home town • ashton irwin ((currently on hold))

2. evening shift

3 years.

ashton hadn't stepped foot on the pavement of his hometown for three years, but here he was going to throw up and pass out at the same time because fuck if he wasn't terrified.

everything looked the same but it felt so different it hurt and ashton wanted to hide away in the tour bus until he returned to l.a. - it was safe in l.a.

he didn't know if he wanted to see sofia or not.

even knowing there was a possibility he might bump into her, that he might see her face or hear her voice, that he might hear her saying his name again.

it had been three years and ashton still knew exactly how it sounded when sofia said his name.

"dude we're home!" luke cheered, his arms outspread and his face turned to the sun. "fuck i love it here."

"you say that like you're not here all the time visiting your mum." michael retorted, ruffling luke's hair.

"it's going to be great playing here though." calum interjected, pulling his sunglasses off only to squint at the sun and put them on again. "we barely ever play in australia and i like it when everyone sounds like me."

"you just like the sound of your own voice." michael countered with a cheeky grin.

ashton just sat on the steps of the tourbus, his feet resting on the gravel but his legs not quite steady enough to stand on it yet.

being in his home town made the memories he'd spent so long repressing flood him again and his mind was going at a million miles an hour trying to comprehend them all.

luke was the first to notice, and a look of concern fell over his features.

"ash, are you okay man?" he asked softly, sitting on the steps beside ashton so they were shoulder to shoulder.

"i'm good." ashton smiled, trying as best he could to mask everything he was feeling so he didn't bring down the other boys. "it's just been a while."

"are you thinking of. . ." calum trailed off, not needing to say the name of the girl they all knew it was.

"always."

"we're going to be here with you the whole time." michael said in an uncharacteristically gentle tone, wrapping his arm around ashton's shoulders.

"i'll be fine - honestly guys." ashton was lying and he knew it as his shoulders slumped into a sigh. "it's just so much easier not to think of her when we're somewhere else."

"it's been three years mate, she might've moved away?" luke said quietly.

ashton shook his head, a small, but sad smile on his face.

"she wouldn't have moved away; she only finished nursing school two years ago. she loves it here."

the boys just accepted his answer in silence, understanding that, while they knew that three years ago ashton could never stop talking about how pretty or smart his girlfriend was, ashton had never actually divulged the intricacies of their relationship.

they just knew it must've been something great for him to still be heartbroken three years later.

***

"so sweetheart, what colour cast would you like?"

the small girl sitting on the hospital bed sniffed and looked up shyly at sofia, her cheeks flushed red and wet with tears.

"i'd like a pink cast please." her voice was so tiny and wobbly it broke sofia's heart - the girl had been brought in by a teenage babysitter who was terrified out of his mind and her mother was stuck at work.