Ashton's POV
It had been a while since the blow up and I guess I could say things were almost back to normal. Keyword is almost.
Forget that, I'm lying. I always try to look on the bright side of things, but I can't with this fucking mess.
The only thing that improved was that I had suppressed the urge to punch Calum in the face. Other than that, the house was divided, still. Peyton was still frequently going on runs. She brought Luke along sometimes, but that was just because he always asked her and I think she felt bad for him because they were the same age and he gave her this puppy face. Now, Peyton wasn't one for resisting the puppy dog face unless she was really against what you were fighting for. You can ask Calum, Harry, Lauren and I guess now Luke. Luke was really the only one that she was talking to. She spoke with Molly too, but that was probably just random girl talk.
At least I had songwriting today. I always liked songwriting. It was a good way to clear my mind.
One problem: I didn't know who I was writing with. Luke was walking around the kitchen, opening vegemite to spread on his toast and I approached him, "so Luke, are we writing together today?"
"Nope." He popped the p on his lips and I tilted my head.
"Do you know who I'm writing with?"
"I do," he nodded, "but you aren't going to like it."
"Calum?" He nodded again, staring down at his toast as to avoid eye contact with me.
"Ok."
"Really?" Luke sounded surprised.
"I can't hate him forever. He's one of my best friends and him and Peyton are something completely separate." I wish that I could believe what I was saying, but I didn't believe a word of it. I know that I said that I had suppressed the urge to punch him, but I'm sure that if he pissed me off again, I would snap.
"That's why you're the oldest in the band." Luke smiled, biting into the corner of his toast.
"Do you know what Peyton is doing today?"
"Going on a run with me, like usual and then I'm not sure. Maybe I'll drag her to the boardwalk or something." Luke shrugged his shoulders.
"Yeah, totally try and get her out of a house for a while today."
"Why?"
"Don't ask questions Luke." I whined, "please just do it."
"You scared you're going to punch Calum and that Peyton will be here and see it and get mad?" Honestly, yes, minus the punching thing. I didn't want Peyton to be around if something happened and I blew up at Calum or vice versa.
"No." I lied.
"Are you sure?" Luke didn't believe me.
"Luke-" I tensed up.
"Are you sure that you don't want to punch anyone?"
"I might want to punch you." I snap, giving Luke a look of apology but he knew he pushed it too far, so he was giving me the same look.
"I'll try my hardest Ashton." Luke sighed out loud and I took that as a good enough answer. "You know you're writing with Alex today too, right?"
"No, I didn't know that!" I was relieved that I wouldn't have to be alone with Calum. At least I had Alex there to prevent me from punching him if and when he did something wrong to piss me off.
Peyton trotted down the stairs in her workout gear and Luke placed his empty cereal bowl in the sink, getting ready to go on a run with her. "Good morning Pey." I greeted her.
"Morning Ash!" She was happy this morning, which was weird but I wasn't going to complain. Hell, maybe this was how she had been the last few days. We hadn't talked much. I heard about her more from Luke than I did from her.
"What are you going to do today?" I made it sound casual, like I wasn't trying to but into her life, even though it was pretty obvious I was.
"I"m going to go on a run with Luke and then I don't know." She opened a water bottle and took a quick swig.
"Maybe we can go out today?" Luke butted in. Peyton glanced at Luke and then at me before staring back at Luke.
"Sure, what did you have in mind Luke?"
"We can go see a movie?" He didn't sound too convincing, but Peyton wasn't going to fight with him.
"Let's see how you feel after the run today Luke," Peyton warned before dragging the tall, awkward boy out of the house and beginning their run for the day.
I made myself a quick snack before walking out of the house barefoot and towards the studio to see who was already in there. I was hoping that it was Alex and not Calum, but at the same time I was hoping that it was Calum and not Alex. Calum and I hadn't had a real interaction reaction in a white and today would be our first in a few weeks I guess.
When I walked in, it was only Alex and John. I had met Alex a few days ago when I had written with Michael and he was a pretty cool guy. I mean, I did idolize him already so the fact that I was getting to work with him made me want to scream.
"Good morning John, Alex." I sat down on my drum stool and stared at the two of them.
"Yo little bro," Alex greeted me back and John just said his typical good morning in his typical John voice. "Is your little sister still home?"
Alex had run into Peyton one morning while she was getting ready to go on a jog with Luke and he was trying to find something to drink. She probably freaked out because she loves All TIme Low, and I can only imagine her making a fool out of herself in our kitchen. I guess he talked to her a bit though and they hit it off and let me tell you, Alex loved Peyton. This was the third day in a row he had been here and he made she to say hello and goodbye to Peyton every time or at least say something to her while he was here. I think the two of them exchanged numbers and texted, but I'm not really sure because like I've mentioned before, Peyton hadn't really talked to me much.
"Nah, she just left to go on a run with Luke."
"How is she always running?"
