You Make Me Strong

Finding Ashton's Razors

Lou:

I was glad to hear that Ash was ok. I don't know what I would've done without him.

"Are you hungry?"

I shook my head. "I don't usually eat breakfast."

"Oh. Ok."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I'm gonna go check on Ash. I'll be right back."

When he came back, he said Ashton was awake.

"Would you like to talk to him?"

I nodded.

Mikey:

I went to check on Ashton, but when I went up there, he looked sad. Maybe hurt on the inside. He didn't talk to me last night. Instead, he just rocked back and forth. I layed with him and we soon fell asleep just holding eachother. Now that Louis is here, maybe Ash will talk. I'm hoping he will. A couple seconds later and we were upstairs to see Ashton.

"Hey Ash," Louis said, quietly so he didn't scare him.

Ash looked up and gave a small smile.

"You ok?"

He nodded. Next thing I knew, he pulled his knees to his chest. He looked almost like he did when we first met at the park.

"What happened?" Louis sounded more worried now.

A shrug was his answer. Louis then walked over to my bed and wrapped his arms around Ashton. I stood there and watched this happen.

A month after this Ashton incident.

Mikey:

Ashton and I have memories in this room. Only from the first month we met we had so many smiles, so many 'I need you's. He slept at my house a lot within that month. I'm not being selfish, really. It was good to see someone else care so much for him and for him to talk to another person. I usually find Ashton at the park a lot more. He doesn't talk at school anymore. The only responses anyone could get from him were nods, head shakes, or shrugs. It's been a month since Louis and I found him in the park like that. We still don't know what happened. Ashton wears long sleeves and more bracelets. I try to talk to him, but no. He has to go away and avoid me. I haven't talked to Ash for a month. He's more tired more often.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Mom I'm going for a walk!"

"Ok."

I went to the park, expecting Ashton to be there. When there, I looked for him. Once I found him, I walked over to him.

"Ash.."

Before he could move, I grabbed him.

"Shh. Hey, it's me. You're ok," I reassured him.

It didn't work. He was struggling, weakly, to get out of my grip. His left sleeve was up and the bracelets were moved up his arm a little bit.

"Ashton?"

He was still trying to get away from my arms.

"Ashton, quit. Calm down." That didn't work very well. So I pulled him closer to my chest. "Ash it's ok. You're ok."

He quit trying and lumped into my chest, crying. I just let him cry. Then, as if it was instinct, his left arm moved to his chest, wrist facing inward. I adjusted him so it was a little more comfortable. If it was even possible, Ashton snuggled more in my chest. We stayed there for a little while, him crying. While I, on the other hand, was looking on the ground around us. Once he settled down, I found a broken razor a little farther than where we were. It was only the plastic part. Wait. Only the plastic container. Not the part you shave with. I looked for those parts, not having success seeing them.

"Ashton?" I whispered.

A sniffle.

"Where are the bits of razors at?"

He didn't look up at me. Instead he tried to get out of my arms again. I tightened my grip.

"Let go," he whispered.

"No."

"Please."

"Why?"

That time I didn't get an answer.

"Ashton?"

"..... Please."

"Why?"

He won't answer me when I ask that. After a moment of trying, he succeeded to get my arms from around him. He got up and ran. I got up immediately and ran after him.

"Ashton!"

He didn't look back. All he did was run. I sped up and caught up to him. On accident, I pushed him while trying to grab him. We both stumbled to the ground. Before I could stand up, he got up and almost ran again, but heard a little 'ting' on the ground. I looked down and grabbed it as he bent down to. He looked at me with terror in his eyes.

"Why do you have this Ashton?"

He shrugged and looked down. Then he fell to his knees. I went over to him and picked him up. Might as well go home and find out what had happened to him in the past month.