Chapter 35
***Shaylin's POV***
"Let's go!" I yelled out of my car window.
"Annie!" I honked the horn.
She pulled away from Ashton for a few seconds before looking back to him. They exchanged a few words before kissing again.
I sighed and leaned back in my seat. It reminded me of the scene in The Fault in Our Stars where Isaac and Monica were making out while Gus talked to Hazel.
A few minutes later, Ashton was walking Annie over to my car.
"I'll see you tonight." Ashton said as he kissed Annie again.
He whispered something that I didn't hear and Annie giggled. "I am. I promise."
"Just making sure. Go have fun, but not too much fun."
"I'll text you later." She hugged him.
"Okay." He kissed her forehead before ducking down and looking at me. "Happy birthday Shaylin."
I smiled at him before he walked away and Annie got in the car.
"Here's your jacket."
"You guys are fucking disgusting." I said as I pulled out of the parking space.
"These are his favorite heels."
"So that means you have to suck face for ten minutes? I'm surprised he didn't just fuck you on the hood of his car."
She sighed heavily. "I really like him, Shay."
"What did you promise him?"
"Huh?"
"'I am. I promise.'" I mocked her voice.
"Oh that? Uh nothing."
"Annie we have never had secrets between each other. You wouldn't want to break best friend code, would you?"
"It's really not important."
"Tell me or my whole birthday will be ruined."
She mumbled something.
"What?"
"He just said that..." She mumbled the rest.
"Annie!"
"Fine! He said that I better be wearing underwear, and I am. That's what I promised."
"Oh Annie. Sweet, young, naive, innocent Annie."
"What?"
"You should've said no, then he would've spent all day thinking about you."
"He does that anyways." She smiled smugly.
"As I said before, fucking disgusting."
"I just got out of a terrible relationship. Can you blame me for wanting to have fun?"
"Not at all."
Fifteen minutes later, we pulled into the spa's parking lot. It wasn't my idea to do this, but Annie seemed really excited to have a girls day.
"Alright Shay, give me your phone." She said as she opened her purse.
"Why?"
"So we can't be on them all day." She handed me hers. "And I already told Ashton that you would have it, so don't try anything."
I put my phone in her purse.
"Annie I swear if you beat my high scores on anything I won't make you macaroni for a month."
"I make no promises."
I laughed at her before getting out of the car.
"Your appointment starts a little before mine, but we should be getting our nails done at the same time." She said as we walked through the door.
I sat down in one of the chairs while she signed us in.
"Thanks for doing this Annie. It'll be nice to relax." I said once she sat down by me.
"Yeah. Everything's been very stressful lately, so today we're just gonna take it easy."
"Shaylin." A lady in white clothes said.
"See you in a bit." I told Annie before I stood up and followed her.
***Liliana's POV***
I flipped through a magazine while I waited for my name to be called.
I felt my purse start to buzz and a ringtone started to play. People looked at me while I tried to find Shaylin's phone.
When I finally felt the device in my hand, I answered it.
"Hello?"
"Shaylin I only have three minutes. I'm not allowed to talk to Annie. I know that you hate me, but you have to tell me how she's doing."
My jaw dropped at the familiar voice.
"Alex?" I whispered.
"Annie?"
"Yeah. It's me." Tears filled my vision.
"How are you doing?"
"I'm fine. I get my cast off tomorrow and my bruises are almost gone. Alex how are you?"
"If I'm being honest, it's so horrible in here. Annie, I am so sorry. Things got out of hand, but I'm getting real help in here. I'm getting better for you."
"Alex I almost died." I said as I wiped my cheeks.
"I know. I'm so sorry. I was so terrible in court, but I was just doing what my lawyer told me to. I'll send letters when I can. They'll be addressed to someone else, but they'll be for you. Just know that they're from me."
"Alex, no."
"What?"
"You can't do that. I'm not even supposed to be talking to you right now."
He sighed. "I know, but I can't live without you Annie."
"Then you shouldn't have hurt me."
"I know, baby. I know." He said and I heard yelling in the background.
"Is everything okay?"
"Just another fight."
"Has anyone hurt you?"
"Not yet. My cell mate has been helping me learn the ropes here."
"I'm sorry. I honestly didn't want to press any charges."
"Don't apologize. You were just telling the truth."