"She's stressed and when she's stressed she runs. It helps clear her head. She usually runs alone but Luke figured out how to tag along with her." Her running this was something that originated when she still lived with her step dad. She was always afraid he would get too violent and would try and hurt her, so she joined the track team and took up running because she wanted to make sure that she could outrun him if the time came. Plus, being on the track team gave her a reason to stay at school longer, avoid being home, and helped her with soccer stamina.
You didn't hear that from me though.
"It's good that she takes Luke running. He's going to be in the best shape out of all of you." John joked.
"Yeah, I know." I couldn't really say anything else about it.
"I'll see her when she gets back." Alex told me, like I had to say something about it.
"Where's Calum?" I asked, irritated that he was running late to songwriting.
"No idea." John shrugged as Calum opened the door and walked in with a mountain of papers held tightly in his hand.
"Anyways," Alex continued the conversation even though Calum had walked in, "are you sure that you two are like related? I know that might sound rude and I'm sorry but I swear to god I don't see it."
"Oh, I didn't know I was writing with you today Ash," he seemed genuinely concerned and stuffed his papers in his back pockets and acted like he had walked into the writing session empty handed.
I ignored his comment and responded to Alex, "no, we aren't blood related. We grew up together and we were close and so were our families so I call her my little sister," and that was the loose interpretation.
"What are you two talking about?" Calum sat down closer to John.
"About Peyton." Alex announced and Calum's body tensed up and I don't think that I was the only one who noticed. "You good Cal?" He nodded and then started rambling about songwriting.
Between the four of us, we couldn't fathom a complete song. We had verses and bridges, but none of them fit together and forcing them into a song just sounded weird, no matter what we we worked them. It wasn't helping that Calum hated everything that I wrote and I hated everything that he wrote.
"Are you two ok?" John finally asked as I rejected something from Calum that wasn't half bad to be honest, but I wasn't going to let him have it.
"Yeah." Calum spoke quickly.
"Why wouldn't we be?" I shrugged, going along with the lie that Calum had started.
"Because you two are being idiots and aren't working like you're in a band." His phone started ringing and he stared at it. "I'm going to take this phone call and when I get back I want you two acting like you like each other and actually putting some real effort into this song writing session."
John left the room leaving us and Alex. "So, who wants to explain what's wrong and what Peyton has to do with it?" I looked over at Calum and he did the same thing. How did Alex know? "I saw Calum tense up earlier when we mentioned Peyton and I can tell that Ashton is definitely a protective big brother. Plus, he isn't one to just get angry at no one for no reason and people like him only get mad when you fuck with his family."
"I fucked up." Calum admitted, "badly."
"Yeah you did." I muttered under my breath, earning a slap on the back of my head from Alex.
"I'm sorry Ashton."
"Why are you apologizing to him?" Alex asked.
"Because I hurt his little sister," Calum explained.
"Well, whatever is going on between you and Peyton is completely different than you and Ashton. You two are supposed to be best friends, brothers even, when you are in a band. You should never let girls get in between that," Alex gave us advice and we knew he was right. "I understand that she is your little sister, but you have to let them work out their problems without influences from the outside."
"I guess." I hesitated to agree.
"Even if you don't agree, just be friends for the writing session them beat the shit out of each other later or something." Alex laughed, knowing that no matter how much we were mad at each other, we could never beat the living shit out of each other.
Alex was right though. Calum and I were friends long before anything happened between him and Pey and I'm sure that we'd be stuck in a band together longer than him and Pey would be in a relationship (maybe I mean, who knows honestly), so I shouldn't let this get between the band. I'm going to have to live with him and see him almost every day for a while and us hating each other will just make that ten times more unbearable.
"We'll work this out later Ash." Calum advised, "we'll work this out after I work things out with Peyton." He added.
"When will that be?"
"Soon."
You see, soon meant nothing in our band because we didn't know the definition of the word, but for now I was going to accept it.
"Brothers?" Calum turned to face me and extended a hand.
"Brothers," I agreed, shaking his hand and then pulling him into a bro hug.
"Is everyone better now?" John stormed back in.
All three heads in the room nodded . "I'm going to grab a water," Calum stood up, "anyone want anything?"
"I'll take a water." He nodded.
"Do you have any beer?" Alex questioned.
"It's not even noon," Calum told him and he just shrugged.
Calum returned, giving everyone their drinks.
"What's that?" Alex pointed at the ground next to Calum. A few of the papers he had stuffed into his back pocket earlier had fallen out and were resting next to his feet. There were words scribbled on almost every inch of the paper.
"It's nothing." Calum reached down to grab it, but Alex was faster. He folded it open and started to read it, humming out a tune as he did.
"This is good, like really good. I really like it." Alex passed it to John.
"What did you write Cal?" I didn't know if I was going to get the paper at this rate.
"Everything." He didn't make eye contact, "everything that I should tell Pey. Everything that I haven't told Pey."
"Really?" I was surprised.
Calum sighed. "Basically, it's everything I didn't say."
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so how was this chapter. i don't think I've done ash tons pov for a while now, and i wonder when cal and pey will figure it all out. :)