The Struggle

Ashton's POV.

*******PLEASE READ AUTHOR'S NOTE*******

"How bad is he?" I hear a familiar voice ask someone.
"Not too bad, but severe enough. He has a few broken ribs and he has severe bruising but that will clear up with time but he also suffered from a seizure. Is there any family history of seizures?" a man who I think is the doctor working on me informs and asks my mum.
"No not that I know of.. I don't know if there's any history of that on Ashton's father's side. We had a divorce when Ashton was around twelve and nothing like any seizures before then took place." she tells my doctor.
"I'm sorry. I'm also sorry for what I'm about to ask of you but I recommend we find out if Ashton's father's side has any family history of seizures. I don't think Ashton has any seizure conditions but it's better to be safe than sorry." He informs my mum.
"Okay. I'll contact him." my mum says solemnly.
"Okay, thank you." he says and I think walks away.
My eyes are still closed but my mum comes into the room and sits down on the edge of the bed and sighs.
"I'm so sorry this had to happen to you, Ash." my mum says as she brushes my hair off of my forehead. "You didn't deserve any of it" she says as she gives me a kiss and leaves the room to do what I believe is call my father.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
"Hi, Greg....It's Ann." I hear my mum say. "Something really serious has happened with Ashton and I really need to talk to you about it so when ever you get this, just give me a call back. It doesn't matter what time, we just need to talk." Figures. I'm not surprised at all that my dad didn't answer his phone. Towards the end their marriage, he never answered anything for her. Never answered his phone for her, her questions, nothing; he completely ignored her.
I open my eyes and I feel a tear stream down my cheek. I can't believe she said that I don't deserve this. If anyone, she doesn't deserve to be treated the way that she has been treated. Even by me, and I treat her the best out of everyone she comes in contact with.
I struggle to get up because of Sydney being on top of me, but I manage to do so. I grab the IV that I'm attached to and stumble to my room door. When I turn around the corner, I see my mum sitting on the ground, with her knees pulled to her chest with her face buried in her knees. I take slow steps towards her until I'm in front of her.
"Mum."
"Hi love." she says to me as she wipes away a few tears on her cheeks. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm good but what about you?" I question with sympathy in my voice. "I heard you trying to call dad."
"Yeah, but as usual, he didn't answer." she says while sniffling.
I bend down to sit next to her and wince from the pain. "No, you stay standing I can get up and we can take a walk around or something." she offers me.
"Okay." I say while grabbing her hand like I did when I was a kid.
"So, how did this happen? I'm sure that it's the last thing you want to talk about right now but I would kind of like to know." I pause for a moment thinking about what to tell her. I want to tell her the truth, I really do, but if I do I already know that somehow Luke and his friends will find out and something much worse will happen to me than this; or possibly Sydney. No, Luke would never do anything that bad to Sydney. Me, yeah, he'll beat me until I'm dead, literally, but Sydney, he would never lay a hand on her; or at least I think.
"How it happened?" I question my mother after coming out of my trance.
"Yes." she confirms for me.
"I don't know really. I guess I just said the wrong thing and it was taken badly." I tell her. And that really is the truth. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with what I said but knowing Luke's temper, he's bound to take it the wrong way and then proceed with throwing his fists into my face.
"Who did it?" Fuck! That was the one thing that I knew that she would ask; but also the one thing I was praying she wouldn't.
"I don't know to be honest. It all happened so fast." I say while I cross my fingers behind my back. A little trick I learned from my father.
"Are you sure?" she asks me while making deep eye contact making me feel like she's staring into my soul.
"Yes." I say confidently.
"Well, okay then. If you suddenly remember anything that happened, don't hesitate to tell me."
"I will." I say as we stop in the middle of the hallway and embrace each other in a loving mother-son hug.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
When I get back into the room, after convincing my mum to go back to work, I see Sydney sitting cross-legged on the bed with her phone in her hands.
"Hi!" she says with a smile while putting her phone in her pocket.
