Gone || Ashton Irwin

Chapter 24

“Tuesdays suck.” Ashton comments as we walk across the road to a gas station.

“Yeah, they do.” I tell him under my breath, running my hands through my hair. “What are we getting again?”

“I just want some chips.” Ashton says with a grin.

“Oh. Okay.”

“You alright? You seem kinda distracted.”

“Yeah, I’m good.”

He nods and pushes the door open, holding it for me until I’m inside. He shuts it behind him and walks straight for the chip aisle. I bite down on my lip and follow him absentmindedly.

“You know, Val.” Ashton says, giving me a cheeky smile. “I could always pick up some condoms while we’re here.”

The look on my face shuts him up immediately.

“Maybe I’ll just go pay instead.” He mutters under his breath as he walks towards the cash register.

“I’ll be outside.” I tell him before stepping outside.

“Valerie?”

“Shit.” I say out loud, my eyes widening.

“Hey, Val.” James says, putting his hands in his pockets, walking towards me. “How’ve you been?”

“James.” I say, gulping loudly. “Um, good. I’ve been good.”

“How you doing without me? Bet you’re miserable, right?”

“Wrong.” Ashton says, wrapping his arm around my shoulder.

“Fucking hell.” I mumble under my breath through gritted teeth.

“How’re you, mate?” Ashton asks, giving James a smile a bit too nice for my liking.

“I think the better question is how you are. You sure you’re mentally stable enough to be walking around here? What if you’ve got a gun on you? You’re a lunatic.”

If there was one thing I thought I knew about Ashton Irwin, is that he’d never back down from a fight.

I was wrong.

He lets out a sigh and shakes his head. “You ready to go, Val?”

“Wait, are you two like, together again?” James asks with a scoff. “C’mon Val, you can’t be serious.”

“Val, let’s go.” Ashton whispers in my ear, his arm falling from my shoulder.

“Why the hell would you want to go out with someone as miserable as him, Val? I mean, I knew you were pathetic as hell, but I never thought that you’d actually-”

“Back the fuck up.” Ashton snaps. “Don’t fucking talk to her like that.”

Looks like I was right.

“Don’t tell me how to talk to her. I owned her while you were gone. Thanks to me she got off her fat ass and actually did something with her life, like exercise. She was gaining weight like crazy, mate.”

Ashton tenses up and takes a menacing step towards James. “I’ll fucking kill you if you open your fucking mouth one more time-”

“Oh, I made Valerie open her mouth quite a lot. Had her on her knees all day, too.”

“You son of a bitch!” Ashton yells, clenching his fists, dropping his bag of snacks on the ground. “I will fucking murder you.”

“Told you he was crazy, Val.” James says with a grin. “Now why don’t you dump the loser and come back to my place with me? I got plenty of booze and weed-”