Alex's POV
'You live here?', Ashton asked me, as I nodded slowly, confused as to why he sounded so happy about that.
'Yeah... So?'
'Oh, nothing, it's just really close to my house, that's all', he explained as I pushed down on the door handle and allowed us inside, just as my mum was leaving the house.
'Honey, I have to do a night shift, someone called in sick at the last minute- oh, who's this?', she said looking at Ashton.
'That's Ash'
'Oh, hey Ash! Is it hi or hey nowadays, what's cool?', she rambled as I could feel myself blushing due to her embarrassment.
'Mum, you have to go to work. Leave. Please?', I almost pleaded with her, to save myself from any further cringe worthy moments.
'Alright, alright, I'm goin'. You can invite Jack over to stay, and Ash can if he wants to. I've left 40 dollars for food, bye, I love you my pr-'
I shut the door in her face, before she could rattle off her many nicknames which should belong to a five year old, not a seventeen year old guy.
'Sorry 'bout her, she's a bit... Eccentric'
'Don't worry, she seems fine to me', Ashton replied, as I motioned for him to follow me into the living room.
'So can you stay over?', I asked Ashton, hoping the answer would be yes. I'd like to get to know him a bit more, and it would be some different company rather than my usual people.
'I-I don't know? Do you want me to or...'
'I do, otherwise I wouldn't have asked you. I'll just phone Jack, he'll come over for sure. Why don't you go call your parents', ask if you can stay here tonight?'
'Okay... Can I go outside to take it?'
'Sure, go ahead', I said as I scrolled down my contacts to Jack's name. I listened to a few dial tones and within ten seconds, he picked up.
'Hello Mr Gaskarth'
'Hola, Mr Barakat'
'Are you phoning to say how much you missed me in school today? Cause I missed you too', he said, as I rolled my eyes at him through my phone.
'I was gonna ask you if you can come around to my house? Mum's working a night shift last minute, so she said I can have you round'
'What's in it for me?'
'Pizza'
'Okay, I'm coming! I'll be ten minutes', he said, hanging up instantly, as Ashton walked back inside the house.
'So... Yes or no?'
'My dad never answered his phone, he barely ever does, so I don't know...', he trailed off, sounding unsure as to whether or not he should stay or go.
'Phone your mum then?'
'My mum's kind of...not alive anymore so, I... Uh...'
'Shit, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. At all. See that's why you need to stay tonight. So I can learn these things, and know not to bring them up. I'm sorry.'
'No, it's... It's okay, I guess, I mean- you didn't know'
'Well, I'm sorry. I am. Jack's coming round, by the way'
'I'll stay. My dad won't mind, I'll just text him later', ashton announced whilst I picked up the forty dollars off the coffee table.
'Okay, good! You don't have a change of clothes, obviously, so you can borrow some of mine. If you want to?'
'Yeah, if that's okay?'
The front door swung open, causing both me and Ashton to look up at the smiling seventeen year old who was standing before us.
'Alexxxx!', he squealed, 'and... Let me get this... Ashhhton?', Jack sang, as Ash nodded in response.
'Guys, what do you want for dinner, mum's left forty dollars?'
'Alex, you said we could have pizza', Jack whined, but I did technically promise him that.
'I did... Is that okay with you, Ash?'
'I-I I don't really feel like anything to be honest'
'Ashton, that's why I brought you here. To eat. Please, just have some food, even just a tiny bit?'
Ashton let out a heavy sigh. 'Fine, but only cause you asked so nicely'
-----
I decided that my plan was successful, as I'd managed to get Ashton to eat two slices. Really, he should've been eating the whole pizza, having not ate for almost three days. However, it was something, and I wasn't going to complain. It was eleven thirty, so we do decided to head upstairs as it was a school night after all. Turns out Jack wasn't actually allowed to stay over, so he'd left a few hours ago by now. It should've seemed awkward, having just gotten friendly with Ashton today, and now he was already sleeping over in my house. But it didn't. It felt right.
'I need to get you pyjamas of some sort...', I said as I opened my wardrobe and rooted through my clothes. Eventually, I just threw him an old band top, and some tracksuit bottoms, and showed him to the bathroom.
