chemical kiss | ashton irwin

Chapter Twenty Two

July 7

"You excited?" Michael asked me, not peeling his eyes from the road.

"Maybe I would be if you guys would tell me where we're going," I rolled my eyes. "You all seem to have a thing for surprising me. First it was my first date with Ash, and now this."

Calum laughed from the seat behind mine. "Next thing you know we'll be moving to Japan," he snickered, making the others chuckle along as I stuck my middle finger up at him.

I gazed out the window to my right and turned up the radio. Something by Justice Crew was playing, and it was super catchy, but the boys didn't like it. I refused to let them turn it down or off though. Anyway, my view was a thick forest to the right and left sides, the meandering road seemingly lead to nowhere. It felt like we were lost, driving forever. It had been an hour and a half since we left and Luke kept reminding me that there was another hour yet to go.

The boys had organized something for Ashton's birthday, but he was in on it, and even though I desperately wanted to be, I had no say in what we were doing. It was ironic that it was Ashton's birthday but I was getting the surprise. These guys made no sense to me.

"Yeah, well. I'm not telling you where we're going," Michael said.

"Why not? It's not my birthday. I don't see why Ashton's not being surprised but I am," I explained. Michael just shook his head and sped up ever so slightly.

"I don't like surprises most of the time, so that would be a horrible gift," Ash piped up. For a while he had his ear buds in because he couldn't handle "the awfulness of the crap that played on the radio".

"Well neither do I," I agreed.

"That's going to be a problem then, because you're going to have to get used to it if you're my girlfriend," Ash said. I scoffed as he blew a kiss from the seat behind Michael's, and Calum made a heart shape with his two hands, his lip pouted.

"Ew, mates. Go love each other somewhere else," Michael commented, his nosed wrinkled in mock disgust.

"Shut up!" I nudged his shoulder and he laughed, so did Luke. I felt bad for Luke because he was such a big guy and he had to sit wedged in between Calum and Ashton in the seats behind the driver and passenger. He didn't want to sit in the back alone and neither Ash nor Calum offered to switch places with him, although they were all fairly tall. I would have switched with him, but Calum was all sweaty and didn't take a shower and I didn't want to sit next to him.

Finally we came across a large building that seemed like it'd be found in an airport, since it had several fast food places, gift shops, and the bathrooms were the size of a living room. I forgot what they called those, but they were kind of set in the middle of nowhere for people who were travelling. And plus there was a gas station.

We went inside and I got myself a water bottle and used the bathroom. The boys all got Burger King, and they ate at a booth in the center of the building. I sat by Ashton and Luke and listened to music from my phone.

I noticed my iMessage app had many unread text messages, but I frowned when I read who they were from. Two from my father, one from my mother, and seven from Janie. I felt awful about ignoring her and not Delia, since I actually chatted with Delia a lot now that she and Luke were about as deep as Ash and me. But Janie texted me almost every night for the past week and asked where I'd been or why I'd been ignoring her. I didn't know how to answer the texts, so I didn't.

In ten minutes the boys were all ready to leave. "You coming, Thalia?" Calum asked me, the others had already started to exit the compound of fast food places and miniature shops. I looked up from my phone and hurried to leave my messaging app, then nodded at the boy who looked somewhat worried about me.

"Yeah, sorry. Couldn't think of a reply to text someone," I said. Technically it was not a lie.

"Alright. Well let's go," Calum said. He beckoned me toward the door we would exit through and we made it out to the car. He climbed in the driver's seat, Michael was in shotgun. Ash still held his previous spot and Luke was where Calum had been, so he had more room.

I ran up and climbed over Luke so I could sit down in between him and my boyfriend.

I leaned my head on Ashton's shoulder and he placed his arm around my waist, and for a solid five minutes Luke rolled his eyes and grizzled.

"You're just jealous because Delia's not here," Michael, who'd been watching Ash and I and listening to Luke's complaints, laughed.

Luke narrowed his eyes and looked down to his hands, tracing some tattoos on his wrists. "You don't even have a girlfriend. You don't know what it's like to leave her behind," Luke said. That was probably the sweetest thing I ever heard fly from Luke's mouth, I thought.

"Hey, what about me?" Calum pouted while tilting his head toward Michael. We all laughed. "I swear she's sitting right here," Calum added, and Michael lightly punched him in the arm.

Through endless laughs, the next forty-five minutes came easy. It wasn't as dreadfully long as I'd anticipated, given I was sitting in Ashton's arms, had an ear bud in playing "Arizona," and the boys were generally very funny people.

The road was bumpy by the time Calum announced that we were nearly there. There was only a few more minutes; we had yet to park.

The area was heavily wooded and shady, the road was made of dirt and gravel. A word popped into my mind: camping.

Ashton, Luke, Calum, and Michael led me about fifty meters on a path and I found a semi circle, arc-like shape made up of three gigantic tents.

"What's this?" I asked, smiling at the boys, although I already knew very well that they had planned a camping trip.

Ashton just smiled and bent down to peck my lips softly. I kissed him back and asked which one was ours. It was quite obvious we'd be sharing one, and two of the other guys would share another, and the last would share the final tent. I wanted to know which boys who'd have to he forced to share their tent. I thought it would be Calum and Luke, since Michael snored loudly.

We all got settled in and I found out someone had packed a suitcase for me. The boys already had their stuff here, I supposed, since no one brought anything but their phones with them. I'd been informed that we'd stay here for four days, just hang out with each other as a belated Independence Day and birthday celebration. It was weird for Ashton, Calum, Michael, and Luke because they were Australians, they didn't celebrate America's declaration of independence down under. I wasn't sure Ash had ever even heard of July 4 as a holiday, because I had to explain the whole thing.

At sunset that night, after I sat back and laughed as Michael and Calum tried to get a fire going and eventually did, all five of us huddled around the heap of flames that danced and licked and crackled. We roasted marshmallows and nearly burned our hands off, but it was really entertaining actually. Calum, Luke, Michael, and definitely Ashton had become my best friends in a matter of weeks, as alien as it sounded. I had basically abandoned Janie and replaced her with Delia and a group of inked boys, which I felt horrible for, but I loved them all so much and couldn't afford to lose any of them. I'd basically lost my parents and if I decided to talk to Janie any time soon then I knew for sure that everything would fall apart.

Before I knew it, the sky was indigo and starry, and I was half asleep. I had laid my head on Ashton's chest, which was bare, and felt him vibrate with laughter at something Michael said. The fire was hot on my skin although I was a good three or so feet away from it, it felt nice, along with Ashton's warmth. I heard someone singing, and the boys had all joined whoever started. It wasn't a typical cheesy campfire song, it was the stupid one from Spongebob that was called "Campfire Song Song" or something stupid like that. I laughed at their childishness, and fell asleep to the sound of the group of boys laughing and flames cackling.