Pain & Insanity *ON HOLD* (ASHTON IRWIN AU)

Chapter 7: Ashton

The sun began to descend from the sky as I slowly began to walk back home. The sky was now a rich burnt orange. The air was crisp and blew against my red nose. All the warmth that was in the day disappeared, and a cold and bitter wind replaced it. My mind was thinking back to the interview that I just had with Genevieve. I remembered her last questions, and thought back to my childhood. I watched every step that my converse clad feet took as I made my way down the sidewalk. I kicked at a pebble my entire way home.

Soon, I heard heavy footsteps behind me. I spun around to be met by a red-eyed Calum. "How did it go?" He asked. I stopped walking and turned to face him.

"Where were you? You were supposed to be there with me." I stated while eyeing him suspiciously. Calum giggled like a child.

"I had to meet up with some friends." He winked at me when he said the word, 'friends'.

"You went to buy yourself some more drugs, didn't you?" I questioned while examining his behaviour. "You're high."

"High as a kite." Calum chuckled. I rolled my eyes at his behaviour.

"What do you take?" I asked. "Because if it's going to kill you, don't bother hanging around me anymore."

Calum tripped over himself to reach where I was standing. He tripped over an untied shoelace and fell flat on his face. I bent down and helped him get off of the sidewalk. I was thankful that nobody was outside at this time.

"Uhh. I mostly pop some pills, but I'll do some weed on an off day. My dealer must lace it with something else, because it's the best weed that I've ever had!"

"You're ruining your life, you know." I informed him while pulling his arm over my shoulder. I carried most of his weight as we made our way back to the camp.

"What life? This is my life!" Calum exclaimed while looking me deeply in the eyes. "You can't take this away from me. It's the only thing I have!"

I sighed. "You're delusional." I scoffed while nearing the camp. "You better sober up completely; the crew doesn't like druggies."

I entered the big gates of the community park. We walked in a diagonal; away from the public area and into the forest. "Ash, where are we going?" Calum whined.

"Don't call me Ash." I said. "We're headed to the camp. If you'd shut up, then I'll introduce you to everyone once we get there."

After a couple minutes of walking through the muddy forest, we reached a small clearing. Tiny lean to's made from spare blankets and plywood were scattered around the moonlit clearing. A small campfire was going in the middle of the camp, where the rest of the crew was sitting. "Whoa." Calum breathed.

"Pretty impressive, isn't it?" I asked with a small smirk.

"You all live out here?" Calum gasped while inspecting all the make shift houses. "Why not just go to a shelter? How do you not get caught out here?"

"Shelter's are horrible." I confessed. "People beat you up, they steal your stuff." I gestured to my backpack that was filled with stolen items. "And we don't get caught because we don't tell anyone about where we stay. We only bring people that we feel really need a street family, or can keep a secret."

Calum looked me in the eyes. "You think I needed a family? That's sweet, Ashton."

I shook my head. "I think you can keep a secret. Maybe I was wrong." Calum snorted at my comment.

As we neared the camp, I began to see people's features and make out who they are. "You see that girl over there?" I asked Calum as I pointed to a skinny redhead with a sligtly patruding belly. We stopped walling for a bit. "Her name's Ryan. She was a crack baby. Her parent's didn't want her because some guy got her pregnant, so they kicked her out. We found her sleeping in a telephone booth just last month, so we took her in."