Daisy (lashton)

Chapter 26

Ashton waited for the soft click of the door before he let himself break down completely. The anger he'd felt coursing through his veins when he was speaking with Luke was now completely dissolved into disappointment, and his hands shook from the adrenaline as he wiped his tears away.

"Fuck, fuck." He sniffed as he let himself drop into the nearest seat and held his head in his hands. The sobs began to wrack his body as he thought over the fight with Luke and the embarrassment he felt only made him cry harder. He was so mortified at the way Luke recoiled when he realized Ashton thought they were a couple. 

The thought was enough to send Ashton into another wave of sobs, and he laid down on the couch and brought his knees up to his chest. Ashton was embarrassed by how upset he was over this. He really didn't think he liked Luke that much, but the minute Luke walked out the door he felt his heart break. He thought they had something special, and he thought Luke felt it as well. But apparently not.

Ashton wasn't sure how long he was crying for, but it was long enough to where his stomach started aching and his nose was running pitifully down his face. All he wanted to do right now was cuddle with his daughter, and he had half a mind to call his mother and have her bring Daisy back, but he figured they were well over half way to her house by now and he didn't want to ruin a perfectly good weekend for Daisy with her grandmother.

It had been years since Ashton had last felt this type of emotional pain, the last time being the months following Peach's death. This pain wasn't nearly as horrible as losing his best friend, but after not having felt any sort of heartache for the last four years, it felt like a serrated knife had been plunged into his chest.

After what felt like hours of laying on the couch, Ashton's throat was dry and he knew he must have been dehydrated from all of the crying. With a sigh, he hoisted himself off of the couch and dragged his body to the kitchen for a glass of water. He hesitated as he was digging through the refrigerator for a bottle of water and instead grabbed one of the three bottles of beer Luke had left in his fridge. When he'd returned to the living room with his drink he paused when he noticed his phone sitting on the coffee table.

The thought of calling Luke was overwhelming. After nearly a month of spending every waking moment together besides the last week, the feeling of being alone sat like a rock in Ashton's stomach. Before Ashton could stop himself, he grabbed the phone and returned to his seat on the couch. He stared at the screen between his hands, the conversation between him and Luke staring back at him and making his gut twist. He saw that he had three unread messages from Luke since he left. The familiar feeling began to build up in his throat and before he could start sobbing again he deleted the conversation and moved towards the only other contact in his texts that wasn't family.

Before Ashton could second guess himself and spend the rest of his night wallowing in his own self-pity, he clicked on the contact and let the ringing of his phone beat in time with his rapidly growing headache.

"Hey Ash, what's up?" Calum's laughter filled the call and he could hear Mallory's own giggling in the background. Ashton's heart clenched at hearing the happy couple and began regretting his decision of calling up his best friend and interrupting whatever had him so happy.

"Ash? You there?" Calum's voice pulled Ashton from his thoughts and he cleared his throat before trying to speak.

"Cal, I uh, I'm sorry to interrupt, I..." Ashton's voice was breaking as he tried to force the words out through his tears. Even the thought of having to explain to Calum what happened was absolutely mortifying. He took a shaky breath and tried to continue, but the words wouldn't come out. "Sorry, I-"

"What's wrong, Ashton?" He heard shuffling from the other end before all background noise disappeared and Ashton assumed the Maori man had gone to take the call somewhere more private.