gone. // irwin ON HOLD

0.6

My eyes fluttered open as the damn sun peaked through my giant windows. My blinds did a crappy job of shielding the bright light from my face. I stretched my limbs and rubbed the sand out of my tired and sore eyes. I grunted as I rolled over, not ready to wake up.

My phone buzzing on my nightstand brought me out of my pity party that I was having under the sheets. I groaned as I pushed comforter off of my body and reached over to grab the buzzing nuisance.

I nearly fell out of bed as I read the Caller ID name displayed across the screen.

Ashton Irwin.

How on this earth did he get my number, let alone my phone so he could add his number into it? I slid my finger across the screen and brought it to my ear.

"Hello?" I answer softly, afraid that this was all some sort of sick joke and that my phone would spontaneously combust at any second.

"Molly! Hey! So I added my number to your phone while you were peeing at my house last night. I hope that's alright." Before I could answer him he started babbling on. I got out of bed and wandered down my hall to get some breakfast as I listened to him talk his little heart out.

"I was just heading out and I was wondering if you'd wanna grab some lunch with me?" He ended his little ramble fest with a question that I wasn't expecting. I nearly spit out the water that was currently in my mouth.

Lunch? What time was it?

I glanced over at the clock above my refrigerator it read 11:34 a.m.

"Shit." I muttered under my breath. I attempted to run my fingers through my hair but they got caught in the tangles that formed while I was sleeping.

"Sorry, I knew you wouldn't want to go. I shouldn't have asked." He responded, his voice sounded deflated. My heart broke at his response. He genuinely thought I didn't want to hang out with him. I actually kind of wanted to. He's was kind to me for no reason. He wanted to be my friend. I really wanted a someone to call a friend. I was sick of referring to Rick as my one and only friend. He was annoying and got drunk alot.

"No no no!" I blurted. "I meant, 'shit it's later than I thought"' not, "shit I don't want to hang out with you."

"So you want to meet for lunch?" He asked, a glimmer of hope was evident in his voice.

"Yeah, I guess I do." I smiled even though he couldn't see me.

"Great! I'll text you the details. See you at 12:15." He said happily before he hung up. He texted right after he hung up with the details like he said.

I had half an hour to get ready and to make it dowtown if I didn't want to be late.

I clicked on my texts with Rick and sent him a quick message.

i'm going out, don't worry about me. i'm a big girl now and i can take care of myself.

I walked past the tiny earpiece and camera that laid on my kitchen counter. I was nineteen years old. It was time to act like an adult and stop relying on Rick to take care of me. 

***

 "I was actually very nervous that you wouldn't show up." Ashton laughed lightly, as I sat down across from him in the overstuffed booth.

"Why, do I look shifty to you?" I asked as I shook my coat off. Yes, I actually wore one today because it was twenty fricking degrees (fahrenheit) out.

"You can never trust people who just buy toilet paper at CVS." He smirked as he teased me. I just laughed and rolled my eyes.

A waitress walked up to our table and asked what we wanted to eat.

"I'll take a Coke and a cheeseburger with fries." Ashton told her as her handed her his menu. They both looked at me expectantly. I hadn't looked at the menu yet because I just arrived.

"Make that two of everything I ordered." Ashton smiled at the waitress as she wrote down the order and walked away. "Hope you like cheeseburgers."

"I'm actually a cheeseburger enthusiast. I could eat them all day every day." I laughed as I tucked a strand of my blonde hair behind my ear.

"Don't stop." He muttered. (if any of you mention the song i will lose it lol)

"Don't stop what?" I asked, completely confused at what he was talking about.

"Telling me about yourself."

"I'm lame, you don't want to know anything about me." I said. No one ever wanted to know anything about me. I was kind of scared. What if he wasn't clear like Rick said? Rick had never lied to me though.

I trusted Rick so I decided to proceed with telling Ashton about myself.

"I'm nineteen, my favorite color is green, I have a black belt in karate, and I have no clue what I want to do with the rest of my life." I just blurted out whatever came to the top of my head. "You?"

"I'm nineteen, I love red, I don't do sports, and I want to be a music teacher when I get older." He had a big smile on his face when he finished.

"What instruments do you play?" I asked, my curiousity getting the best of me.

"Drums, guitar, and piano." He smiled. Just as he said those words our food arrived and the rest of the time was filled with small talk about the weather or how the Yankees did this past year.

"I'm paying, don't even try." He warned me when the check came. I put my hands up in surrender as he pulled the money out of his wallet.

"Thank you for this," I smiled as we got up to leave. I slid my jacket on as Ashton held the door open for me.

"You're welcome. Hopefully I get to take you out again." He laughed, his cheeks turned slightly pink at his confession.

My heart started to beat faster because I knew this was all wrong. He couldn't get attached and most importantly, I couldn't get attached. The closer he got to me the more danger he would be in. I barely knew this boy, but I knew that he deserved to be safe forever. I couldn't let him get hurt. This all had to end.

"This wasn't a date Irwin." I informed him as we walked side by side down the sidewalk. 

"Yeah, I know. One day I hope it will be though."

a/n

ashtonnnnnnnnnnn is so stinking cute okay. this chapter was over 1000 words and it's super long and i hope you all love it because it took me awhile to write. thank you so so much for reading this, it literally means the world to me. <3 please please comment, fave, and share this story with your friends because that'd be flipping awesome. (i do dedications for active readers don't forget) LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH. <3 jenna