leave him // a.i {au}

26

flashback

Ashton spent the next few weeks avoiding Stevie at school. He didn't speak to her, he didn't look at her, and he went the other way when he saw her coming. She had tried to contact him, but he ignored her texts and declined her calls. The one time she stopped by his house, he had Harry tell her that he was feeling sick.

As Ashton was eating lunch with Luke a couple days later, they were interrupted by Stevie's friend Leila.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked, tapping Ashton on the shoulder. She was dressed in a skater skirt and crop top, her arms folded across her chest. She seemed nervous, her eyes glancing around the cafeteria like she didn't want to be seen talking to them.

"Fine," Ashton sighed. He set down his carton of chocolate milk and got up to follow her into the hall. "What do you want?"

Leila seemed to relax now that they were in the empty hallway. "Stevie's miserable. I don't understand how you made her happy, but you did. You need to forgive her for what she did at that party and get back together. She's messing up in gymnastics and the coach threatened to kick her off the team."

Ashton was quiet, soaking in what Leila told him. He didn't like being told what to do and wasn't sure if he even wanted to get back together with Stevie, but he also knew that she loved gymnastics more than anything. "I'll talk to her, but I'm not promising that I'm going to forgive her."

"Good," Leila nodded. "I'll accept that. Now, wait a few minutes before you walk back in," she said and walked back toward the cafeteria. Ashton shook his head and followed close behind her, not caring what people thought.

***

That night after his shift at the coffee shop, Ashton walked to Stevie's house. He knocked on the door, contemplating if he was doing the right thing by coming to see her. A few moments later, the door swung open revealing her dad. Stevie's dad frightened him, but he had only met him a few times.

"Can I help you?" he asked, his voice deep and booming. He must not have remembered Ashton, a look of confusion showing on his face.

"Is Stevie home?"

"In her room," he nodded and moved to let Ashton inside. He slowly climbed the tall staircase to her room, finding the door closed halfway.

"Stevie?" he asked while knocking gently and pushing the door the rest of the way open. He found her lying on her stomach on her king sized bed. Headphones were plugged into her ears, Ashton being able to hear the music because she had it so loud.

Stevie didn't notice him until he was standing right before her. She slowly pulled out the headphones and sat up on her knees. Ashton hesitantly sat down on the bed, but left quite a bit of space between them.

The silence lasted for a few more minutes, the two of them trying to collect their thoughts as well as wondering who was going to be the first to say something.

"I'm sorry," Stevie said, not being able to handle the silence. "But you already knew that." She sniffled, revealing that she had been crying.

"I don't know what to tell you, but I'm not ready to forgive you. You humiliated me in front of everyone at that party. I'm sorry that I'm not ready, but I'm just not and you proved that I made the right decision by the way you acted."

Stevie opened her mouth to speak, but he stopped her by shaking his head. "But that's not what I came over to say."

"Then what?" she asked, confused.

"Leila told me that your gymnastics coach threatened to kick you off the team. What's going on?" Ashton tried to look into her eyes, but she glanced away.

"It's nothing," she shrugged, grabbing her phone and opening up twitter for something to distract her.

"It can't be nothing. You love gymnastics. It makes you happy, Stevie."

"You make me happy," she said, exasperated. She dropped her phone on the bed and finally looked Ashton in the eyes. "You're the first person that I've loved. I know it sounds crazy because we're so young, but it's true. I love you, Ashton Irwin. I'm miserable without you."

"You can't make someone your everything, base your happiness off of them. If you lose them, you'll have nothing."

"Maybe I don't want anything if I don't have you."

"I'm just trying to help. I know how much gymnastics means to you and you've worked too hard to just throw it all away. I thought you wanted to prove to your dad you could do it along with excelling at school."

"I do..." she whispered. "But I miss you and it makes me too upset that I can't just text you or call you anymore. You were always there for me, Ash."

"You took me for fucking granted," he snapped. "I was always there, but you treated me like shit. I don't know why I keep trying to help you." He stood up from the bed, getting ready to leave.

"Ashton, wait!" Stevie called.

"No. You need to learn how to be on your own before I can be with you, if at all," he said and left her.

Hiii (: I'm waiting in line to meet connor franta and had some time to write. please vote and comment. xx zoe