Aston’s POV
“Ast, I can’t do this…” Jess whispered as our car pulled a few feet forward, towards the red carpet of the charity gala event we were headed to.
I turned to look at her, at a loss for words. She’d insisted that she was fine with coming, and yet here she was absolutely freaking out. It made me more than a little upset. I could hardly look her in the eyes for a second.
“Seriously Ast, I can’t…” she whispered.
“Why?” I asked, avoiding eye contact.
“Look at it! This is way more of a production than you said it was going to be!”
“So this is my fault?” I asked.
“No!” she said, “I just don’t think I can deal with this.”
“But you said that it was fine babe,” I started, thinking back to when I’d asked her to come. “I told you to be honest, and say if you were ready for this or not, and you said you were. Why did you lie and say you weren’t?”
“I didn’t lie!” she said, starting to get a bit annoyed with me.
“Well then what is this?” I asked pointedly, getting a bit more agitated myself.
“Ast, stop it,” she warned. “You were practically begging me to come, offering me shoes and a holiday!”
“There you go, putting the blame on me again,” I sighed.
“I thought you were meant to be my supportive boyfriend?” said Jess after a moment. “But here you are, upset that I’m not willing to walk a red carpet with you? Really Ast?”
“It’s not like I’m forcing you to do this babe. You told me, to my face, that you would come. And ok, maybe I am kind of annoyed because now you are here changing your mind. How is it going to look when I show up to this nice dinner without my plus one?”
“So it’s all about how it looks?” asked Jess. “Nice Ast,” she laughed sarcastically.
“I don’t want to talk about this right now,” I said.
“Well I’m not doing it out there,” replied Jess. “So it’s here or at home.”
“Jess…” I warned.
I looked over to see her trying to blink tears out of her eyes. I couldn’t get past the fact that I was actually quite annoyed with her right now. If we were meant to be a real couple then she should be willing to support me in any way, be it at home or on the red carpet. I would do anything for her, I couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t do this one little thing for me.
“I thought you were proud of me…” I said after a minute. “I thought you wanted to see us get the award tonight.”
“I do, I’m so proud of you. I love that you guys are working so hard for these causes, and I do want to see you get that award,” she said. “I just don’t like that I have to be in front of all of the cameras beforehand.”
“So what are you going to do?” I asked.
I watched her turn and stare out the window of the car again, contemplating her options. It was simple really, she either could suck it up and do the red carpet, or head home.
After an agonizing minute Jess answered. “I’m going to go home,” she said quietly.
“Thanks Jess,” I spat out.
Inside I was seething. It was stupid really, to be mad at her for not wanting to walk the red carpet for this event. But I couldn’t help but be annoyed by the fact that she’d agreed to come and was now changing her mind, literally as we were driving up to the event. All I really wanted to do was jump out of the car and go into the venue, but I was stuck sitting next to her for another ten minutes as a static silence sat in the back of the car.
“Ast talk to me about this?” said Jess after awhile.
“Not right now,” I said.
“Why? What’s your deal?”
“I’m just disappointed ok!” I said quietly loudly.
“Ok…” she said, sitting back in her seat and messing about with one of her rings. I felt bad for yelling at her, but she needed to understand that this actually meant something to me.
“I’m sorry for yelling at you,” I said after thinking a minute. “This just means a lot to me and I’m pretty annoyed with you right now for not wanting to experience it with me. So if you don’t mind, let’s just talk about this when I get home.”
“Ok…” replied Jess quietly.
At this point we’d rolled up to the red carpet. I took two deep breaths, preparing myself for facing it on my own, and then the door swung open. Gingerly I climbed out of the backseat, trying to plaster a fake smile on my face even though I was seething.
I turned to slam the car door, only to be taken aback when a soft hand grabbed mine, pulling me slightly into the car…
