Ashton Enchanted » [cashton] √

2.6

He was standing in the hall outside the back stairwell, and he couldn't remember how he'd gotten there; he looked down at his hands and saw a coffee tray and a brown paper bag. 

Where was he going with all this? Where had he been? The last thing he remembered was going to bed.. the night before? He couldn't be sure. 

He kept walking down the hall toward his locker; the hallway was empty; maybe class was in? Or maybe it was after class? He still wasn't sure. He put the food away in his locker and pulled out his phone. He was right. It had only been a day, and it was a few minutes until lunch. Where had the rest of the day gone? Had he slept walked through the day? No way, right? 

Despite knowing the time, he was still entirely disorientated; all that time couldn't possibly have just passed. The bell rang, and he stayed rooted to the spot, watching as people walked by. 

He was still standing there when Crystal approached him, a confused look on her face, "where were you? You said to meet you outside my class," 

"Did I?" he thought for a long moment, trying to remember ever telling her that. Still, he was drawing blank after blank, "I can't remember anything after going to bed last night, and the only reason I know it was only last night is because I checked the date on my phone," he admitted. 

"Wait, are you fucking with me?" she asked, her face screwed up in confusion. 

He shook his head quickly, pulling his locker open, "I went to bed last night and then the next thing I know, I'm standing with these in my hands outside the door to the back staircase," he explained. 

Crystal reached into his locker, opening the little brown bag, "well this is what I asked you to get me, and I suppose that would be the way you would have snuck back onto campus," she thought for a long moment, "I picked you up for school this morning? I made Michael walk, and you and I were talking about Calum?" she posed it all as a question. Still, all Ashton could do was shake his head, none of it rang a bell. 

"You told me you'd agreed to just be friends, and you wanted to know if I could figure out why he'd decided against that. Is any of this ringing a bell?" she asked, her voice still full of disbelief. 

"No, I know I wanted to tell you that and ask you that, but I don't remember ever saying it to you," he told her. 

"You don't think," she paused, chewing her lip as she thought, "that someone told you to forget?" 

Ashton's eyes widened, "fuck," 

"What would someone have told you to forget?"

"What if I just walked off and left the person? What if they said it as a joke? Fuck, I hope I didn't run into anyone I know," 

"I say we investigate; I'm curious, what if it's something really serious?" she said excitedly, tugging Ashton by the wrist toward the back stairwell. 

Ashton hurriedly closed his locker as she continued pulling him down the hall. They were practically jogging down the hall, and they didn't stop until they were in front of the door to the stairwell. 

"I'm not going in there," Ashton declared. 

Crystal rolled her eyes, "what, are you scared?" she asked. 

"Uh, yeah, what if someone died? What if I saw someone get murdered and they threatened me," he said, unable to keep the fear out of his voice. 

"Oh, Ashton, be realistic; it's probably nothing," she stepped closer to the door and leaned her ear just a few inches away from it. 

Her eyes widened, and her hand went for the handle pressing it down. Ashton's heart was hammering in his chest, and he took a few steps away from the door, not wanting to be seen by whoever was on the otherside. 

"What the fuck? Did Ashton tell you we were in here," came a male voice from the other side of the door, and Ashton's eyes widened, fuck. 

"No," Crystal said firmly, "I've been looking for him since the start of lunch; I'm assuming you've seen him?" she asked, and Ashton could just imagine her eyebrow was raised at them. 

Someone sighed, "He was here a little while ago; we told him to fuck off and not to tell anyone, that goes for you too," 

Crystal laughed, "you can't threaten me," she told them, "and you know if you don't want to get caught, I wouldn't use the only decent way to sneak off campus as your hookup spot, try the bleachers at the back of the oval," 

One of them scoffed, "So fucking smart aren't you," 

"Smart enough not to get caught and to realise that two of your teammates are out of the closet and no one has a problem with them," 

"Can you just fuck off?" 

Crystal hummed and pulled the door closed, a smirk on her face, she walked straight past Ashton, and he had to jog to catch up with her. 

"So?" he asked. 

"Alex Jefferson and Dylan Bui were hooking up in the stairwell," she laughed, "you must have run into them on your way back from the cafe, and they told you to forget you saw them, I guess they can't be blamed for realising you'd take it so literally," 

"Oh my fucking god," Ashton brought a hand up to rub at his eyes, "my life is the punch line of a bad joke, I swear to god," 

"At least it's interesting, I guess," she said with a shrug. 

Ashton couldn't help but disagree as they silently made their way back to their lockers, the sinking feeling in his chest was returning. The one that reminded him time and time again why it was that he couldn't let this Calum thing go any further. Which was disappointing because in all the excitement of Calum finally making a move, he'd almost been able to forget that he wasn't normal.