Green Light ✓ || Ashton X Reader

Chapter 3

"Where to first, love?" Luke asks as the band finishes up. You've cleared them to be out of the Magnificat for the night, as long as you are with them in your pink polo. That way, if there is trouble, you can report it back to the Magnificat.

"Uh..." You've been in Los Angeles maybe 48 hours, if that. "I don't know?"

"Then let's look up something," Calum says, swiping open his phone. "That song has me in the mood for pizza, though."

"Then let's find some homemade pizza joint!" Ashton calls out. "No sense getting Domino's or Pizza Capers or some other crook place."

"Defo." Michael grins. "Hey, love, can you look that up?"

You figure at this point they're never going to call you by your real name. But he has never called you love, so it feels kind of refreshing. You scroll through your phone, checking the Yelp app until you come across a place called Anna Mae's, just off the boardwalk. "How about here?"

"Beaut, let's roll." You all walk straight through the Magnificat, exiting out the big mall doors on the west side. The beautiful winter sky spreads out in front of you. The beach isn't busy, since the water is absolutely freezing, but it's not cold out at all. You don't even need a jacket, though you're glad you're wearing pants instead of shorts.

Passersby are walking everywhere on the boardwalk next to you. There's a lot of people, so you look for the band and stick with them. The others are lost in their phones, so you poke Ashton in the shoulder. "Can I stick by you? I don't like big crowds."

"Well, if you don't like big crowds, I'm not sure what you're doing in L.A., love," Ashton says with a laugh. "But sure." He pats you on the shoulder, and you try not to wince. He's just being nice.

You check your phone and point everyone away from the boardwalk, just a bit. Anna Mae's is the next avenue over, and you cross the street to get there. You stay behind Ashton the entire time, even though you're supposed to be the one leading. It seems like the other boys know where this is, anyway.

The five of you go in and grab a big table in the far corner. Thankfully the boys take over the conversation, because all you can think about is the crowd across the street. You remind yourself that you have a new phone, that he doesn't have this phone number -- yet, at least. You told the seller at the cell phone store that you didn't want the number published on the Internet, because who knew --

"You are not here, love."

You jump and put your phone down, but it's just Ashton again. "What kind of pizza do you want?"

"Just cheese, please." You give them further instructions on how to make it the way you like it. "Sorry about that."

"You're living inside your head. What's going on?"

"I just moved here. That's all."

"Ahh, to L.A.? That's awesome! I bet you're stoked."

"You could say that." If stoked meant finally free of your now ex-boyfriend. Wait. Does he know at this point that he's your ex? You never really made that official.

"Well, anything we can help with? If you've got a lot on your plate, moving wise, we should help."

"How?"

"I don't know, if you need more time to take care of things, do it, love. Or we can help you. We'll even give you the mate's rate."

"...what?"

Calum punches Ashton in the shoulder. "Mind your own bizzo, dude. Pizza's here."

The pizza is delivered, and you all take turns eating. Michael can't stop talking about how "stoked" he is about...something, and you keep your eyes on your phone. You check it every couple of minutes or so, just to see if he's messaged you, and then you always have it on vibrate so you can know at any time when he texts. You're so focused on listening for its sound that you jump six feet in the air when something lands on your shoulder.

Turns out it's Ashton's hand. "Are you sure you're ok, love?"

"Yeah. Just..."

"You are not even listening to the conversation we are having. We just asked you how many more boxes you needed unpacked."

"Oh." You pause. "I didn't bring a lot of stuff with me."

"Well, then, what do you need to buy?" Calum asked.

"Tell you what," Luke says, making an executive decision. "We'll come up to your room after this, and we'll figure out what needs to be done --"

"No!" The volume of your voice shocks you, and all four boys are looking at you. "I mean..." Men could never come over to your house, and sometimes women, if he felt threatened by them. But if he's not here, then maybe they could come upstairs. It felt...scandalous. In theory, artists weren't supposed to be in employee dorms, but it wasn't a rule.

"Maybe...maybe we can do that. But only if you all come, okay?"

"After we have some more fun first," Ashton says. He glances at you, and you can tell what he's thinking just from that look. It means, I know you're hiding something, and I'm going to find out what it is. But the five of you finish your pizza and skip out onto the boardwalk, and Ashton drags the group over to a skate rental place.

"Skating down the boardwalk! What could go wrong?"

Everything, you think, but you give the man behind the stand your size and make sure to get a regular pair of skates, a helmet, and wrist guards. You ask if you need anything extra, but that's all they have in adult sizes. So you strap everything in, and you put your cell phone in your bag, and you give your bag to the man behind the counter for safekeeping.

Luke and Michael are already ahead of you by the time you're all suited up. Calum finishes, and then Ashton straps in. It takes a second to get your balance, but you've got the hang of it. Luke waves at you to catch up, and you do so, gliding effortlessly down the boardwalk. There's magic and music and conversation all around you, but you've got your eyes on them, and all of your stress seems to rise up into the big, beautiful sky. You check, and Ashton is skating behind you, and soon they're all in a line together singing some dumb song about donuts, and you can't help but laugh. Then Michael tries to skate in a circle and fails, and Calum and Luke have a skate race, and you're laughing so hard that you fall over and you realize: this is great fun.

You don't realize that you've left your phone in your bag until you get back to the skating booth.