"But you weren't trying to kill me, Alex. I know you wouldn't do that. You could be in there for thirty years."
"I'll be fine. I promise, but I have to go Annie. I love you."
"I love you too." I said quietly.
"Hopefully we can talk again soon." He said and the line went dead.
Tears were steadily running down my cheeks.
"Annie."
I looked up at the same woman that took Shaylin and smiled. I quickly deleted the call from Shaylin's recents and followed her.
"Undress to whatever you're comfortable with and then get under the sheet. You can put your clothes in that basket. Your masseur will be with you shortly."
I undressed as quickly as I could before I got under the sheet.
There was a knock on the door before I heard footsteps walk near the table.
"I'm Calum. I'll be taking care of you today."
"Oh my god. You work here?" I held the sheet to my chest as I turned around to see Ashton's friend.
"Annie! Thank god it's just you."
"Who'd you think I was?"
"Nobody important." He shrugged. "Do you have an oil preference, or any allergies I should be aware of?"
"No to both. I didn't know you did massages." I laid back down.
"Ashton didn't tell you?"
"No, but we don't really talk about his friends much."
"Seems like you don't do much talking at all." I heard the amusement in his tone as he pulled the sheet back.
My cheeks got hot at his words.
"So you guys are pretty serious?"
"I don't know." I sighed. "I like him a lot, and we've been on a few dates."
"But?"
"But I don't know if I'm ready to be committed again."
"If you ever want to just have fun with someone, I'm here. Wow you're tense."
"You were kidding, right?"
"No. You really are tense."
"Not about that! About the other thing."
"I mean, I don't want anything serious and neither do you. The offer is always up on the table. How's the pressure?"
"It's fine." I mumbled.
"Annie, there's no need to act weird. We're both adults."
"Calum you're attractive and all, but I'm dating your best friend. It wouldn't work out."
"Relationships don't work out under those circumstances. Friendships, however, can thrive."
"Calum, I do not want to be your friend with benefits."
"I'm cool with a one time thing too."
"It's not a good idea, Cal."
He ran his hands between my shoulder blades, and a small noise came out of my mouth.
"I would love to hear what sounds you make when you're underneath me."
For a second, I actually did imagine myself with Calum. His hot skin pressed to mine as I moaned his name. It seemed okay, but it wasn't what I wanted.
"No. I'm with Ashton."
"I know." He sighed as he ran he fingers over one of the small bruises on my back.
I became very uncomfortable with the whole situations. Friends aren't supposed to tell their friends potential girlfriend that they'll have sex with them.
I had two options. I could tell Ashton about Calum and potentially ruin their friendship. That's what I wanted to do, but then he could believe Calum over me and I'd lose him. Even if he did believe me, I wouldn't want him to lose Calum.
My second option was to keep everything to myself and feel extremely awkward around Calum.
I sighed heavily. It was supposed to be a carefree day, but I was getting stressed out.
I told Alex that I loved him. Just when I thought I could get over him fully, he pulled me back in. I couldn't bring myself to hurt him. As much as I wanted to hate him, I couldn't.
"Relax, Annie."
"I don't know if I can." I mumbled.
"Why?"
"There's a lot going on, and you're not making things any better."
"Look, if this is about my offer, I'm not going to try anything unless you give me the green light."
"You're not getting anywhere close to green anytime soon."
He chuckled as he applied pressure to my lower back. I was very thankful that I kept my underwear on.
"You have my number. You'll call if you need me."
"I don't have your number, and I don't want it because I'm not into you. I do not, nor will I ever, want to have sex with you, Calum."
"Just giving you options."
"I don't want them."
"Good. You passed."
"What?"
"That was a test to see if you were good enough for Ash." He said. "You passed."
Relief flooded through me. I held the sheet to my chest as I turned around again.
"You fucker! I thought you actually wanted to sleep with me!" I hit his arm.
He laughed. "Annie you're cute. Just not my type."
"Fuck you. Fucking fuckboy mother fucker." I said as I threw light punches at him. "You really scared me."
"I'm sorry. I just wanted to make sure that you weren't going to hurt Ash. He's been through a lot."
"You're a dumb ass." I laid back down.
"I think you meant to say 'good friend.'"
"Whatever."
***Shaylin's POV***
"Annie and Ashton, Annie and Ashton, Annie and Ashton." I mumbled quietly as I went through her pictures.
