Chapter 5

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Music started playing dismissing us from lunch. I was about to go off of Carol.

Once I reached Mr.Hammonds classes. My eyes rapidly scanned the room for her. She was in the back a group of people surrounded her.

"I didn't think he's be that great of a kisser oh my god" she squealed as she talked to the group of sexually frustrated teenage girls that stood around her desperately wanting to hear more of the made up story.

"Hey Ashton" she smiled. The girls she was with turned around, they all gave me this weird look.

"Hey Carol, why don't you tell them the part that I didn't kiss you and all you've been saying is a lie" I gave her a sarcastic smile. I folded my arms across my chest.

"Excuse me girls" she said in the snobbiest voice ever. She pushed through the small crowd of people.

"What are you doing?" She snapped.

"I'm telling the truth. You know the opposite of lying which you clearly know nothing about"

"But the lying is helping you, I'm giving you the reputation you could've never had hanging out with Zoë" she started.

"I don't want that kind of reputation, I don't care what you think of Zoë but she's my best friend and you can never break us apart if that's what you were hoping for"

She scoffed, turning around to go back to her seat. I tried to find an empty seat away from her. In the very very back of the class. It was colder and a bit darker. The teachers office and storage rooms were back there.

***

Throughout the day I couldn't think of anything but Zoë. It was during Mr.Hammonds class where I had completely zoned everyone out and started wondering if I did like her.

I wanted to walk home instead of riding the bus. I wanted time alone, time to think.

"Ashton where are you going?!" A male voice called from behind me. I turned around to see Calum running to catch up to me.

"Walking home" I replied.

"Why?"

"I just do" I answered him not knowing what to say. Most the walk home was silence. Calum had decided to join me. Not even asking me.

"I think I like Zoë" I told him breaking the silence.

"YOU DO?! I KNEW IT I FUCKING KNEW IT!" he yelled in excitement.

"But I don't know if I do" I said quietly.

"Ok name all the things you like about her and all the things you don't" he suggested.

"Ok; I like her smile, her laugh, the way she just makes most of us smile, her personality." I began, I was getting a little to into it," I just like her she amazing"

"Ok.. What don't you like?"

"The guys she dates, how she gets a little to emotional at what you say" I said, it was pretty much all I could think of.

"Oh god man, you really like her" Calum said.

"I know and it sucks!" I cried.

"Are you gonna tell her?" He asked.

"Of course not! It will ruin everything"

"True.." Calum was quiet for a moment, "what if she likes you back?"

"She wouldn't"

"She might"

We practically bickered over it the whole way home. Once I opened my door we both through our bags in a corner and made our way upstairs. Zoë's window and mine were both opened. I peered to see if she was home yet. By the looks of it she wasn't.

"What are you doing?" I asked Calum, he was still standing in the door of my room. He was staring down at his phone.

"Texting Chloe," he responded quickly, "she's coming over"

He looked up and made his way to the foot of my bed.

"Where's Zoë?" I asked him, hoping Chloe would've told him something.

"Chloe says that Zo and Brock made up and they're both driving to the hospital to meet up with her mom" he said in one quick breathe. I looked out the window again. I had a view of most the sidewalk, and the rest of the street. Chloe was patiently making her way down my street. She had changed into yoga pants and an over-sized jacket.

She was either singing or lip-syncing to the music. I couldn't tell because she was too far away. Calum had gone downstairs to get snacks and drinks for the both of us.

I laid down on my bed and took a deep breath. I knew Calum had invited her over to talk about me liking Zoë.

The front door flung open. I heard whispering down stairs. Then the door slamming shut.

Calum said something then Chloe said something, then there was a loud groan from who knows which one. They started running upstairs. I sat up as I saw Chloe come in the room and sit in the beanbag chairs in the corner. Calum tossed a can of soda and a bag of chips at me, he took a seat next to Chloe.

"So you like her?" Chloe asked, not even bothering to say hi.

"Yeah.. I guess" I said almost sounding unsure of my own feelings.

Chloe groaned an shook her head, "you can't"

"I know" I sighed, opening the small bag of chips.

"How is that bad?! I don't understand!" A confused Calum asked.

"Seriously?" Chloe raised her eyebrow at him.

"Explain to him" I told her as I plopped back onto the bed.

Chloe sighed, "Ashton and Zoë have been friends for a really long time right?" Calum shook his head, "friends and only friends, if Ashton likes her but Zoë doesn't like him back it would be awkward knowing your best friend likes you, she would put him in the friend-zone but he's already there so he would probably be kicked out slowly out of that zone, because if you do anything with your friend that does like you it would be weird knowing they look at you as more and it's just hard to go through... Get it?"

Calum nodded slowly, he was obviously still processing what Chloe had just said.

"What if Zoë does like him back?" He asked.

"She has a boyfriend, but if her and Brock did breakup and then they needed up dating they will be ending they're relationship as a couple but also as friends, right?" She explained then looked at me.

"Yeah I guess" I shrugged.

"But Zoë'a friends with most of her exes..." Calum began.

"True" Chloe agreed.

"So they could give it time to forget about it and go back to being friends" Calum said.

Calum was actually thinking it through. I opened my soda and drank a bit.

"What if the breakup is bad?" I asked them.

"You're screwed" Calum laughed.

"CALUM" Chloe whisper yelled and slapped him on the shoulder.

