Always | Ashton Irwin

Chapter twenty-three.

After I convinced Ash that the door really was locked and that I didn’t mind we made our way back to the lobby. Because we still wanted some distraction we decided to go to the beach, we both loved the beach and the weather was perfect for us to go there. The sun was shining but it was cold and windy, this meant that there probably wouldn’t be that much people. And the people who were on the beach were probably there with the same reason as us, just to clear their head and find some peace by walking through the sand, watching the sea and listening to the birds and the waves. Before we left we both grabbed a beanie and sunglasses from our room and told the others where we were going. 

‘Do you know the way?’ I asked as I intertwined our fingers together. 

We knew it was risky to go out together and hold hands but today we didn’t really care. I wanted to be with Ash and Ash wanted to be with me. We both expected trouble when we came back but for now we also didn’t really care. 

‘Shall we get some ice cream?’ Ash asked me when we walked past a really cute ice cream shop. 

I nodded, I loved ice cream of course I wouldn’t say no. When we walked inside I wondered if this was the shop were Luke took Rowan on their first date. 

‘What flavor would you like?’ The woman behind the counter asked us with a friendly smile.

I chose vanilla and chocolate and Ashton chose strawberry and lemon. Ashton paid for the both of us and happy with our ice creams we continued walking towards the beach. 

‘I missed moments like this,’ I mumbled as I intertwined our fingers again. 

‘Me too Ali, me too..’ 

For a while we just walked in silence, enjoying our ice creams. When we got to the beach we immediately saw that we indeed chose the right day. There weren’t many people other than a couple who looked very in love, an old man with his dog and two kids who played football. 

‘Hey Ali?’ 

‘Yeah?’ I turned my head to look at Ashton. 

He licked his lips and stared to the sea ‘I was thinking..’ 

I playfully raised my eyebrows at him ‘You can think? Wow Ash I didn’t know you could do that,’ I chuckled. 

He narrowed his eyes at me and stuck his tongue out ‘I’m trying to be serious here Ali, but okay if you don’t want to hear my genius plan then fine, I won’t say anything.’ 

I pouted and stopped walking ‘Tell me!’ 

He grinned ‘I was thinking about Calum.’ 

Before I could open my mouth he pointed his finger at me ‘Don’t you dare.’ 

I chuckled ‘I wasn’t going to say anything, now tell me why you were thinking about Calum.’ 

‘This morning he told us about a girl he met, her name is Shay and we could all see that he liked her. But you know Calum, he can be very stubborn so I was thinking maybe you could talk to him? And when he admits to you that he does want to see her again then we can set up a date for him!’

I laughed at how excited Ash looked right now, it was so cute to see that he cared a lot about Calum and that he just wanted to see his friend happy. 

‘I’ll see what I can do,’ I smiled. 

Ash smiled back at me and pressed his lips against my forehead ‘I would kiss you right now but I think we’d already risked enough by going outside and walking hand in hand,’ he said with a bit of a sad tone in his voice. 

I sat down in the sand and pulled Ash down with me. When he sat next to me I rested my  head on his shoulder and intertwined our fingers again. 

‘As long as I can be with you, in secret or not, I’ll be fine.’

 - 

When we came back from the beach we found the others in Ashton’s and Luke’s room. They had ordered pizza and were playing Mario kart. Michael was racing Rowan and he was clearly winning.

‘I quit!’ Rowan yelled and she threw the controller to Calum who catched it with ease.  

Luke wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her cheek while she crossed her arms and pouted. 

‘Stupid game,’ she mumbled but I could already see a smile on her lips. 

‘We’re back bitches!’ Ashton yelled when they still didn’t noticed that we were in the room. 

‘Did you enjoy the beach?’ Solange asked us with a smile. 

She was sitting on Harry’s lap as he braided her hair, they looked adorable and I had to hold back a giggle. Lizzy and Niall were sitting on the floor, playing a game on their phones. Lizzy looked up for a second to wave at us before continuing the game. 

‘Yeah we did, I feel a lot better!’ I said as I took a seat next to Rowan. 

‘I can smell the beach on you,’ my best friend chuckled. 

‘Is that a bad thing?’ I laughed as I raised my eyebrows at her.

She giggled ‘No, it smells good! It makes me want to go to the beach too.’ 

Ashton sat behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist as he softly kissed my cheek. 

‘I really enjoyed being with you today,’ he whispered in my ear. 

‘Me too Ash, we should go out like that more often,’ I whispered back as I grabbed his hand and intertwined our fingers. 

I jumped when Ash his phone suddenly started ringing. Ashton chuckled at my reaction and searched for his phone. He found it in the pocket of his sweater and a look of worry shot over his face when he saw the caller-id. 

‘I really need to take this, it’s management,’ he said a bit confused. 

Everyone around us looked up with the same worry that I saw in Ash his eyes and it made me worried as well. Why were they calling him? With his phone at his ear he walked out of the room and it immediately got silent. Rowan grabbed my hand and squeezed it. 

‘It’s probably nothing,’ she said but we all knew that management didn’t call for nothing. 

When my phone started ringing everyone looked at the device with big eyes. 

‘It’s Isabel,’ I said with a frown, why would she be calling me? 

‘Aren’t you going to pick up?’ Rowan asked when I kept staring at my phone. 

I quickly answered it ‘Isabel?’ 

‘Alison hey, is Ashton around? He doesn’t pick up his phone and I really need to talk to you guys.’ 

My eyes widened ‘Why? What’s wrong? Ash is on the phone with management right now but he could be back any moment.’

She cursed ‘Crap, I hoped I was on time but I guess there’s not much I can do now..’

I frowned ‘Why? What’s going on?’ 

The others all had their attention on me and I felt myself getting nervous ‘Can I set you on speaker so the others can hear you too?’ 

‘Yeah sure, tell me when I can start talking okay?’ 

I put the phone on speaker and lied it down in front of me ‘You can tell us now, do you know what’s going on?’  

‘Yes, and you’re not going to like it! I hoped I was able to reach Ash before they told him so he could be prepared and maybe do something about it.. They want Ash to stop seeing you Ali, or at least in public. My management is mad at him cause you guys have been spotted today and they want him to spent more time with me. A lot of people want Alishton and since our managements had a deal together, about him dating me, they’re not happy.. If Ash is seen again with you he has to pay a lot of money, like a lot a lot. They said they gave enough warnings and he signed a contract so he has to do this. I’m sorry Ali..’