novacaine // a.i. {discontinued}

~ 0.8 ~ proof ~

1191 days before

July 1, 2010

Age 16

It's been exactly 14 days since I've seen Ashton. Two weeks. After I visited him in the hospital, I was quickly rushed out by nurses. My mom, who was already in a bad mood, quickly tugged on my arm, dragging me out of the dull gray hospital. I took one last glance at Ashton's broken body before leaving.

I haven't seen him at all since then. I know. I'm a horrible friend. But apparently Ashton was released from the hospital and sent home a couple hours after I left. I used the fact that I wanted to see him as an excuse to find out some more information about his life. Being Ashton, he wouldn't tell me where he lived, claiming that he refused to see me when he supposedly looked like shit.

~

To: whiplashton c:

so when are you gonna tell me where you live

To: scarlettuce <3

never

To: whiplashton c:

pls

To: scarlettuce <3

nah

To: whiplashton c:

i havefood

To: scarlettuce <3

fine I'm coming over

~

After a couple minutes, Ashton appeared at my doorstep. I ran over to the door and opened it for him. He reached his arms out and pulled me into a warm hug.

"I missed you," he mumbled.

"You interrupted my photoshoot," I blatantly stated, pulling back from the hug.

"Are you still playing that stupid game?"

"Not stupid!" I screamed as I returned to my seat on the sofa.

Ashton disappeared into the kitchen while I returned to my game. Over the past two weeks while Ashton was gone, my only company was my phone. Seeing that everybody so obsessed with it, I downloaded the Kardashian game. Soon I got sucked in and couldn't stop playing. Once you're in, you never get out.

Ashton plopped down in the seat next to me, empty handed. "I thought you said you had food."

"I did," I answered, my mind fixed on the screen.

"Where's the food?"

"There is none."

"You said you had food," he repeated.

"And you said you'd show me your house." I fired back.

"Fine, but I'm expecting food." he demanded as he got up, walking to the door. He turned back around when he realized I was still cuddled on the sofa. "You coming?"

"Yea just a second." I answered, closing out of my game and grabbing a bag of chips. I followed him out the door and into his car.

~

We soon arrived at an apartment building. Ashton leaped up the steps and I soon followed. He halted in front of a door on the second step. I held in my excitement. The door in front of me was going to give me answers to some of my questions. Sure, it wasn't giving me everything I wanted to know, but it was a start. Maybe I would find out that Ashton lived an insane life and was actually an internationally trained murderer. Maybe I would find out that he lived a normal life and just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. All these would be answered the moment I step into the building. Pulling a key out of his pocket, he stuck it in the lock. "Welcome to Casa de Ashton," he exclaimed, swinging the door open,

His apartment was exactly what you would expect from a teenage boy. Clothes all over the floor. Trash scattered everywhere. The smell of beer in every inch of the house. Stereotypical apartment for a stereotypical teenage boy. What I wasn't expecting was the shadow lurking in the corner.

"Blue."

I jumped and quickly turned around, coming face to face with a boy behind me. He had lilac hair and bright green eyes. A bar pierced through his right eyebrow. He looked at me in deep thought, eyebrows furrowed.

"What?"

"Blue," he repeated, as if it was the most obvious answer, "you'd look good with blue."

"Aw, Michael, not again." Ashton groaned as the so-called Michael scurried off to another room. "Well, now you've met Michael."

Michael appeared once again, now carrying a box with a picture of a girl with bright blue hair. "You'd look good with blue," he repeated once again. He grabbed my hand and dragged me into the bathroom.

~

Less than an hour and a half later, my hair was blue. It wasn't just a normal blue. It was an electric blue. It was almost bright enough to blind a person. I stared into the mirror with wide eyes, trying to get used to the new color.

"See, Michael, this is why we can't have girls over because you scare them all away with your hair dying obsession!" Ashton yelled, putting his head in his hands.

"No, I like it. I just need to get used to it." I stated. "Thanks, Michael," I threw a smile at him, which he returned.

Cue the awkward silence. Normally with Ashton, the silences were comfortable. They were nice. We didn't have to be specifically doing anything to have fun. But with the added person in the room, there was a lot of tension, and I felt the need to say something. The next thing that came out of my mouth created a lot of controversy.

"I'm more punk rock than you now."

Immediately, the silence ceased and was soon replaced with protests. The room was suddenly filled with yelling. Debates flew from wall to wall on who was the most punk rock. Suddenly, Ashton's voice boomed, "We need to find a way to settle who's the most punk rock!"

All the yelling halted while the three of us tried to figure out a way to settle the situation. "Rock, paper, scissors?" I suggested. The two boys immediately shot me down. ("Goddammit, Scarlett, we're not five!") I kept throwing ideas until Michael finally spoke up.

"Whoever can blink 182 times first is the most punk rock!"

I nodded my head while Ashton shrugged. Michael, sensing that all three of us agreed, started counting.

"3...2...1...GO!"

~

this chapter is super filler-y but i swear it's super important later like it's got a lot of foreshadowing

i'm reposting this chapter bc wattpad jacked up and deleted a section of what i wrote. i didn't really rewrite it i kinda just summed it up

song of the chapter: proof by paramore. i used that one bc it's kinda like proof that ashtons life isn't as insane as scarlett thought it was and that it was somewhat the answers she wanted or idk im kinda making stuff up

i've been wanting to use the blink 182 thing ever since i started this fic ok

also it would mean the world if somebody made a blue haired lights bokan edit but you don't have to it's your choice

if the picture made you tingle, holla at me

i went to monumentour last night and it rained like insane and hayley got sick so no paramore and the power got cut off for 20 minutes but other that it was amazing and i would kill to go back

anyways i got to 400 reads so thank you guys so much ily!

~iris