"I have to go."
"But I'm not asleep yet," he mumbled out, squinting his eyes to see me in the dark.
"I can't stay here the entire night Ash," I said, flinging my leg on the other side of the open window, shivering from the cold air. I was halfway...
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What.
The.
Fuck.
"Wait, what?"
"He came home and started drinking and-and... he's locked up and...it's so quiet," Daniel was completely sobbing by now.
"Okay Daniel, I need you to go to your room and lock your door okay? Don't be scared, I'll be there in a second, I promise," I was already pulling up my socks and tying my laces. I had nearly managed to sneak out without waking my parents who were suddenly so interested in my life when my father appeared in the doorway.
Great.
Just what I needed.
"And where do you think you're going, young lady?" he sneered.
After the whole not responding to his text and coming home late, he's been really angry at me lately. He's actually set a curfew for me and we now have family dinners and stuff.
It's fucking weird.
"Out," I replied, walking away, wincing when I heard my dad growl under his breath.
Great job, Alexis. You managed to piss off your already fuming father even more.
****
"Daniel?" I whispered, walking into his house, courtesy of the unlocked door.
Are these boys not worried about their safety?
The living room was littered with a couple of empty beer cans but other than that, it was empty. I walked up the empty room I saw Ashton drop off the granola bars in and saw the little boy crouched in a little ball in the middle of his bed.
"Daniel?"
He perked up when he heard me and dashed towards me and hugged me, drenching my sweatshirt with his tears.
"Oh, I'm sorry," he began.
"No, it's okay. Listen, where's Ashton?"
"In his room."
"Okay, I'm gonna need you to stay here while I talk to him okay?" I tucked him in, waiting for him to go to sleep before I went to handle the hot mess that was Ashton Moretti.
"I hope you aren't mad that I called you -"
I was gonna say that it wasn't necessary to apologize when he continued,
" -it's just that your number is the only one he has saved on his phone. Well, you and the pizza parlor. There were a lot of random texts from random numbers but you were the only one he saved so I just called you. I'm sorry I was just really scared, I've never seen him so sad," he began sobbing again and I spent the next fifteen minutes consoling him, only leaving when I was convinced he was asleep.
"Ashton?"
I slowly poked my head into his room and gasped at the sight.
I expected his room to be messy, but I expected a few clothes strewn around, maybe some posters but I obviously wasn't expecting it to look like a hurricane had passed through it.
