Nicotine | Ashton Irwin ✔

2.2

"Uh, Ara?" Michael paused.

"Yeah?"

"Will you call to let us know if anything has happened to him?"

"Yeah, you guys will be the first to know."

"Thanks."

"No problem. Night Michael."

"Night Ara."

Ara didn't hear back from Liam that night. Even after all the countless messages she left him, they still heard nothing. Ara had a sickening feeling inside and had begun to think the worst.

By morning, Ara felt tired and sick to her stomach. She didn't want to go to school, but she had to know if Michael heard anything.

She forced herself out of bed and down the hall to shower, hoping that it would relax her, but it did nothing of the sort. She wrapped a towel around her and padded back to her bedroom to change. She pulled on a pair of ripped jeans, and an oversized grey hoodie. She blow dried her hair, and then straightened it, giving her something to focus on instead of Ashton. When she was finished, she placed an old snapback on her head and grabbed her bag.

Teddy was standing at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for her. He looked her over. "You looked nice today." He said softly. "Despite the fact where you look like you've been crying for days." He opened his arms up to his sister. Ara wiped away a tear that fell and hugged him.

They stayed like that for a long time.

"You really care about him, huh?" Teddy said, rubbing his sister's back. She nodded.

"Yeah." She sniffed. Teddy brushed his sister's hair out of her face and kissed her forehead.

"You ready to do this?" He asked her. She shook her head.

"No." She replied. Teddy grabbed her hand.

"Come on. We can do this." He led her towards the front door of the house. Ara had been telling herself that for years, and for the first time in forever . . .

She didn't believe it.

Michael, Calum and Luke stood nervously in front of the school. Ara hadn't called Mike back so their minds went into panic mode. Sam came running towards them. "Have any of you seen Ara?" She asked.

"No." Calum said with a frustrated sigh.

"Hey, you okay Calum?" She asked, lightly touching his shoulder.

"No. I'm not okay. None of us are."

"Where's Ashton?"

"We don't know!" Calum yelled. Sam flinched.

"Calum, knock it off, yeah? She's just trying to be nice." Luke said, hitting him upside the head.

"Sorry." He mumbled.

"Ara said something about that last night. She seemed upset."

"Yeah, Ashton doesn't have a great home life, and something went down last night. Ara got her dad involved."

"Oh god." Sam said, moving her hand to cover her mouth.

"Man, I hope nothing happened to him." Michael groaned.

"There's Ara." Sam piped up, pointing far off. They turned. Ara was walking in their direction. She had her head down and a scowl on her face.

Ara stopped a few feet away from everyone, hey eyes stuck to the ground. "Ara?" Sam said. "You okay?" Ara shook her head. She breathed in, and breathed out before looking up. She had dark circles underneath her eyes and the were red and puffy. "You look terrible." Sam directed. Ara let out a pitiful laugh.

"I do, don't I?" She said.

"I like your hair when it's straight." She added.

"Thanks." Ara turned to the boys. "I didn't hear anything from Liam, he wasn't even home this morning. I'm sorry." She told them. Michael said, and then randomly pulled Ara in for hug. She was taken back by his actions, but hugged him back.

"Thanks again." He mumbled.

"No problem Mikey." She whispered. Ara pulled away and sighed. "I'm gonna go to class. Hopefully he'll show." She said. She waved goodbye and walked towards the school. Teddy looked to Ashton's friends and Sam.

"How much do you guys wanna bet that my sister is going to end up falling in love with him?"