My Daddy || Ashton Irwin

Chapter 44 -

"Middle school?" Paula asks. "What was he like?" I lean in, curious to hear her answer.

"Well, he hung out with Michael a lot so he was always over. He was a dick, really, not much else to say."

"What about a yearbook?" I ask her. "Did the middle school have a yearbook."

Maggie smiles and jumps to her feet, as we were all sitting on the ground. "Yes, and I still have it! Let's go to my house quick and look at it!"

Paula and I don't hesitate to join her and quickly, we sneak out of the house and go to Maggie's.

I greet Maggie's mother on the way in and upstairs, in the hallway, Michael runs into us.

"Hey, Paula, Ella. I thought you were at Ella's tonight, Maggie?" He asks.

"We were, but-" she's got off by the sound of a toilet flushing, and the door to the bathroom swings open behind me.

"Ella?" I hear Ashton's deep voice behind me. Then, behind Michael, Luke and Calum emerge from Mikey's bedroom.

Paula's eyes are wide, fixed on Luke's shirtless chest. "We've been boy-bombed," she whispers.

Her gaze shifts to Luke's, who  stares at her
with a wary expression. "Ha-ha, sorry," she apologizes nervously.

"What are you doing here?" Ashton asks. I turn around to face him.

"We were having a sleepover at my house, and we came over to get something Maggie forgot," I lie.

"Oh," he says, shrugging nonchalantly.

"So, we're going to go now," Maggie says, dragging Paula away from Luke's gaze, into her bedroom, and I follow.

Once the door closes, Paula blurts out, "God, that was Luke?"

"Y-yeah," I giggle, covering my mouth to hide my laughs. "Do you like him?" I squeal. "I could totally hook you up."

"Really?" Paula asks, her curiosity peaked. Then her hopeful smile fades and she crosses her arms over her chest defensively. "He's probably got the hots for another girl."

"Who knows? I can ask him sometime," I respond, "but let's get down to business." Playfully, I crack my knuckles and kneel to the carpeted floor. "Where's the yearbook, Mags?"

Maggie walks to her closet and tugs open the door, revealing clothes, shoes, books. Then she drags out a small, cardboard box to where Paula and I are sitting, and sits down herself.

"Crap," I mumble as Maggie tears open the box. "How many yearbooks do you have?" Inside of the box is two stacks of them.

"Well, kindergarten, first grade, second grade third-"

"We get it," Paula laughs.

"All up to fifth grade, since that was the last year I went to school with him in elementary.

"You've known Ashton for all of those years?" I ask, a tint of jealously laced in my voice. I've only known him for not even a year.

"Yeah, he wasn't that bad back then."

"He's not bad now, either," I reply defensively, narrowing my eyes.

"Shut up, Ella. We aren't fighting, you know what I mean." Maggie rolls her eyes and I look down.

"Here," Maggie says in a happier tone, pointing to a small picture of a brown haired girl. "That's me."