Elusion // l.h

Chapter 15- Energy

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"They really do have great milkshakes here." I said taking a sip of my strawberry banana flavored one. I was trying to avoid the conversation I knew was coming, so boasting about a milky treat could spare me some time. Ashton nodded in agreement and almost drank half of it in one sip.

"So.." Ashton smirked.

"So.." I mimicked and smirked back. Knowing exactly what was coming.

"What happened?" He giggled. I took a sigh, something that I obviously was doing a lot today.

"In which retrospect?" I was doing it again. Stalling. I didn't know how to go about any of this. The whole Maggie thing is hard to talk about, because it involves topics that I have a hard time getting into. And talking about Luke only gets me aggravated.

"Let's start with you and Maggie. Why did you leave school today?" He asked. But along with his raging curiosity, I felt like there was compassion and care behind those words. With Ashton I felt like he really wanted to know because he wanted to help. That certainly eased things.

"Well, it started out great. We talked and watched movies and I was a normal sterotypical teenage girl for 45 seconds." I laughed. That weird mechanism thing was back.

"And then.." He pondered.

"Then I fell asleep and.." I took a pause.

"Look Ashton, before I came to Australia, life wasn't easy. I don't really want to go into it now, but there are things that just won't stop haunting me. They consume so much of everyday..." I started to explain. I was utterly surprised at how much came out, but I felt a strange feeling of relief.

Ashton's eyes became so much more caring and sensitive in that moment. He moved his chair a bit closer so that I felt safe to continue.

"And for the second time, I had a really vivid nightmare. Like crazy vivid. I woke up shaking and crying and that got me late to school." I felt my voice become lower, since it was getting me wound up.

"Pey..." Ashton whispered frowning and looking at me.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, I see this is hard for you." He said.

I shook my head.

"It is, but it's okay." I then smiled.

I continued to tell Ashton about the frantic trip to school and how that ended. I spent too much time ranting about my stupid math teacher and his antics. Ashton gave me a high five for standing up to the prick and I knew that it was well deserved.

"So how did you end up at the mall? With Luke?" He laughed and exaggerated on the 'Luke' part.

"Well my locker is next to his, and he saw me on the floor. I mentioned that I was skipping the day and he dragged me to the mall." I told. Ashton's stupid confused grin hadn't left his face.

"So he just offered to go to the mall?" He asked finishing the huge milkshake.

"Yep."

"Jesus that boy is strange." Ashton sighed, still laughing.

"Tell me about it. we ended up fighting twice, and I ended up yelling at some Jeremy. " I complained remembering the quiffed hair freak.

Ashton's smile suddenly faded and he furrowed his brows.

"Jeremy?" He asked in shock

"Yeah...what about him." I sipped on the milkshake.

"I can't believe he ran into Jeremy." Ashton spoke out loud. He was obviously in his own train of thought and this Jeremy prick was apparently well known.

"What did he say?" Ashton's tone of voice worried me a little bit. He was so serious and weird.

"He made some kind of comment about Luke being out of the house, and then he went on to me and insulted me. Then he mentioned something about not moving on or letting go, I don't even know to be honest."

I didn't want to involve myself too much in this. Whatever connection or obvious history Luke, and maybe Ashton had with this guy, was not something I needed to deal with right now.

"Shit...And what did you say to him?" He asked.

"I told them to take their prep school asses back to Abercrombie." I smirked.

Ashton burst into laughter and shook his head.

"You didn't." He countered. And I just nodded.

"I'm seeing a new side to you Foster. Telling two guys off in a day. Not bad." He jokingly punched my shoulder.

I shrugged at his comment and then continued to just spill the events of the day. Every detail from the car ride, to the mall fight, then the second mall fight and everything else in between. Ashton was extremely attentive and I felt like I was really being listened to. He would laugh or shake his head every now and then, showing a funny or even negative reaction at mine or Luke's doings. Finally, I got to the part when I woke up in my bed, sweat-shirtless. I told myself before that I would keep that a secret, but I couldn't at that point.
Ashton's eyes grew wider and his mouth almost dropped to the floor.

"I don't get him sometimes." He shook his head. I took the last sip of my milky treat to avoid speaking or saying anything else.

"I don't know. Like since two weeks, I have the impression like he wants to be friendly and even get to know me, but then he ends up exploding." I admitted. It was a feeling that I did have over the span of two weeks. Everyone that I've met so far, has been clear about their opinions of me. Some people are nasty and don't have an interest to know me, and I don't care to know them. Then there's a few like Ashton and his friends who have shown interest in getting to know me quite quickly. I never expected that I would reciprocate feelings of friendship, but I feel like I want to know them better too.

But then there's Luke. I never really know where I stand with him and its confusing. Every now and then he'll try to do nice or in Luke's world nice things, or even just be open to conversation, but there's always something stopping him.

I mentioned this to Ashton at the table and he looked like he was in thought.

"I know what you mean. He was the exact same with me and the other guys in the beginning. He still even is most of the time." He said, proving my theory.

"What do you mean?" I asked, wanting an elaboration.

"After the whole thing went down a while back, he closed himself off. I think he was scared that if he let people in again, they might end up like his old friends. That people would use him or I don't even know exactly, but yeah." Ashton seemed rather vague if I was honest. I wasn't sure he even knew where he was going with that explanation but whatever he said did make some sort of sense. I felt myslef relate to Luke in the smallest bit, since I am extremely closed off. Even though I have a few more people in my life, doesn't mean I'm ready for much more.

"Well enough about that." I chuckled, since this was going a more depressing road and I just wasn't in the mood to go there.

"Yeah, so are you excited for tomorrow? I know I am excited to see what your crazy little head came up with." Ashton joked.

"So now I'm crazy huh?" I sarcastically stated. Ashton just continued to giggle and he then called for a cheque. I felt ten pounds lighter since I told him a lot. It was a strange feeling to tell people things, but I just had my mom's voice in my head the whole time telling me to accept people. And from what it seems like, I really was.

(A.N, Hey guys! Ok so I know I said I would update this on Monday, which I did but I forgot to press publish! I pressed save and not publish so my mistake and sorry! I know its abit short but think of it as a double update for me! I am in the mood to write so im hoping that the next chapter will be on Thursday! I will try my hardest! Thank you for reading and thank you to those dedicated readers! I notice you and you know who you are! Xx -Liz)