chapter 24 ;; cashton

twenty one

i'm tired and i wanna go to bed but i love you guys so i wrote this anyway. 

this is the last chapter btw. 

I was in my room, on my bed, watching TV. And trust me when I say, I was in my room, on my bed, watching TV, in my sister's apartment. I got up and started to scream. I was home. Home. Home. Home. Home. Once I'd ran around and double made sure that everything was mine and real. I even broke a few things just to make sure.

And then I went out to the kitchen and into the living room, tackling Mali who was making out with her boyfriend. She groaned, but then realised it was me. She screamed and hugged me.

"Calum!" she hugged me so tight I could barely breathe and a few laughs squeezed out as I started to cry. The realisation of what I had done hit me.

"I have to go tell Michael and Luke – "

"They're out looking for you."

I smiled. "Call them and tell them to come here. I'll surprise them like fuck."

By the time I'd said this her boyfriend had left, so I was the only one to hold her back from laughing when she called them. She was shaking as she stuttered out, "come over; got something to tell you." and they thought she sounded rather choked up, but she was just trying to stop laughing. I hid in the kitchen, trying to contain myself.

Luke and Michael came in, and by the sounds of it, they'd taken a seat on the couch. "Guys, go into the kitchen. There's – There's something I want you to see."

They walked in and I basically jumped on them. They pulled back to see my face and make sure it was me. Then they pulled me in for one of the biggest and best hugs I had ever had. This was them. That was the real Mikey. That was his scent. That was his hair. Those were his tears dripping onto my shirt.

He pulled away, wiping his tears. "You fucker, you made me cry." He tried to laugh, but ended up sobbing.

Luke gave him a side-hug. "What happened, Cal?"

"Don't really wanna talk about it. But, the highlight was finding Ashton Irwin." I smiled at Luke's expression. We'd been fighting over Ashton since day one, but it sucks to be him, since I was the one that fucked him. "We – We were both trapped." I stuttered. "I don't know if he came out or not." Their faces dropped.

"We need to go to the police, Cal." Michael said softly. "You need to tell them what happened."

I shook my head. Nobody would believe me. Nobody would believe that I was sucked into a world with Ashton Irwin and there was a fake version of my family and my life was supposed to play out like a fanfiction. People would think me traveling to the moon was more plausible.

"I don't want to."

"What about Ashton?"

"He'll – He'll get out." I couldn't even believe myself. I sat down on the lounge, Michael's arms around my shoulders. They kept on prompting me to talk about it a few more times, then they gave up. While we played Xbox, Mali said she was going to do some food shopping. We nodded.

I drifted off to sleep slowly, leaning against Michael. Traveling back to the real world really takes a lot out of you.

Ashton was on the news a few days later. He looked heartbroken and confused just like I did.

'Ashton is believed to be having some form of PTSD. Sources say that he has been talking of a different world. Irwin has been undergoing treatment for this and is said to be on the road again.'

It was stupid. He'd literally just been found and they already wanted him to go back on tour. However, I wasn't thinking of that when I saw his face appear on the screen. I just wanted to know where he was, and if he was okay, and if he was safe.

I put my hand over my mouth and started to cry for what felt like the millionth time in the past three days. Mali tried to comfort me, but it didn't work. I needed Ashton's arms. I just needed Ashton.

I searched for a way to find him, and then suddenly, a tweet got out. Ashton5sos: Calum – 107 Dunkin Street, Sydney. I swallowed nervously, biting my lip as I took Mali's keys and ran out of the apartment complex. I started the car and sped through the traffic, nearly crashing but I didn't care because I needed to get to this address.

And then the car ran out of fuel.

My tears had ran out, so I just started throwing a hissy-fit, getting out and sprinting my way there. It was ten blocks, plus about thirty more and I wasn't sure if I could make it or not. Suddenly a girl pulled over and gave me a kind smile as well as a lift when she noticed how fucked up I looked.

"I need to get to Dunkin Street." I told her, and she gasped.

"You're – You're Calum?"

I nodded. "I didn't think Ashton would be alive considering the shit we went through." I let out a small laugh and let her take me to Dunkin, not telling her a thing, even though she asked. I hugged her tight, my heart about to explode as I jumped out of the car. 107 seemed to be a private residence, and I had to press a buzzer to be let in.

"Who's this?" a voice asked, jumping through the static.

"It's Calum." I rushed out, sniffing a little and trying ot tidy up my appearance.

"What is one of the last things you said to him?" the guy talking seemed unimpressed with me.

I guessed they'd had people coming all day about it, and this was the only way they could see if it was real or not. He groaned. The fucking desperation of some people. I thought a little bit, because that was stuck in my head was his moans, and his thrusts, and us saying that we loved each other. I bit my lip.

"Could you fuck me one more time?" I answered confidently.

A voice came through the small speaker, it speaking loud and clear, cutting into the air, no matter how weak it seemed. "Fuck or make love?" Ashton. He sounded so tired. So used. So abused. So fucking done.

"Make love." I whispered.

The gates opened and Ashton raced out. Although he had a small smile on his face, the bags under his eyes and the tear marks were evident. In the real world, he was utterly imperfect. His receding hairline was back and there were a few pimples on his face, but I couldn't have asked for any better.

"I missed you." he said, bursting into tears as he hugged me. He pulled away, a package in his hand. "I got this in the mail."

He passed it to me and I opened it up, seeing it was a book. It was a selfie of me and him in black and white. Him with a bandana around his head and me with my tongue poking out. In the completely white box below that was fit for a title, in the middle of it, written in typewriter font, was Chapter 24 by Basorexic.

"Babe, we made our own story."

And everything went white.

thanks for reading *insert thumbs up emoji here*