Relentless

Chapter 47

Juliet

I feel my ears start to ring as the bullet leaves the gun. Before I can move, I feel a body push me to the ground and cover my head.

"Stay down." Ashton tells me. My entire body starts to tremble and it takes all of me not to break down and cry. After a minutes, Ashton picks me up and I see people running in all directions. Ashton grabs my hand and pulls me with him. We start running down the street but the gunfire follows. He takes me down an alley that leads into another street. Before we get to the street, Ashton pulls me over and starts to unbutton his shirt.

"What are you doing?" I ask. When he takes off his shirt, I see a black vest. He takes it off and then starts putting it on me. It feels like an extra fifteen pounds was added to my body. He makes sure it's fastened and grabs my chin with his hand, making me look at him.

"Do not take this off no matter what, understand? No matter what anyone tells you you are to keep this on at all times." He demands. I've never heard him sound this strong before. I nod and he buttons up his shirt again, taking my hand and running to the other street. Once we reach the street, Ashton looks frantically right and left, but doesn't know where to go. He makes a rash decision and decides to go left. We start running past people and my legs start to feel tired.

"Come on, Juliet." Ashton says, still running. He makes a sharp turn and we cross the street, weaving in and out of cars.

After about a half an hour of running, we enter a wooded area. We saw Daniel and Jackson about three times while running and have been shot at, but they missed. When we enter the woods, I start hyperventilating and lean against a tree. Ashton does the same, but at a different tree.

"What are we going to do?" I ask him once I catch my breath.

"We're going to wait." He replies.

"For what?"

"For the others to contact us saying that they found them. Until then, we keep moving." I feel tears burn my eyes and a sob escape my lips as we walk. Ashton turns around and snaps. "You need a backbone, Juliet."

"Wh... What?"

"Stop crying! You can't panic in times of chaos, you need to be strong! If you panic, you and the other people around you can't think! So do me a favor and shut the fuck up!" I gasp at the way he yelled at me and look down. I hear him release a sigh as he walks away. "Move, Juliet."

I hate the way he's treating me, but I know he's right. I need to stop being such a cry baby and be stronger. But he doesn't need to treat me like that.

Then again I treated him like this for months.

But he cheated on me, he has no right to do this to me!

I want my thoughts to come to a halt, so I try to push them to the back of my mind and focus on the task at hand.

Daniel and Jackson.

I need to try and turn all of my hate for Ashton into hate for Daniel and Jackson. They're the reason why I met him in the first place, so I should blame them for everything.

But meeting Ashton wasn't really that bad.

We had amazing times together and he did make me feel like I was somebody. I grasp the necklace around my neck and suck up my emotions, deciding to make conversation as we walk. Maybe I'll get some answers out of him.

"Why did you do it?" I ask, walking behind him.

"Do what?"

"Why did you kiss Brooke?" I ask. He keeps walking, not answering my question. "Hello? Anybody there?"

"You know why I did it, Juliet."

"I want to hear it from you."

"I can't."

"Can't what?"

"I can't say the words out loud."

"Why? Are you scared?"

"No."

"Then tell me."

"I can't, Juliet, just drop it!"

"I will not drop it. Do you know how badly you hurt me?"

"Yes I do and I'm sorry, but I can't go back and change anything."

"I could've accepted it if you just broke things off and told me you didn't want to be with me anymore. I would've gotten over you. But the way you ended things was,"

"Stupid." He interrupts me. "It was stupid. I thought that doing what I did would hurt you less than if something happened to me."

"You have no right to decide that. You have no right to decide how I would feel!"

"What about me, huh?" He asks, still walking and not looking at me. "What about how I feel?"

"Well it looked like you felt pretty good about yourself. Moving from one girl to the next, congratulations Ashton, you kept up your 'bad boy reputation'."

"What the fuck, Juliet?" He mumbles, though I can barely hear him.

"I can't hear you when you mumble, Ashton." I snap at him.

"You honestly think that it did what I did because of some stupid reputation?" He retaliates, sounding upset and angry. He stops in his tracks and runs his hands through his hair, grabbing it in frustration. I freeze behind him and watch him carefully, but he doesn't turn around.

"I was going into the military. Do you think it would've been easy for me to face the girl that I love and tell her that I'm leaving after I promised her that I wouldn't? Do you think it would've been easy to walk away? Do you think it was easy for me to see you perform on stage and then see you with another guy afterwards? Do you think it was easy for me to ignore the voice in my head that kept fucking telling me to turn around and tell you that I loved you with every fiber in my being? We'll guess what, Juliet," With one swift motion, he turns to look me in the eyes. "It wasn't!"

I stare into his eyes for a brief second, in shock. He takes a deep breath and glances up, but instead of releasing the breath, it gets caught in the back of his throat. I furrow my eyebrows in confusion and then see panic in his eyes.

"NO!" Ashton yells. All at once, he throws me to the ground and I hear a shot ring out, pain spreading through my body.