I was about to start my pedicure, and Annie wasn't done with her massage yet. I didn't have my phone, so I had no choice but to go through hers.
She had a few trees and some sunsets in her camera roll too, but it was mostly just her and Ashton.
I got bored and decided to go through her messages instead.
"Ashton, me, Caleb, mom, Kyle, Trevor, Matt, and Alex."
I wondered why she still had Alex's messages, but I didn't go through them. Even though I was extremely curious, that was a line that I didn't want to cross.
I tapped on Ashton's name and began scrolling upward. For people that see each other almost every day, they talk a lot.
I stopped scrolling when I saw a picture from Ashton.
It was a picture of Ashton with Annie sitting sideways on his lap. She had a hand in his hair and they were kissing.
'Apparently Luke took this the other day...' was the text below it.
It honestly wasn't a bad picture.
I saved the picture to her phone and opened Twitter. I went to my account and looked for one of the relationship goals accounts. After I found one that accepted DMs from anyone, I sent them the picture.
I removed my Twitter before deleting the picture from her camera and exiting out of all of her apps. I locked her phone and dropped it in my purse.
Just as the foot bath finished filling up, Annie walked into the room.
"Hey, what took you so long?" I asked.
"Ash's friend was my masseur and we talked for a little bit when my massage was done."
She sat down in the chair beside me and sighed heavily.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm just a little tired."
"Annie."
"I didn't sleep much. I had another nightmare last night."
"Why didn't you wake me up?" I frowned.
"Because I didn't want you to worry about me. It's your day today, not mine."
"Annie I don't care if it's my birthday or not. If you aren't okay, I want you to tell me."
"But I'm fine."
"Waking up screaming, three times a night, is not what I call fine. What happened this time?"
She sighed. "He made Ashton hurt me."
"Ashton hasn't actually hurt you, has he?"
"No! He doesn't even raise his voice at me." She said quickly. "That's why it was so scary."
"Maybe you should think about getting help. You had a very traumatic experience, and it's really affecting you."
"Shaylin I said that I'm fine. I don't need to see a shrink."
"Just think about it." I sighed.
She worried me. Every night that she was home, she would wake up screaming. I felt so bad for her because even now that she had physically escaped Alex, she couldn't break free from him mentally.
She said that she was fine, but I knew that she wasn't. I had known her for five years, and I learned how to tell when she was faking a smile. She only seemed really happy when she was with or talking about Ashton.
Not that it was a bad thing. She was just relying on him too much. I wanted her to be happy because she's happy, not just because he makes her happy. If he left her for any reason, she would be absolutely shattered.
"So who's the mystery guy I'm meeting tonight?" Annie asked after a while.
"How do you know it's a guy?"
"Mystery girl?"
"No it's a guy."
"I knew it." She smirked. "Boyfriend?"
"Yeah. He is." I smiled.
"How long?"
"A little over a month."
"What the hell? Why didn't you tell me?"
"You were in the hospital for two weeks and then the trial came. The timing wasn't right." I explained.
"I'm such a horrible friend." She frowned slightly. "What's his name?"
"Vince."
"Does he play sports?"
"Yeah, baseball. How'd you know?"
"Vince is a jock's name." She shrugged. "So what's he like?"
"Uh, he's funny and nice and he likes to cuddle."
She laughed. "You've been dating the guy for a month, and that's all you can come up with?"
"I'm not very good with my words, but he's pretty awesome."
"How'd you meet?"
"As dumb as this sounds, he came to the restaurant every day for a week. He would sit in my section and every time I went to his table he asked me stupid questions like what my favorite animal is."
"Cliche movie couple." She giggled.
"Says the girl that's dating her boss."
"Yeah. I'm looking for another job."
"Why?"
"It doesn't seem fair to date the person that pays you. It kind of makes me feel like a prostitute. It sucks though because I really liked that job." She said sadly.
"If you like it then don't quit. You and I both know that you wouldn't let Ashton do anything for you that you didn't deserve. You're keeping the job."
"Maybe you're right."
"I'm always right." I smirked.
"If always is a synonym for almost never, then yes. You're always right."
"It's my birthday. You aren't allowed to be mean to me today."
"So how does it feel to be twenty one?"
