The Piano Teacher || Ashton Irwin (EDITING)

Chapter 36: Not Giving Up

Hazel's POV

You know those moments in life where you just completely go numb? Your heart is beating so fast yet you feel like it's going to give up at any second. The feeling of your heart completely dropping into the pit of your stomach, the feeling of not being able to form any words, you try so hard, yet nothing comes out.

I've only had this feeling a couple of times in my 18 years of life, but this exact moment in time was definitely the weirdest, scariest, shocking feeling I've ever had.

I stood there, my plastic cup of whatever alcohol I could get my hands on was now all over the floor, I felt like everyone in the room could hear my heart beating. I couldn't talk, I couldn't think, the only thing I could do was stare at the person 15 feet away from me.

The whole room was silent for what felt like months, years almost. The awkward, hateful tension in the air was almost unbearable.

I couldn't move my head to look up at Trevor to see his expression. The only person that I could even see was Ashton.

It felt as if we were the only 2 people in the room, but not in the cute, loving, cliche way from pretty much every romance movie ever made. It was in a very awkward and uncomfortable kind of way.

Everyone stood in silence for what felt like another hour until a voice from beside me finally spoke up.

"Well," Trevor laughed an empty, heartless laugh. "Look who decided to show up."

"I'm not here for you assholes." Ashton snapped. I could definitely feel the hate in the air.

"Ohh so what are you here for then?" Trevor raised an eyebrow, seeming to enjoy this.

"I'm here to get what is rightfully mine back." Ashton said, and my heart skipped a beat.

"I don't know if you've noticed," Trevor took a step closer to Ashton who was now about 5 feet away from us. "But, Hazel hasn't been yours for months now." Trevor spat, and I just started feeling sick to my stomach as they seemed to talk about me like I was a possession.

"Well wait a minute." I interrupted. "I'm not a fucking object, I don't belong to anyone." I snapped.

"Hazel, please, let the big boys talk." Trevor laughed back at me.

"No, let her say what she needs to say." Ashton glared at Trevor.

"Why are you here?" I walked up to Ashton pushing Trevor out of the way.

"I'm here to bring you home, to where you belong." Ashton suddenly seemed to have a gentle tone to his voice.

"What? The home were everyone treats me like shit and has nothing better to do than judge people?" I snapped suddenly getting a boost of confidence, as I heard agreeing cheers coming from the people behind us.

"Hazel, where did you get all of that shit from? No one was ever judgmental, I don't know who fead you all that bullshit." Ashton suddenly had a more frustrated tone.

"No one fead me any bullshit, I just realized how fucked up our city was, that's not my home, that's never going to be my home!" I spat and heard some more cheers from the crowd.

"What happened to you?"

"What do you mean?" I shot back.

"What happened to the cheery girl that rang my doorbell, the girl who had so much hope in her eyes that she would become a piano teacher. What happened to your dream? Your dream of going to music school and becoming the person you wanted to be? Do you even play the piano anymore?" Ashton gave me a sympathetic yet disgusted look.

"N-no." I stuttered.

"That's all you ever wanted, that was your biggest dream! Why would you just throw all of that away?" Ashton raised his voice.

"Jeez Ashton, why are you making such a big deal about it? It's just the piano." I shrugged.

"You were so passionate about it, I just don't know how you could throw it away like that." Ashton said.

"People change Ashton."

"You're right, but it's not just about that, what happened to the girl who only cared about others and was so thankful for everything she had, the girl who was full of life, the girl I fell in love with?"

"I should be asking you the same thing Mr Alcoholic." I spat and Ashton looked at the floor in shame.

"I'm only like that because I can't deal with the pain." Ashton couldn't even bring his eyes up to look at me.

"It's because you're such a fucking coward! That's all you are and that's all you'll ever be!" I yelled, instantly regretting the words that left my mouth. Ashton just nodded in agreement.

"You're right." Ashton sighed in defeat. "I shouldn't have come, I'm sorry."

"Yeah," I nodded starting to feel really bad, but I just don't want to go home, I can't. "You shouldn't have wasted the money." I said in a disappointed tone.

"I uh...I have something for you." Ashton finally looked up at me with glossy eyes. He reached into his pocket and handed me an envelope. I sighed and took it and shoved it into my back pocket.

"Can you get out now?" Trevor spat at Ashton. Ashton shot me a look that said "I'm sorry." Turned on his heels and walked towards the door.

Ashton's POV

Sometimes, life can be hard, very very hard actually. Especially love. Love is such a big part of life, you need love, whether it's from family, friends or a lover. Without love, what's the point?

The thing about love is that once you fall into it, it's incredibly hard to fall out of it, no matter what the person has done, there's just no way to go back. That's exactly why it's called 'falling in love', because once you fall, there's no going back, you just keep falling and falling until you eventually shatter. And once you've shattered, you need the strength and hope to pick up the pieces again.

That's the state I'm in. I fell and fell, now I'm shattered. I've never felt so ashamed and embarrassed in my life, sure I've been through hard times before, but I've never felt a pain like this.

I love Hazel with all my heart, and no matter how hard I try, I don't think I'll ever be able to stop. I have too much hope and faith in her. I just always think that one day, she will realize what she's become, and turn back into the person she once was.

Sure, I'm not exactly in love with the person that Hazel has become, but, I'm still so incredibly, head over heels in love with the person she used to be. But now all I can do is just have hope. Hope that she'll go back to being the sweet, caring, amazing girl she once was and that's why I'm still going to have hope.

That's why I'm never going to give up.

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I'm so so so soooo sorry for this. I know Hazel's awful isn't she, I mean I even hate her lol. But don't worry Hashton shippers! things will be getting better soon! Thank you guys so much for reading! I'll never be able to explain how much it means to me that you read this book! I hope you guys have a great day or night and I will see you guys later! Byee!

-Jael<3