I started to put some thought into it. If it was bad me and Zoe couldn't be friends again. So after all these years all those memories would be lost. I would be the friend that ruined the greatest friendship either of us had had. Why did I have to like her? It wasn't like I could just stop, these feelings kept growing and growing. And once they started it wouldn't stop. Everytime I thought about her and looked at her, talked to her, they grew and grew and all the things that other people didn't like about her I loved and even if she didn't like them herself I still did.

But I would see the girl that I became friends with not the one I fell in love with. The one that got in trouble for sneaking out with me to go on a walk. The one that fell out of a tree and broke her arm when we were in 5th grade. The one that I met, the sweet innocent girl. But right beside her would also show up the one that I loved not a friend but more, the one that I would also cry into my shirts when something went wrong. The one that would fall asleep on my chest and would kiss my cheek and the one I wished was my girlfriend the one that I could kiss whenever I wanted. The one that would call me her boyfriend.

We were all silent, but the sound of chips crunching and cans opening. The sun was starting to set behind the house very slowly, turning half the sky purple and the other half gold.

I sat up and looked into Zoë's window to see if she was home. Instead I saw her dad looking around her room. He noticed me and smiled. He came closer to the window.



"Hello Ashton" he greeted me.

"Hi Mr.Hymore" I waved.

"Is Zoë with you?" He asked, I shooked my head.

"Do you know where she is?" He asked, Calum and Chloe looked up to see who I was talking to.

"I think she's with Brock" I replied.

He muttered something under his breath, "oh ok thank you" he smiled before closing the window. I smiled back.

"Someone doesn't like Brock" Chloe laughed.

"No one likes Brock" Calum said. Chloe agreed.

"You don't like Brock?" I asked Chloe, I thought she would be the only to actually like him.

"Hell no, he's ugh" she replied.

Calum turned on the TV and we started watching "That's 70's Show".

***

Chloe and Calum went home once my Mom got home, they couldn't stay for dinner each of them having their own plans.

After dinner I ran upstairs to shower and brush my teeth. I put some pants on and headed for my bed.

•ZOËS POV•

We sat in the back of Brock's truck, his rough lips pressed onto mine. His hands wondered to the bottom of my shirt, his cold hands traveled up my chest. I pulled back.

"Come on Zoe" He whined, quickly pressing his lips back onto mine.

"No I don't want to" I mumbled. He stared at me, I felt stupid not letting him get what he wanted. I mean it wasn't like I would let him get his way and let him do whatever to my body. It wasn't the time.

"Zoe come on" He sounded like a child.

"Brock I don't want to can't you respect that" I whispered.

"Fine" He groaned, "I'll take you home.." We both headed to the front of the car. I buckled up. It was already night. We were parked outside a vacant houses driveway, not far from his house. Stars scattered all over the night sky. Everything with Brock always seemed right, but then again wrong. Like, he's obviously way more experienced. You could tell throughout the whole relationship he was getting bored when I didn't want to do anything. It made me a little sad, knowing he couldn't just wait for the moment. The perfect moment.

Thank god tomorrow was the beginning of the weekend. And pretty soon we would say goodbye to everyone and everything and go about deciding what to do in our lives.

He parked on my driveway, I kissed him bye.

"'Night and thanks" I shyly smiled.

"uh huh" He said practically ignoring me. I slammed the car door shut. And ran to my front door, I was hurt. He was acting childish about this whole thing. Why couldn't he just wait. My dad opened the door after several rings.

"Hi sweetie" He greeted me. I kissed him on the cheek . He and my mom are both doctors it was weird nowadays to see them. They usually always took night-shifts. When I was younger they would usually always be home. When I finally got my license they started taking shifts one after another and I would just stop seeing them at some points. Yet we always talked and they bought the food. When they were both here was a big deal. Because if one were home the other one wasn't.

Yeah I still saw them somedays after school when I visited the hospital, but they were always in "Doctor" mode at those times. When they were home they were more fun, and easy going.

I walked into the kitchen to see my mom cooking.

"Mommy" I hugged her.

"Hey" She smiled. We had talked a lot at the hospital earlier so it wasn't a surprise to see her home. I sat on the stool by the counter and watched my mom. My dad came and joined me sitting on the red stool next to mine.

"Graduation and prom are next week you excited?" Mom asked.

I smiled," very". Mine and Chloe's moms went shopping for a dress the previous week for prom. We had picked out the cutest dresses. Normally I wouldn't be all girly like getting my hair done and nails and picking out dresses. But prom just called me like "Hey you should look different" and that's what I did. I didn't want people to remember me as "Slutty" or "The girl that barely talked","The girl that got into small fight in middle school". I got so excited thinking about it. Graduation was gonna even better. A few select got to say an inspiring speech at the end, which meant I got to say something. I made my speech different then previous ones or ones that they were doing this year. Mine was more realistic. It talked about what actually happened at school not just the "Fun joys of learning'' and how great the teachers were.

"Are you going with Brock?" Dad asked.

"Probably" I said unsure.

"What do you mean probably?" Mom asked.

"We've been going through this rough patch lately and I don't know I don't think its gonna get better" I answered her unsure.

"Who's Ashton going with?" Dad asked.

"I don't even know if he is going, but we promised each other if we were both single and friends we would go together" I smiled at the stupid promise we made in 9th grade. Calum and Chloe were going together as friends if Joey, Chloe's long time crush, didn't say yes.

We ended up talking all throughout dinner about the week and the rest of my life. Until now I hadn't really thought about much. I was soon gonna be an adult. And I didn't want to

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