tongue-tied and heartbroken ||mashton||

Chapter 7

Now that I knew about Emma, Ashton often confided in me. He was still against the idea that she was abusive, but he came to me with new bruises he wanted help covering. He never talked about where they came from, but I knew they were from her. None of his friends knew the truth. No one did. Only Ashton, me, and Emma. But Emma didn't know that I knew.

Life continued on as normal, though. I still avoided my dad by staying at Luke's most of the time. I still went to school every day. I still caught myself staring at Ashton. I still thought about him every minute of every day. But every morning I would meet Ashton in the bathroom on the far end of the school, the bathroom that no one used. He didn't want anyone to find us out. I kind of liked sneaking around with him in secret, but I hated the circumstances. Instead of sneaking off to kiss, we were sneaking off to cover the bruises given to him by Emma. And every day, they got worse.

I didn't tell Luke about my secret meetings with Ashton. I didn't tell him any more about Emma other than she was cheating on Ashton. He and Savanna had been helping me gather proof against her to show Ashton. He still didn't believe that she would cheat on him. Luke was determined to help me prove that she was no good for him. I let him think that this was the only way Ashton would talk to me. He didn't need to know. Not yet.

Don't get me wrong, I hated lying to Luke. He was my best friend. I loved him like a brother. I told him everything. Everything except this. He couldn't know about Emma. Ashton made me swear to secrecy. So even though I always told Luke everything, this was one thing I was keeping to myself.

I think Luke noticed I was acting different. Like something was going on. Because he confronted me about it at his house after school one day.

"Michael, mate, what's up with you?" he asked. "You've been acting strange. Is it your dad again? Did he do something?"

"No," I said quickly. "I just- I want Ashton to accept the truth about Emma. It isn't fair that she's cheating on him, and he doesn't even believe it." It was only a partial lie, but I still felt bad. I did want Ashton to accept that Emma was cheating on him, but it wasn't what I was thinking about. I was thinking about how it felt watching her abuse him. I was thinking about how I had to meet him in secret every morning to help him cover the bruises. But I couldn't tell Luke any of it.

"Are you sure that's all?" he asked gently. "Michael, I know when something's bothering you. And I can tell that you aren't telling me everything."

"It's nothing," I replied. "I'm just worried about Ashton. That's all." Another partial lie. I was worried about Ashton, just not for the reasons Luke thought I was.

"I know it's tough, mate. We'll figure something out."

As soon as Luke fell asleep that night, I snuck out. I had to see Ashton. I needed to talk to him. This couldn't keep going on. So I walked to his house and went around back, throwing some small pebbles at the window of his bedroom. I didn't want to wake his parents. After a couple times, I saw his figure in front of the window. He opened it up. It was dark, so I couldn't see his face. He was just a dark shadow leaning out the window.

"Michael? What are you doing here? It's 2am," Ashton called sleepily.

"We need to talk."