The Therapist's Son // Ashton Irwin [AU] ✔

7.

Ashton merely smiled at me, and I looked at him questioningly.

"So...The point of that was...?"

"First, to see the look on your face afterwards. You look ridiculous, by the way, you might want to brush those leaves out of your hair before school tomorrow," I rolled my eyes. "And, so you could see..." Ashton reached out and cupped both my cheeks in his hands before tilting my head back, forcing me to look at the sky. "That."

I gasped as I looked up and saw hundreds of stars dancing across the sky. Back at home, I lived near the city, and you could see stars occasionally, but never like this.

"Wow," I breathed, smiling. "That's really neat."

"Want to see something else?"

"There's more?" I asked, excitedly. Ashton laughed, pointing to one of the trees, were there was a rope ladder leading to some sort of treehouse. He wandered over, grabbing the rope and beginning to climb.

"Ashton, get down from there!" I lightly demanded.

"No, come on up! It's safe, I promise." I glared at him.

"That's not the point. We don't know who's it is! For all we know, on the other side of those trees is a house belonging to some poor kid! And you're here invading his treehouse!"

"Yeah, someone else does live on the other side," He laughed. "My mother."

"What?" I asked.

"Yeah, this is mine," He smiled, continuing to climb. "Now are you coming or not?" I inhaled deeply before reaching out for the rope and climbing up after the boy.

"Cool, huh?" He asked. There was a carpet laid out, and a window so you could see the moon and stars shining brightly outside. I was still hesitant, slightly afraid it would collapse with more than one person in it.

"Stop stressing, Miss America, you're fine. I used to come up here all the time with..." He trailed off, and a sudden silence came over us once again, this time slightly awkward as I waited for him to continue. But he didn't.

"Ashton?"

"What?" He snapped at me. I felt my heart sink in my chest. The old Ashton was back.

"Nothing."

"You were waiting for me to finish, weren't you?" He asked. "Well, I'm not going to. Not yet." I nodded, biting my lip in understanding. I wasn't going to corner him into telling me anything, but the curiosity was slowly killing me.

"Hey, come here," He said, kneeling by the window. I nodded, kneeling right by him. "Look, I know I'm bitter sometimes, and I know I seem kind of bipolar, but I don't mean it. Remember how I said I'm trying to sort through some things before I go back to school?"

"Yeah."

"I'm still working on it," He whispered, looking up at the stars instead of at me. "And I might not be there yet, but I'm closer than I was yesterday. Or Thursday. Or last week. And I'll be even closer tomorrow, and three days after that, and a week after that...I like you, Miss America, and I hope you'd be willing to be my friend despite all of that."

"I'd be very willing to be your friend, Ashton." I smiled. He smiled back.

And that's how we stayed. We stayed just like that in his treehouse, until the stars slowly began to fade and the sky turned grey.

"I'd better get going back home," I said, standing up and brushing off my pajama bottoms I had forgotten I was wearing. I blushed, realizing I had looked like shit all night. "I'll be lucky if my mom stayed asleep the whole time I was gone."

"Alright, Miss America. Your next appointment is tomorrow, right?"

"Don't remind me." I groaned, and he chuckled.

"I might not be that close with my mom, but I've seen her do wonders in other peoples' lives. Just trust her on this, okay?"

"Yeah, sure." I mumbled. Ashton smiled at me one last time.

"See you tomorrow, Miss America." I nodded, holding onto the ladder as I made my way down.

"Hey!" I heard him call once my feet had hit the ground. I looked back up. He looked tired, but at peace as he stared at me out of the treehouse window. "Have a good day at school."

*****

A/N: Two out of two! Please comment and vote for both updates if you can, it really helps me out!

So, what do you think of Ashton and Natalie's little adventure? Huh? Huh?

Sorry, I'm so weird. You get used to it eventually, I promise. Anyways, thanks again for 100 votes. I'm spending the week with my mom, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to update as often, so it might be a few more days until my next one.

Callie x