short skirts ➳ l.h.

t h i r t y - e i g h t

t h i r t y - e i g h t :

I woke up in a cold sweat, aching, my head pounding. I cried out and reached for Luke, but Luke was no where to be found. He was supposed to take care of me, he was supposed to always be there for me. But where was he now that I needed him?

Gone.

"Ashton." I call out into the empty room, only for him to open the door and walk to my side only seconds later.

"Hey sleeping beauty. Whatcha need?"

"Where's Luke?" I ask, putting the pain I'm in aside to worry about the most important thing at the moment.

A frown settles across his face, and he crosses his arms immediately. "Lottie you know that was an incredibly unhealthy relationship you had with him, he fucking abused you and you're asking for him? You're fucking asking where he is, how he is? No. You will never fucking see him again I fucking promise you that. He ruined you Lottie. He fucking ruined you and I fucking will never let him touch you again or I will fucking end him forever."

Whoa, didn't expect a lecture for asking for my dad in a time like this.

"Ashton." I try to cut him off.

"No Lottie, let me fucking finish." He says, the sweet Ashton I once knew no where to be found. "Brandon and Calum and I all shared everything we knew last night when we got here. And we figured it out Lottie, we figured you out. I figured out that you broke up with me so you could fuck around with your step father, we figured out that Calum is your half brother, his father, is your real father, we figured out that Luke shot Fletcher cause you fucked around with Brandon and he got jealous. Lottie, Luke shot Brandon's brother because he was fucking jealous. What kind of a person does that? Not someone you need to be around I can tell you that. Luke is not someone you need to grow up around and be around at especially such a young a fragile stage in your life. He as a step father needs to help you grow and teach you to how to act and live your life and prepare you for the future. He is not doing that. He is destroying you Lottie and you don't even see it. You're helping him destroy and ruin you and you don't even see it. You don't see not only how much you're hurting yourself now, but also how much you're hurting yourself for the future."

"Are you done criticizing my life?" I ask, tears welling up in my eyes.

"I love you Lottie, I just want to help, I want to be able to help you get your life back on track. I want to see you succeed in life."

"Am I currently failing at life?"

"No," Ashton says, rubbing the back of his next with his hand, "I just think you're starting down the path to failing, you're taking those first few steps."

"Well what I do with my life is frankly none of your concern Ashton."

"You fucking made it my concern when you came to my apartment after Luke started to scare you. I'm making it my concern to make sure you can recover physically and mentally from this experience."

"I came to you that night because I trusted you to help me because I was indeed scared. I needed you and you twisted everything around and look where we are now."

I try and sit up, but a sharp pain causes me to give up and lay back down.

"Please don't try and move Lottie, you're still hurt pretty badly."

"Fuck." I groan through my teeth at the pain.

"Lottie, I think we're going to take you to the hospital. Just to get you the proper medical care and if the police question us as a part of it I think we need to be able to tell about what happened, you need to be safe and you need to get better."

"No." I say firmly, "You will not take me to the hospital, I will not allow it. I don't want to go."

"Lottie nothing right now is about what you want. Currently everything happening is about what you need and you need to go to a hospital."

"I fucking can't Ashton, I can't do that to Luke."

He runs his hand through his hair and sighs.

"Well at least let me get you some more painkillers. We'll talk more about the hospital if you continue to get any worse."

I nod and he steps out of the room, and as soon as he is out of sight, I can't help but start to cry.

I never thought that what Luke and I would ever go to the point where there would be multiple gunshot wounds, dead people, and a gaping black hole starting in my heart. I never thought I would learn to care so much for him to the point where it breaks me down.

Ashton comes back in the room with 5 pills in one hand and a cup of water in the other. He hands them to me, and watches me as I take them.

We didn't say anything after that.

I didn't think either of us knew what could be said in a time like this.

Maybe 20 minutes passed by before a wave of exhaustion hit me like a truck. My eyes began to get very heavy, my breathing slowed, and then it hit me.

One of the pills Ashton gave me was a sleeping pill.

Why?

Then it hit me again.

"Why did you give me a sleeping pill?" I asked, trying to confirm my suspicion.

"You need to go to the hospital Lottie, you need the medical care. If making you go to sleep in order to make you go was what I had to do then so be it. I'm sorry."

I wanted to say something.

But before I could, I had already started to sleep. And then, without warning, I was indeed asleep.

[A/N]

welp I'm giving you all permission to yell at me for this long and way over do update lmao

loved seeing you guys on snapchat and insta, talking with you guys is always lots of fun, and I've actually gotten close with a few of you

wrote this at 4 in the morning laying on the bathroom floor cos I feel like shit 😊

gonna let you guys know that there are only 4 chappys plus an epilogue until the end of the book after this one so yupp

btw picture is bailey eating ice cream seductively when we went on a date after school 😂

love you guys lots

-Kay