Painting Flowers // Ashton Irwin [au]

Two

Song of the chapter: Crazy for You – Scars on 45

Luke's POV

"Where's Ashton?" she asks, sounding hopeful, but that soon changes when our friends only look to one another instead of answering. "Where is he?"

Giving me an apprehensive glance before stepping up to her, Michael says, "He took off with Calum's truck and left his phone here."

I watch her trembling hand take Ashton's phone from Michael's and turn it on. Every muscle in her face tenses as she stares down at the image on the screen and I can hear her heavy breaths as she tries to stay calm.

"Where did he go?" she chokes; her voice cracking with every word.

Michael shakes his head from side to side. "Your guess is as good as mine."

Her quiet sobs fill the space around us and we all try our hardest to comfort her. Julia attempts to wipe away every tear that fall down her friend's cheek while Michael rubs her back and Calum emits comforting shushes.

I've never seen her cry like this. It's almost painful to see her in this state. Her fragile body has endured so much, but with Ashton gone, she breaks so easily. He holds her together and without him, she's a wreck.

Everyone pulls their hands away once I wrap my arms around her shoulders from behind, and rest my chin on her head. Her hands reach up and clutch onto my forearm and her body shakes as her cries become heavier.

With everyone surrounding her, she's becoming overwhelmed, so I gesture for everyone to go upstairs while I try to soothe Emmie and break her out of this. Once everyone is out of sight, I try to pull my arms away but her grip tightens around me.

"Shh, it's okay," I whisper. "I'm not going anywhere. Let's just go sit down, okay?"

Emmie nods and releases my arm. I guide her over to the couch and she curls up next to me with her hand fisting my shirt. She continues to whimper softly and I brush her hair with my hand.  

I'm not sure of what to say to her. I have no idea where Ashton is so I can't tell her that everything will be okay because I don't know. He's a coward for running off. Yeah, I want to get after him for hiding the fact that he wants to go to the wedding from us for so long and I know he knows that we're all going to want answers from him, but that shouldn't be enough for him to run away. He needs to own up to what he did.

I'm not even that mad about it either. I'm more angry at the fact that I have to watch Emmie's reaction to his leaving. This girl can only handle so much and for her to have to go through something like this right now isn't the best way to start off the year.

Emmie wipes the excess tears from her red eyes and sniffles loudly. "I made your shirt all wet," she says, pointing to the large, dark wet patch on my black t-shirt.

I smile humorously. "It's alright," I assure, rubbing her back.

"I didn't mean to cry like that...I was just shocked."

"You had every reason to be," I say. "I wasn't expecting this either."

"When he saw me with the envelopes, he looked so distraught and ashamed. I don't think he knew what to do with himself," she says.  

Of course he didn't. I don't think he ever anticipated for you to even see them, let alone mail them off. I will admit it was genius to hide them in his sketchbook, but a moronic move to give it to her when they were still inside.