The Bookshop

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Michael’s POV

“Jesus, Ashton. How in the fuckery did you get yourself into this mess?” I ask Ashton as I help him up from the ground once again. He starts his little giggling fit and says, “I forgot.”

Luke quietly opens the door to his house and when we hear Ashton’s mom, Luke and I look at each other and I start dragging Ashton to his room as fast as I could. But then, we got caught. “What are you two doing here?” Ashton’s mom asks.

I look at Luke and he says, “Well, Mrs. Irwin, Ashton is…um…very sleepy! And we were having band practice and he almost smashed his face on the ground and we decided that he should just get some rest. But he wouldn’t move! So we dragged him…in here…” Ashton’s mom raises an eyebrow at Luke and he laughs awkwardly.

“Ashton’s drunk isn’t he?” She asks.

“Yes.” Luke says and looks down. She laughs at Luke and I look at her and wonder why she was laughing. She notices me and asks, “What? Did you think that I was going to get mad at you two?”

Luke and I nod our heads and she says, “Well, just bring him in his room. If you can, that is. I’ll deal with him tomorrow morning. Thank you, you two.”

Mrs. Irwin heads upstairs and I sigh heavily and drop Ashton to the floor. “Ow.” He groans and I apologize. “It’s your fault you were all over her.” I say.

“He looks comfortable there.” Luke says before walking to the front door. I grab his shirt before he could get away and say, “None of this happened, okay? We didn’t see the two of them kissing or crap like that.”

“What about Calum and Jessie? What if he finds out before we leave? I don’t want them to end on bad terms. They’re too cute!” Luke says.

“Just forget about it, Lucas!” I yell at him.

“Okay! But if he finds out and blames us for not saying a thing, I’m blaming this all on you.”

We walk out of Ashton’s house and I look at the time on my phone. It was almost three in the morning. “Where do we go from here, Luke?” I ask him.

“Well, we could always head back to your house or my house or go back to the party to look for Calum and Jessie.” He tells me.

I sigh heavily and start walking back to my house because first of all, I didn’t feel like going back to that party. And second, I didn’t feel like talking to Calum and Jessie right now because for sure, things would get very awkward. To the point where the whole Ashton thing would just come out of one of our mouths and Calum would be ready to punch a hole in the wall. Plus, sleeping seemed like the best option ever. Sleep is the best thing ever.

“We’re going back to your house aren’t we?” Luke asks.

“No shit, Sherlock.” I tell him. “Besides, it’s not like my parents would mind.”

---

The next morning, the lads and I met up in the park to just hang around and all. We were sitting in a small circle in the field and things about last night came up and Luke and I tried not to say anything about what we saw. Well, a certain thing in particular which was Ashton and Jessie snogging one another out in public, but we didn’t want any fights to break out. Not today at least.

“Where did you three go last night?” Calum asks.

“Ashton needed some coffee to sober up.” Luke says. “You should’ve seen him! He was falling all over the place!”

“So, what happened to you guys?” I ask Calum.

“Well, I found her in the kitchen with one of our classmates. I think her name was Sarah. Yeah. So, Sarah found her on the staircase completely drunk. I wasn’t there because I had to use the bathroom and the line for it was pretty long because…you know.” Calum says. “Anyways, I found her in the kitchen all sobered up and talking to Sarah. And I figured, she had too much drinks so I brought her back to my place just in case her mom started yelling at her.”

Jessie looked at Ashton and I noticed the change in her mood. She looked very uncomfortable now which meant one thing. She knew what she did with Ashton. I looked at her and luckily she looked at me and I tried to tell her to not tell Calum.

She got the message and slightly nodded her head before turning back into her happy state with Calum. “I want ice cream.” She told Calum and stood up. “Do you guys want?” She asks us. We all nod our heads and she smiles.

“Michael, you wanna help me in getting the ice cream? I can’t hold five with these small hands of mine.”

“What about me?” Calum asks with a pout.

“I hang out with you too much, give me a break.” She jokingly says.

“Fine.”

I walk with Jessie to the ice cream shop across the park and wait in line. “Please tell me that what happened with Ashton wasn’t real.” Jessie says.

“Sorry, love. But I saw it with my own two eyes.” I say. “Luke and I decided not to tell Calum because we don’t want you two to end on bad terms before we leave. But it’s your decision.”

“To be honest, I do want to tell him but I’d rather just forget it because, well, I was drunk! Plus, it wasn’t my fault I was drunk. Calum just went up to me with that stupid red cup with some sort of alcohol in it even though I refused!” She tells me. “I was like, no! But he was all, ‘Come on, Jess. It’s just one drink what could happen?’ Well, I kissed Ashton! That’s what happened! Fun.”

“Just to let you know you didn’t kiss him.” I inform her.

“What?”

“You were full on snogging.” Her eyes grew big and she groaned. “Hate to break it to you.”

“Fuck my life.” She says and hits her head on my arm.

“Just, forget about it. It never happened. Erase it from you memory.”

We reach the cashier and order ice creams for everyone. Jessie paid, which made me praise her because I never get free food when I’m out with the boys. She rolls her eyes at me and we walk back to the park and sat down with the boys.

“So, what are your plans when you tour with One Direction?” Jessie asks.

“We don’t really know.” Luke says. “Probably just practice a whole lot and hope things turn out well.”

“True.” Ashton, Calum and I say.