"Hey." I say back to her while sitting on the bed and kissing her forehead.
"How was your mum?" she asks me as I pull her onto my lap.
"She's as good as she can be considering the situation. She just headed back to work. She asked me tons of questions hah" I say the last part with a bit of a laugh.
"I don't blame her! I would have asked you tons of questions too and in fact I actually have some." Fuck. First my mum asking me questions and now Sydney!
I nod my head, telling her I'm ready for her questions. "How exactly did it start? Like did Luke just come at you for nothing or did someone say something that started the whole thing.
"You know Luke's friend Chad, right? Well he came up to me asking why I was hanging around with you and then Luke came up to me and asked me the same thing I think and I said that you don't have to do what Luke says and then he and his friends just lost it. Then I don't really know what happened but when I woke up I was with you."
"Luke just does not know when to stop!" Sydney says with frustration in her voice.
"Hey, it's fine-" I start but she cuts me off.
"No it's not Ashton! There's nothing okay about Luke taking his anger out on you! Or anyone for that matter! I'm sick and tired of seeing everyone at school treat you like a piece of shit! Everyone there just walks all over you and they don't even give you the time of day to try and get to know you!" Sydney yells as tears pool in her eyes.
"Sydney, calm down."I say to her as I rub her shoulder.
"NO! I'm furious as hell so I'm not going to calm down, Ashton! Everyone there treats and says so many bad things about you and I can't take it anymore!" She says as she starts crying "None of them know how awesome you are and it pisses me the fuck off that they treat you lower than everyone else!" Now she's sobbing. I pull Sydney completely up against and wrap my arms around her as her sobs continue to get louder.
"Shhh," I shush her as I kiss her head and rub her back. "Baby, it's okay. I don't want you to feel bad for me."
"But I do and I can't help but feel bad for you!" she says while calming down slightly yet still having a melt down.
"I don't care about what they think of me," I say as I kiss her soft, trembling lips, "want to know why?" I ask as she nods her head in agreement. "I don't care about what they think of me because I have you. Your opinion is the only one that matters to me because you're the only person that matters to me. Before you, I cared what people thought of me but ever sense I first laid eyes on you a few years back, all that I've been caring about is your opinion of me and trying to make myself suitable for you." I tell her as I stare deep into her ocean blue eyes.
"Ashton," she whispers as she puts her hands on my cheeks,"You've always been suitable for me. It just wasn't the right time for us to be together at that time." She says as she gives me a lip lingering peck.
"I know." I sigh, thinking back to that awful time in my life.
"Sydney."
"Mhm?"
"Why exactly does Luke hate me so much?" I can't help but ask her this. I've been wondering this for quite some time now and I just need to know why. What did I ever do to him that made him hate me so much?
"I don't know. You have no idea how many times I've asked him what he has against you. What I think he has against you is that he feels threatened by you." Threatened!!? By me!? Why in the world would Luke be threatened by me!? That makes absolutely no sense.
"Me? Sydney, why would Luke be threatened by me!?" I ask in utter shock. "There's nothing threatening about me!"
"I'm not sure. And I wouldn't say that you're threatening but you might be a little intimidating."
"How so?" I ask curiously.
"I'll tell you another time but for now let's cuddle!" Sydney says as she crawls further on top of me and I wrap my arms around her.
"I love you, Ash." she mumbles as she peppers kisses on my chest until she's kissed every part of it that is available to her.
"I love you, Syd." I tell her back as I kiss her head and close my eyes.

{Hiiiiii guys!! So, OMG I had so many Sashton feels in this chapter!! You should comment ship names for them and I'll find one of like! Also, another song that I think would go well with this story is Tenerife Sea by Ed Sheeran! I feel like that song just describes a couple so well and also especially when he sings about a girl looking very beautiful in a dress and how the boy likes her hair like that, that's how Ashton felt when he saw Sydney at homecoming! Also, Ed mentions eyes as blue as an ocean or something close to that in the song and Sydney just happens to have eyes that are blue like the ocean so yes!!! You should give the song a listen because it is really adorable and just perfection in it's purest form!!!}