Burn ▹ Ashton Irwin

twenty two

"Ashton," I laughed, stumbling after him as he pulled me along the sidewalk. He seemed to be in quite the hurry at the moment, though he wasn't acting angry or upset like he usually does when he's in a rush.

"Where are we going?" I asked, speaking loudly over the business of the town. People pushed passed us and cars honked on the road; it was the typical scene when you're in the busiest part of a city. Ashton had taken me out of Calum's house just a few minutes ago, saying we needed to get some stuff done today. Calum said he was too tired to tag along, so after I made Ashton eat an orange we headed out, and we've been hurrying along the side of the road for about 10 minutes now. 

"I've been planning this for a few days," Ashton replied over his shoulder, pulling me up beside him. We halted at a cross walk, and Ashton pressed the button to let us across. "We're hanging out."

"I know we're hanging out," I nodded. "You told me this morning we're gonna hang out today. But what are we doing?"

"It's a surprise." he shrugged, taking my hand again when the cross-walk sign flashed the little white walking person. We joined the rest of the crowd and crossed the busy street, still in the heart of Atlanta - we've been here staying at Calum's for over a week, now. And as nice as it is, I was starting to wonder when we were leaving and what we had to do next.

"This needs to be done." Ashton kept going.

"I still don't - okay you know what," an idea came to my mind when I glanced down at the fact that we were both dressed lke we were going to go work out. Ashton was dressed in a pair of gym shorts and a grey muscle tank, and I was forced to put on one of my own T-shirts and borrow a pair of Ashton's gym shorts before we left this morning. Sometimes I get so fucking clueless with things like this. I guess I've just had a lot on my mind recently.

"You're taking me to work out, yeah?" I asked, raising my eyebrows at Ashton as we continued to speed-walk down the road.

"Eh - kind of," Ashton said lightly. He didn't look down at me and I could tell he was probably focused on getting to wherever we were going.

"Then what is it?"

"Geeze Skylar, I've never realized just how many questions you really ask until now." he laughed, stopping in his tracks along the dirty sidewalk. He nudged me to turn around and I did the same, following his gaze to the building we were standing infront of. By the looks of the heavy front doors and crooked sigh at the top, Ashton had taken me to a gym.

"So we are gonna work out." I concluded.

"Kind of, Skylar. Kind of." Ashton spoke, taking my hand again and intertwining our fingers together. As he led me to the enterace I found myself staring down at our hands and noticing just how tight Ashton was holding onto me.

When we came into the main room of the public gym I saw the usuals that you always see in these places: tredmills, elipticals, a bunch of sweaty men, those big color full excercise balls, a few sweaty women as well. I had no idea why we were even here, but i decided to keep my mouth shut until Ashton explains it to me.

"So a few days ago," he said casually, leading me through the gym and towards the back. "We got into that litle quarrel with those guys, right? I don't remember their names, but -"

"Bryan and Elliot." I told him, wondering how he didn't remember. It was only a few days ago, after all.

"- Right. Them," Ashton nodded. We walked onto a big blue mat that was spread across the floor, and I looked at the walls to see there was some boxing stuff on racks and laying on the floor. "So, from what I do remember, you fought them like a -"