How it started™ | Ashton Irwin Fanfic

Chapter 23

"Hey, hey, she's opening her eyes!" A voice cheered. I could detect that the voice belonged to Michael. I winced as I opened my eyes and my vision became clear.

"Hey, Cliff. Happy birthday!" Michael grinned. My hand was trapped in his. Luke and Calum surrounded me and I could see Ashton standing behind them.

"Mikey!" I smiled. As my eyesight improved, I noticed that Michael's hair was a new colour. "Mikey, your hair!"

"It's... teal! Your favourite colour, just for you on your birthday!" Michael cried, jumping up and down before hugging my small body.

"I love it. You look awesome!" I grinned. It was nice to know that someone would dye their hair for me. That was pretty cool.

"Yeah, and while he was at it we dyed my hair purple." Luke laughed, ruffling his hair. He also looked gorgeous.

"You both look beautiful." I laughed.

"I would have dyed my hair but we ran out of dye." Calum sighed.

"Don't worry about it, Cal." I chuckled.

"Here," Calum handed me a small bag. "Happy birthday." He smiled.

"It's from us three. Ashton had another present for later." Luke giggled.

I opened the bag and revealed the contents. The first item was a small box with pandora written across the top. The boys knew I had a pandora bracelet and these things were expensive. I opened the box.

The charm was small and silver. It was in the shape of Australia, and it had the flag printed on it. That was so sweet.

"I love it. Thank you." I smiled, truly loving the gift.

"Open the rest." Mike urged.

The other things in the bag included a tee shirt from Nirvana's merch and a cute photo of the five of us in Central Park. I remember we had gone one day last week after school and had lunch and snapped the picture then.

"Thank you. This is so amazing." I thanked, genuinely smiling at them all.

"Only the best for Cassandra Mendes." The four of them said together.

"That was weird. You guys are like robots." I giggled and put the bag of gifts on the floor.

The rest of the day I was bombarded with greetings from my family and hugs from all of my friends. Rhys never showed up.

I was shocked at how many of my friends came to see me, but it was probably just because it was my birthday. I'd always thought that I would have been shunned if I hurt myself again. That's one of the reasons I stopped when I was fifteen.

I had multiple gifts from my dispersed family and friends at the end of the day and my hospital room was filled with balloons, flowers, cards and a few teddy bears, ranging from Get Well Soon items to Happy Birthday stuff. Simon refused to give me his birthday present to me until I got out of hospital. He said it was worth waiting for.

I was told I had to be monitored for the next few days so I was stuck in the hospital till Friday. My bad. That meant I was missing Michael's birthday though, the worst thing.

My family had left for the night and it was around 1am. My nurse, Cara, had told me to get some sleep but I ignored the statement. I flicked through the channels on television, mostly repeats of today's news. I stopped on a random news channel showing the past days news.

"We now have updates on Cassandra Cowell from New York City hospital. We go to out corespondent outside the hospital." A reported said. I sat up. That was me.

What the hell. Why were people interested in me. And why was I Cassandra Cowell? What happened to Cassandra Mendes? And how did people know I was in hospital? I thought I decided to stay out of press when I was younger?!

"Yes, Stacey. We've been informed that Cassandra Cowell, daughter of Simon Cowell, is in NYC hospital but there hasn't been any news of what for. Behind me there are hundreds of girls screaming for the One Direction boys who are inside with Cassandra now." I shut off the TV. What the fuck?!

I decided to get some sleep, suddenly feeling tired. My hospital bed was comfortable but not at comfy as my own. I started to regret what happened on Sunday night but just because my family and friends were upset. I was glad I made Rhys happy but decided never to do it again.

# Simon POV #

It was a long few days.

When I saw Cassandra laying passed out in her bathroom, I felt like something inside of me died. It was just like when she was fifteen, but the difference was she ha told me she would never hurt herself again just last week. But I did know what to do because it had happened before. I occupied myself by checking Cliff's breathing and pulse and wiping the bloodstains off her wrists so I wouldn't breakdown.

On Tuesday night, I got back to the house at one thirty in the morning. Ashton was sleeping in the house again just so he could feel like Cliff was around. He was such a sweet lad. I knew he truly loved Cliff.

As I climbed the stairs to my bedroom I noticed Cliff's bedroom light was on. I knew Ashton must've been in there so I decided to say goodnight to him. I padded down the hallway to Cliff's room.

Ashton was sitting comfortably on the bed scrolling through his phone.

"Goodnight, Ashton." I whispered, careful not to wake my other daughters.

"Um, Mr. Cowell..." Ashton started.

"It's Simon, you can call me Simon." I smiled. I leant against the mahogany doorframe.

"This is Cliff's phone." Ashton waved the phone in my direction. I came closer.

"Rhys had sent a few texts when I came in here first so I looked at them. Sorry for intruding like that but I was worried." Ashton shook his head a bit.

"What did you find?" I asked, coming about a metre away from Ashton.

"Well, Rhys said some nasty stuff. He called her a bitch and a skank. I promise she is not any of those things." Aston wiped his eyes. "And then he said, you're a bitch, nobody like you. Go kill yourself." Tears fell from Ashton's eyes.

"Don't cry, Ash." I comforted. "She's okay now."

"I know. It's just so shocking. She used to call Rhys her best friend." Ashton sobbed. He sniffled.

"I never liked him." I said bluntly and paused. "You should get some sleep. You can sleep there if you want. I'll get Mille to wake you for school tomorrow." I smiled and shut the door. Hopefully everyone would get a good nights sleep.