"I don't really feel different. I just wish it was a weekend so I could go to a club or something."
"They're open during the week."
"I know, but I feel like I'll only get the full experience on a Friday."
She nodded. "Yeah I still have a while before I can get the experience."
"At least we won't have to have someone else get our booze for us anymore."
"Yeah and you can finally follow the Jack Daniels Twitter account." She laughed.
"Oh my god yeah! Give me my phone!" I said as I put my hand out.
She reached into her purse and pulled out my phone.
"I want it back right after." She said when she put it in my hand.
I rolled my eyes at her as I opened Twitter. After confirming a bunch of stuff, I was finally following Jack Daniels.
"I feel like a real adult now." I joked.
"Phone." She held out her hand.
"Annie I swear." I mumbled as I set my phone in her hand.
"Look, I know that I've been spending a lot of time with Ashton lately, but that doesn't mean that I've forgotten about you." She said as she looked through her purse again.
"What are you talking about?"
"Happy birthday." She pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to me.
"What is this?"
"It's a receipt for your first class, round trip plane ticket to Philadelphia."
"What?" I whispered.
"You said that having Charlie here made you miss your dad, so I got you a ticket to see him."
"Annie thank you. Thank you so much. I don't know what to say."
"You're welcome. I didn't know that you were with Vince, so I only got one. I can buy another one for him if you want." She offered.
"No! He is nowhere near ready to experience the chaos that is the Miller family."
She laughed. "I was barely ready after I knew you for three years. That poor boy wouldn't even see it coming."
"He would leave me in a heartbeat."
"I'm sure that if he can handle you, then he can handle your family." She said with a serious face before laughing again.
"But seriously, thank you so much."
"It's nothing, Shaylin. It's your birthday and you only deserve the best."
"I have the best best friend in the world."
"Okay yeah, now let's stop being sappy. There's only so many compliments that a girl can handle."
"Does Ashton compliment you a lot?"
"Yeah. When we went to pick up your jacket, he wouldn't stop listing off things that were beautiful about me. Honestly, it got a little ridiculous." She laughed lightly.
"He calls you beautiful and you're complaining?"
"Not exactly complaining, but he said my fingernails, earlobes, and kneecaps were beautiful. I think that's a little excessive."
"You guys are still in your cupcake phase. It's sickeningly cute."
"I hate the cupcake phase because I feel like I'm just a clingy little bitch."
"Annie, have you seen what he did to your back? That's like level six cling monster material." I said.
She started smiling. "I can't wait to see him though, and that's what I hate. I just want to be with him all the time. Eventually he's going to get tired of me."
"No he won't."
"A six foot, blond, Australian CEO chose to date a five foot five, brunette, American nobody. There are a bunch of women that would love to be with him, and one day, he'll get with one of them."
"Annie don't think like that." I frowned.
"I'm just being realistic. Do you honestly think that he'll want to be with me for a long time?"
"Why wouldn't he?"
"His family hates me. His mom and sister don't like me because I'm too young and the rest hate me because I ruined the company's image. He says he doesn't care, but I know it's killing him." She sighed and closed her eyes as she leaned back in her chair.
"Don't be like that."
"I'm really trying to stay positive, but there's a voice in the back of my head telling me that it's not going to work."
A tear rolled down her cheek and she tried to blink the rest of them away.
"God I'm such a fucking mess." She sighed.
"No you're not." I held her hand.
"Shaylin I let my boyfriend beat me for four months. Four fucking months I let him push me around and treat me like shit!" She took her feet out of the water and began drying them off with a towel.
"Calm down."
"I can't calm down! I've tried to hate him. I've tried so fucking hard, but I just can't! He almost killed me twice! After all of the shit that Alex put me through, I still love him, and I don't fucking know why!" She yelled before leaving the room quickly.
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THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE UPLOADED ON JUNE 22 FOR SHAYLIN'S BIRTHDAY BUT GUESS WHO GOT SICK AND DIDNT FINISH THE CHAPTER!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANYWAYS SHAYLIN!!!
I really do hate this chapter. I want Lily to be over Alex as much as you guys do, but thats not how life works sometimes. Ughhhhh.
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FUN FACT: I've never had a sunburn. I don't know why, but I don't burn. I tan really bad.
I love you guys. You guys are my life.
Stay crocs.