The Chase ▹ Ashton Irwin

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

I sat in silence on the curb, waiting for that red pickup truck to show up. I could tell my mascara was running, and my curls were coming undone. I sniffled my tears, ignoring all the texts from Jessie coming into my phone. 

He's probably not even going to come. I thought to myself. I sighed. Suddenly, I saw headlights down the road. I stood up, hope flooding back into my heart. I noticed the red pick up truck and I couldn't help but smile a little. I walked up to the open window and looked in. 

"You alright?" Ashton asked. It was weird, I expected him to be angry with me, but the way he said those words told me that he might actually care about my feelings.

"I guess." I said, opening the door and climbing into the car. 

"Here, you look cold." Ashton said. He grabbed a black sweatshirt from the backseat and handed it to me. I thanked him. It was silent for a couple minutes as Ashton drove down the road, thankfully getting farther and farther from Nick's house. Finally, I spoke up.

"You were right, Ashton." I sighed, looking out the window. I was too ashamed to even look at him. We pulled up to a red light a couple exits away from the enterance of the Strip. 

"Brooke." I head Ashton's voice say. I reluctantly looked over to him. His hazel eyes were almost glowing in the darkness. "Its okay." He said. His voice was full of so much warmth and empathy for me. I relxed a little.

"C'mon," he said. "We're getting your mind off of him."

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"To have some real fun." He replied, a little smile creeping onto his face.

Uh oh.

I was about to ask him to just take me home, but in that moment, I didn't want to go home. I sat back and waited for Ashton to get wherever he wanted to take us. His phone vibrated on the dashboard. 

"Can you text him back and tell him we're almost there?" Ashton asked. I nodded, and took his phone into my hands. He had recived a text from someone named Michael.

Dude where the fuck are you?

I replied for Ashton. Almost there.

Ashton took a turn, and we were out on the Las Vegas Strip. A mixture of different colors from all the different lights and signs were flashing through the sky. I still had no idea where we were going. Suddenly, Ashton took a sharp turn and we were in the parking lot of some hotel. I recognized the gold building to be Mandalay Bay. It was a pretty nice hotel, or so I've heard. I still haven't made time to go inside of it yet. Ashton drove to the underground parking lot. I looked down the almost empty  garage to see a couple of people, that I recognized from school. One of them stuck out with a sore thumb, with his bright pink hair. Ashton parked the car and got out. "Well c'mon." Ashton said. I followed him out of the car.

"Michael!" Ashton called. The boy with pink hair turned around and waved us over. I felt weird and out of place already. But, I stayed calm and stayed next to Ashton. 

"Hey." The boy with pink hair (His name was Michael, apparently) said. He looked over to me, and gave me a smile. I returned one back.

"Oh this is Brooke." Ashton said to the group of people. There was only 2 others.

"Calum." A boy with dark hair and tanned skin said. He had a cigarrette in his hand. He had his other hand around the waist of  a blonde girl with way too much liquid eyeliner on. "And this is my girlfriend, Natalie."

"Hi" She said happily. She gave me a sudden hug.

"Do you have the IDs?" Michael asked. My eyes widened.