A Certain Romance || Ashton Irwin

Lies and Wedgies

"Sage, where are you going?" I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping that my Mom's voice was just something ringing through my head in hallucinations. All I wanted was to leave the house without being confronted by her.

The whole plan was to sneak downstairs without disturbing anyone or being caught and then sprint to my destination. It would be like I wasn't even home. Even if I was home, no one would know. I spent most Friday's in my room doing homework or Skyping with Michael and Luke, who had nothing better to do and no one would bother me. I was invisible to my family.

"I'm going to Luke's...?" Okay, I was actually going to Michael's, but my mother didn't need to know that. Friday evenings were not the times to hear Mother complain about Michael's lack of holiness.

"Sweet boy," Mom muttered to herself with a smile. "What time will you be back?"

"I'm not sure." I shrugged, letting go of the doorknob since my journey to Michael's would not be happening anytime soon because of interrogation.

"11pm, curfew. Remember, Sage." Mom reminded as if I could ever forget.

"Honey," My Dad appeared from behind mom, locking his arms around her waist from behind "Let her stay out tonight."

"Bad things happen after 11pm." Mom said in a harsh tone.

Bad things happen all the time, it was surprising she even let me go to an actual school.

"If you're worried about the devil being out at 11pm, you're way off. Calum Hood is basically the devil and he's already out on the streets." Sam hollered from the couch, sipping on orange soda and watchings Sons of Anarchy; the show Mom hated with a passion.

"Here," Dad handed me a chain of keys. "Take the BMW, come home when you'd like, be safe and have fun, Sage."

-

"Holy shit, Sage!" Michael thumbed the BMW key. "We're showing up to the game in your car. It'll get so much attention."

"And your Buick won't?" Luke asked from the full length mirror hanging on Michael's closet door. Luke wanted to look "cool" at the game, he wanted to show our peers that he was not some ditzy, 17-year-old, blond boy, who hung out with his mom on weekends. So, he double checked, he triple checked, and quadruple checked his skinny jean and flannel combination, leaving the mirror and returning back to it every single time. His hair had to lay perfectly at the correct angle in order for him to be satisfied as well. He always said he never knew who he might run into when we go out, so it was a rule for him to always look cute.

"My Buick gets the wrong kind of attention." Michael adjusted the millions of bracelets on his wrist in between eye-rolls thrown at Luke for hogging the mirror. Michael and Luke loved looking at themselves more than most self-absorbed person in the world. Both were in a love-hate relationship with their looks. Michael was insecure about a few flaws here and there, and Luke picked at his insecurities until they drove him insane and made him cry himself to sleep some nights.

"Do we actually have to go to this game?" I groaned, throwing up one of Michael's pillows as I laid on his bed. I chuckled as I heard my mom's voice reminding me that I shouldn't be in a boy's bed unless I was married or it was Luke's bed. But lets be honest, Luke would freak out if any girl was ever in his bed. I was no exception.

"Yup." Michael snatched the pillow mid-air and threw it at Luke. "Have you decided what you're going to wear, Sage?"

The guys were both set on a plan to have me dress "hot" for the football game and Calum's dreaded after party that we were inviting ourselves to. Michael still wanted me to go through with his plan and being the loyal friend I was, I allowed myself to get sucked in to this mess. Last night, I spent a restless night in bed, pondering the pros and cons of doing this. Which, I happened to find more cons than pros and found myself feeling guilty about something I hadn't begun. But being known for something so enormous meant my last few months of high school would look better. No one would overlook me, maybe the popular kids would stop snickering at me behind my back, and maybe, just maybe, I could give Michael and Luke a chance at being considered cool.

I was going to be known as the girl who ruined the high school career of Ashton Irwin and possibly Calum Hood.

"I was just gonna go like this." I pointed to my tunic, leggings and cardigan combination as I sat up.

"My beautiful and idiotic Sage," Michael sighed.

"What?"

"Aaron Irwin is not going to fall for you dressed like that." Luke rolled his eyes at me.

-

"I remember why I retired skinny jeans and filled my wardrobe with leggings." I pulled at the denim, trying to stretch it out to make myself comfortable in the clothing while trying to pull up the lowcut tank top that showed too much cleavage even for Satan himself. I sported a black jacket that lacked a zipper because Luke pulled it off before we arrived to the game, pretty much assaulting me in my Dads car. "I have the worst wedgie right now." I circled my hips to try to get the clump of underwear out of my ass crack as I slammed the car door behind me.

I was already catching the unwanted attention of people that chose to ignore the last four years. Their glares made me twitch honestly. What was so special about me now? A girl puts on a pair of jeans and magically she ended up with endless amounts of attention.

"Pick it out!" Luke whispered.

"Okay, no, don't pick it out," Michael grabbed my shoulders. "Because there's Aaron, he's looking directly at you. Go talk to him." Michael shoved me forward to the clan of uniformed football players, each holding their helmets in one hand and mouth guards in the other.

It was quite a unique and pleasant sight to see Ashton like this. No one made overnight transitions from the new kid in school to quarterback of the football team with the school's god-like ruler backing up his every move. Stuff like that didn't happen normally, but I knew I lived in a rather different place with seemingly different people so anything could surprise me.

"Hi?" I cleared my throat. "Hello, Aaron." I wrapped the jacket to cover my chest, folding my arms and smiling uncomfortably at the new kid as I noticed I used the wrong name.

"Ashton." Ashton hooked his mouth guard to his facemask, placing his helmet under his armpit.

"Right," I nodded innocently.

I'd no clue how to act or what I was supposed to do to entice Ashton and make him think I liked him. I didn't know how to talk to guys like that, I only had the skill of talking to guys like they were my friends. Unless Ashton was looking to get fucked over in a best friend kind of way, I wasn't sure this would work out the way Michael had planned.

"I'm glad you showed up." Ashton ignored the calls from his teammates telling him to join the pregame huddle.

"I am too...I think." I shrugged, taking in the sight of his messy curls and bulky padding from his football gear. Looking at everything pieced together made me truly question how he made the team so fast and got the role of quarterback. Did he bribe Calum with money and cars? Did he charm the head coach? What about Ashton made him get so high up without being here a week?

"Gives me more of a reason to play better." He blushed, trying to hide a smile. How nauseating. I wanted to gag. I wasn't used to being gushed over. After years and years of just being one of the dudes, I had no clue how to handle someone blushing because of me and being happy because of me.

"Yeah." I nodded again. Nods were always acceptable when you didn't know what to say.

The head coach was finally yelling at all the slackers to join the huddle, waterfalls of spit leaving his mouth

"Gotta go."

"Break a leg?" I tilted my head and furrowed my eyebrows in confusion at my statement. "That's awful, no fuc-"

"She means good luck, Aaron!" Michael shouted, waving Ashton off.