Begin Again - A.I

twenty six.

"Yeah, sure," Michael says. "Anyone else have any other requests?"

Calum says something about a pineapple and ham one, and Luke demands garlic bread. Ashton says nothing.

"Alright, I've got two pepperoni, one pineapple, and one cheese, and two sticks of garlic bread. You know the drill, pay up. Five each."

I begin to panic because even if I did have money, I certainly didn't bring it along with me tonight. As if sensing my panic, Luke puts his massive hand onto my shoulder. "Oh, no. Don't worry, Ella. We've got this."

Were these the same boys? The same loud, gossipy, mean boys I had gotten to know over the last few weeks? Why were they all of a sudden acting so nice towards me? Had Ashton said something to them? God, I was seriously gonna kill Ashton. He was still avoiding my eye contact. He knew how guilty he should be.

Once Michael has his money, he rings up the pizza place and puts in our order. Luke and Calum are busy talking about some new James Bond film, and Ashton is still hiding behind his special little drum kit, so I walk over to the kitchen and get myself a drink.

When I close the fridge door, Ashton's standing right there. I almost drop my bottle of water, but I recollect myself and breeze past him without saying a word. I grab a glass and lean against the bench, beginning to pour in the water. I can see him out of the corner of my eye, but I still don't say anything.

"El-"

"Oh, what's that?" I look up and act distressed. "Is a big fat liar  speaking?"

I can see Ashton roll his eyes. "Come on, El, you don't even know the whole story."

"No." I spin around to face him. "I don't, because you keep lying about it. How am I supposed to know the whole story, when you haven't even told one single part of it?"

He opens his mouth to reply but I cut him off. "Whatever." I walk back to the other boys. If Ashton wanted to lie to me about why he didn't want to go to the city, then fine. He could lie. Didn't mean I was going to be okay with it.

"Trouble in paradise?" Michael raises his eyebrows at me, then at Ashton; who still stands in the kitchen. Alone. Oh, wait, no. Luke's gone to join him. 

I shove Michael. "Shut up." He just laughs. "Hey, Ashton likes the city, right?"

"The city?" Michael screws up his face in thought. "He did."

"What happened?"

Michael just looks at me, like I'm some dumbass or something. "It's pretty obvious."

"What-"

"WHO WANTS TO PLAY TWISTER?!" Luke suddenly yells.

We all turn to him like he's the new son of God. 

"I don't even own-" Michael starts.

"I brought it!" Luke cries.

"To our band practice?" 

"Come on!" Luke's already opening up the box, which he seemed to pull out of nowhere, and laying down the mat. "Who's gonna spin?"

"I will." Michael steps forward, grabbing the spinner. "I hate this stupid game."

"Yay!" Luke cries, like a literal child. "Twister!"

I eye everything in concern. There was no way in hell I was going to get onto that mat and bend my limbs like a damn pipe cleaner. These boys may be getting kinder, but they were still males who loved to laugh at fat girls attempting to play Twister. No thank you.