Secluded (Ashton Irwin)

Chapter 3

"Oh Ash! This is Ryan my boyfriend," Reagan said. Ashton assumed she had already introduced them to the rest of the group while he was inside.

"Nice to meet you," Ashton said pursing his lips and nodding his head which Ryan did the same.

"Anyways like I was saying," Michael said before going off on some story about a video game.

Ashton looked over at Ryan who was poking Reagan's side to make her laugh. He didn't know Reagan had a boyfriend, but he didn't ever ask. It would make sense, for what Ashton had seen he could tell Reagan seemed like the girlfriend type. Ashton shrugged it off, and tried to take his attention away to the couple to his right. After a second he pulled his eyes away, focusing on whatever Michael was still talking about.

Ashton did a good job ignoring Reagan and Ryan until only an hour later, where he could hear them whisper-yelling at eachother. Ashton couldn't make out much besides Reagan snarling, "Ryan don't be like this right now."

Ashton tried to keep his mind out of their business, but it was hard to not be intrigued when Reagan laughed at one of Luke's jokes and hit him lightly because Ryan came up behind her and snaked his arms around her waist, pulling her back into him and away from Luke. Usually Ashton would have looked past that, but Reagan gave Ryan an unamused look. Not too long after she took his hand and dragged him back inside seeming annoyed.

"What was that about?" Ashton asked out loud. Michael, Calum, and Luke all shrugged but Sam had chosen to speak up.

"I don't know. Couple problems obviously, she seems annoyed by his attitude," Sam said. Ashton wasn't surprised that Sam had some type of idea, she was a girl. Girls usually could sense what was going on.

"Why?" Calum asked throwing Ashton off a bit. He wasn't sure why he was so invested in Ryan and Reagan.

"I just feel awkward tension," Ashton shrugged before switching the topic not sure why he actually cared.

Reagan and Ryan never came back to the group. Ashton actually had forgotten about them actually until he made his way out of Michael's and out to his car to go home. He had heard bits and pieces of Ryan and Reagan's conversation and they had decided to leave.

"Oh hey Ashton," Reagan said once she realized her and Ryan weren't outside alone.

"Hey, I was just leaving. Nice to see you again," Ashton smiled politely as he continued to walk to his car.

"You too, see ya soon," she smiled and Ryan had a blank expression on his face. Ashton was going to say goodbye to Ryan as well, but felt univited to speak to him.

Ashton's life went back to his normal routine: work, babysitting his siblings, seeing the guys every now and then, and then work again. School was about slightly less than a month away, if he wanted to get a bachelors degree but he decided against it. Him and the boys went for two years to get associates degrees before deciding that was enough of school. Going for another 2 years sounded fucking awful.

-

Ashton decided to stop at Starbucks on his way home one afternoon from work. He opened the shop that morning at 10 am and he was exhausted. 10 am didn't sound awful, but it was awful when he went to bed at 3 am because he stayed at Luke's house watching movies. Long story short, he needed some caffeine.

After standing in line and ordering, Ashton made his way over to the stand where they kept extra sugar and other small condiments. Ashton wanted to grab some napkins because his drink was slightly dripping down the sides. He was shocked when he saw Reagan sitting at a table next to the small stand.