SoulMates // 5sos

a.i. part three

Ashton had to admit he did feel a little bit bad about the way he'd treated Maia. He'd had a couple of days to think about it and he was starting to believe that he probably could have handled the situation better than he did.

To be fair though, he'd gone to the club looking for some random girl to mindlessly hook up with and he wasn't exactly expecting to find his soul mate. He realised that the two could be one in the same, and the thought had certainly crossed his mind, but he didn't think Maia would just sleep with him after knowing him for half an hour and he didn't really want that either. Sure, she was gorgeous but he was looking for something with no strings attached and his soul mate would definitely come along with some strings.

Despite all that, he had been feeling guilty. He'd barely been polite, so much so that it actually bordered on being rude and that wasn't the guy Ashton usually was. Up until about three months ago he'd been that happy-go-lucky guy that didn't have a care in the world and he still had no idea why all that had changed. The whole thing had thrown him for a loop and left him extremely confused.

Christ he hadn't even asked for her number or anything. Ashton was kind of just starting to realise how monumentally he'd screwed the whole thing up.

And just in case he did manage to stop beating himself up for a few minutes and forget about it, Calum was there to throw a few jabs his way. Ashton had tried to tune him out on the car ride home the other night had been avoiding him as much as possible ever since (which was harder than he would've liked considering they lived together).

Calum made sure to mention how idiotic Ashton was every time he got a chance, and he was constantly telling him how great Maia was and how he couldn't believe that Ashton could be that rude and indifferent towards her.

It was sort of starting to get on Ashton's nerves because since when had Calum ever cared about a girl's feelings? Aston had lost count of all the girls that had left Calum's room after he used them for the night. Calum really had no room to talk on the matter, although Ashton knew what he'd say if he ever brought it up ("None of those girls were my soul mate you asshole, it's completely different.").

It all came back down to the fact that Ashton had messed up. He'd messed up so badly and he really didn't know if he was ever going to be able to fix it, but he realised that he wanted to. He wanted to get to know Maia; he wanted to prove to her that he wasn't really a douche.

He wanted to fix it all, he just didn't know how.

"So what are you trying to tell me exactly?" Ryan asked, placing his coffee cup back on the table.

Maia ran a hand through her hair and sighed. "I don't know Ry; he was kind of an ass. It's weird though because, like, this is a big town and before the other night I'd never seen Ashton before but now it's like every time I turn around there he is."

After meeting Ashton the other night Maia had been left feeling slightly underwhelmed. She'd foolishly hoped that everything would just work out when she met her soul mate; instead Ashton hadn't seemed to care at all and that had hurt a little.

It had been about a week though and Maia had started to see him everywhere she went. At first she thought it was her mind playing tricks on her, taunting her, exploiting her insecurities to hurt her. But when it happened for the fourth time it just became strange.

Sometimes she didn't even know why she was in the place that she was, then she'd turn around to leave and she'd catch sight of him. Other times she wasn't sure what he was doing in the places they ran into each other (for example, the feminine hygiene aisle at the supermarket).

"Maybe he wants to apologise and make it up to you?" He shrugged; glancing around the coffee shop for god knows what reason.

"I don't think so." She frowned and picked up her hot chocolate, taking another sip before she spoke again. "He's never tried to talk to me, and half the time he looks just as confused as I am."