Close As Strangers - AFI

Chapter 7

Sabina was a little confused when she woke up in an unfamiliar room, lying between two boys. Memories of the previous night came flashing back, remembering how she arrived here, being a total mess. That thought embarrassed her a bit, she didn't like that Ashton had to see her in that state. 

'Hi.' Ashton whispered, as he gave Sabina a warm smile. 

'Hey.' Sabina replied, smiling back at the sleepy boy lying next to her. 

'Did you sleep well?' Ashton asked as he went with his hand through his hair to ruffle it a bit, a think he did quite often, Sabina had noticed.

'Yes, I did. Thank you for being so welcoming.' Sabina said gratefully.

Suddenly the girl remembered the situation she was in, she barely had any money, she didn't know where to go and she didn't have a proper education so finding a job would be hard for her. She got £500 out of the ATM last night with her dad's Creditcard she had for emergencies, but she couldn't keep stealing from him. The band was leaving for Australia tonight so she would probably never see them again either, which saddened her. 

'What's wrong?' Ashton asked, noticing Sabina's worry. 

'I- it's nothing.' Sabina stammered. She didn't want to make Ashton worry about her again.

'Do you want to talk about what happened yesterday?' Ashton asked, hoping he would get more out of the girl this time.

'I already told you,' Sabina sighed, 'my mother was asleep, I had no keys, I went into town and tripped which caused me to fall onto my face.'

Ashton still wasn't buying the story, there's no way her bruised face happened from just tripping. Something worse happened, but it seemed Sabina really didn't want to talk about it.

'Okay. Just know you can tell me anything.' 

'I know.' Sabina said, hoping that would make the boy drop the topic.

'Okay, good.' Ashton smiled, not pushing it any further. 

'There's a girl in our bed!' Michaels loud voice suddenly disrupted the silence.

'Good morning to you too, Michael.' Sabina joked, looking at the boy with extremely messy, red hair. 

'Oh, it's just you.' Michael said, which made Sabina roll her eyes.

'Yeah, just me.' Sabina repeated, laughing.

'Wow, wow, woah!' Michael suddenly said, a look of worry was on his face, 'What happened to your face?' 

Sabina remembered her black eye, split lip and scratches that were all over her face, 'Oh, I um, I tripped.' the girl muttered.

'Yeah, right.' Michael didn't give in that easily, 'now tell me what really happened.'

'I just told you, I tripped.' Sabina was playing nervously with the ends of her - Ashton's shirt and looked down at her hands while speaking. 

Neither Ashton, nor Michael believed her but they decided not to push it, they shot each other a worried look but decided that if Sabina was going to tell them, it had to be her decision. 

'Do you want to grab some breakfast?' Ashton asked the small girl.

'Yes! Food!' Michael interrupted, suddenly acting very excited, which made Sabina giggle.

'Michael!' Sabina screamed, 'please warn me when you jump up wearing nothing but your underwear!' 

'Don't you think I look hot?' Michael shot back, acting offended, which made Sabina laugh.