about this too?" I look at the two boys that were beside me.
"No! This is news to us too!" Michael holds his hands up in surrender.
"Yes we do realize that and we're sorry! I'm sorry! Sabrina made me promise not to tell you!"
"Why? Because she doesn't want to see me?" I huff, the emotions of all this shit making me want to cry right about now but I won't break down. Not yet.
"No, because she was afraid to see you. She didn't know how she'd feel about it. She loves you Ashton, she said it to me."
I decide to sit down, needing that support under me again.
"She still loves you." Luke repeats to me and that's when I break down my walls, letting the tears come freely, my chest actually aching.
She loves me. She doesn't hate me. She loves me.
"Can...can I see her?" I ask weakly, my voice breaking on me pathetically.
"No, mate, I'm sorry. She's not ready yet. But she said soon, very soon."
Oh god. What would I even say to her? Would anything need to be said? I feel like I'd be perfectly content if I just heard the words "I love you. I've missed you. I'm never leaving you again." If she muttered those words to me in person after not seeing her or speaking to her for five months, I'd be a happy man.
Though I ache to see her again, there's a part of me that's afraid. What if she tells me she doesn't want to be with me again? What if she doesn't let me touch her? What if she suddenly decides to leave again? I'd be even more broken than I was before. I'd rip this house apart brick by brick and find out where Luke hid all my friends in the shape of vodka and whiskey bottles.
"Are you alright? Your hands are shaking." I faintly hear Calum ask me, setting a hand gently on my back.
"I'm scared." I croak, sounding just as pathetic and weak as I feel.
"You've waited for months to see her again, there's nothing to be afraid of." Michael also rests a hand on my back, rubbing it in circles to comfort me.
"Yeah, she's so in love with you, Ash. Once you see her again, everything will start to fall back into place, I'm positive it will. You should be excited. She looks beautiful as ever, mate." Luke smiles at me softly.
"Does she?" I start to smile as well, remembering how effortlessly beautiful my girl would look every second of every day. She was like an angel, my own angel in my life.
"Stunning. You guys can finally be happy together again, in time."
"Yeah." I smile softly. She could finally be mine again and once I see her, I'm never going to let her go again.
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WE'RE GETTIN SOMEWHERE GUYS IM SO EXCITED I WAS SMILING SO BIG WHEN I WROTE THIS IDK WHY IM JUST SO ASDFGGHJL;WIJECBNNADFNJDF
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Xoxo S. <3