'Just get changed in there, take a piss, whatever...'
Ashton's POV
I looked at the clothes which Alex had given me, horrified at the sight of a t shirt. A short sleeved t shirt. I was tempted to ask Alex for a long sleeve, but because I was extremely awkward, I couldn't bring myself to do that. First, I put on the tracksuit pants, which were extremely baggy. As I took off my school shirt, I cringed at the sight of myself in the mirror. At the sight of the bruises. At the sight of how fat I was. Desperate for that view to go away, I pulled the blink t shirt over my head, and headed back to the bedroom.
I had no bracelets on. Absolutely none. Therefore, my arms were bare, and my wrists were clearly visible. From my wrists to the middle of my arms, scars old and new, and day old cuts, were scattered along them. Visible for Alex to see. I held my clothes so that they were covering a fair amount of my arm, and prayed that I could make it into the sleeping bag Alex had set up for me, without him noticing. Quickly, I made my way over to the sleeping bag which I assumed would be very comfortable, but was stopped in my tracks by Alex.
'I'll put these somewhere for you', he said, pulling at my clothes as I tugged back on them harder.
'No, you don't have to do that, it'll be fine, I'll just lay them on the floor next to me'
'Are you sure? Just so they don't get creased, that's all'
'I'm sure, I'm not out for looking presentable anyway', I stated as Alex jumped onto and into his bed. I slid into the sleeping bag which made me feel very restricted, thanking God that Alex was facing the opposite way at that current moment so he wouldn't catch sight of anything. Not that he'd care anyway.
'Goodnight Ash', Alex said, yawning and outstretching his arms. I muttered the same thing in return to him, and waited for him to fall asleep.
Alex's POV
I had a habit of waking up at random times in the night, which wasn't much fun, as it took me a while to fall asleep in the first place all the time anyway. The alarm clock on my beside table read that it was pretty much two thirty, so I still had roughly four hours until I needed to get up. I rolled over to face the other side of my room, and looked down to a non vacant sleeping bag, which confused the shit out of me. I looked towards my bedroom door, which was slightly open, and I could see a slight ray of light coming through the crack in the doorframe. Tiresomely, I forced myself out of my bed, and went into the hallway. The light in the bathroom was on, and so I guessed that Ashton was just using it. I shook it off, and turned back round on my heel towards my room. However, the slight sound of gagging was brought to my attention, which became increasingly louder and more clear as I walked towards the bathroom again. The door was shut, and presumably locked, but I tried the handle anyway. Much to my luck, the door swung open. The splashing of toilet water sounded in the room, and an awful wretching sound followed.
'Ash, are you okay?', I half shouted, as Ashton turned around to face me, his mouth in an 'o' shape on his tear stained face. Tears began to prick at my eyes, as I realised just what Ashton had been doing.
'I-I... I- 'm f-fine, just f-'. He was cut off by more vomit escaping his mouth, completely missing the toilet, instead going all over his pants. Well, my pants.
'Come on, let's get you cleaned up, yeah?', I said soothingly, as I offered a hand to pull him off the floor. His hand clenched mine, as I pulled his weight off the floor to his feet. I didn't let go of his hand, however. Instead, I pulled it up to almost eye level, ignoring how hard Ashton was trying to tug away.
'S-stop it, pl-please! Let go... go of my hand, pl-please', he pleaded with me as I slowly began to allow tears to roll down my cheeks.
'Ash... But why? Why did you do this?', I said, knowing Ashton knew all too well what I was talking about. I freed his hand, to which he his behind his back. But it seemed like the image of the many red lines couldn't be freed from my mind, as that was all I could think of right now. I understood that in the state that Ashton was in right now, meant that I wasn't going to get answers. So, I cleaned him up, and guided him back to my room. I'd talk about this later.
---
'I'm sorry for puking in your bathroom', Ashton said solemnly, as he leant against the wall next to my bed.
'Don't apologise about it, it's fine'. And it really was fine. I didn't care that Ashton had threw up all over the floor and on my pants. I didn't care that it was past three am, we were awake, and that we had school in a few hours time. What I did care about was what I witnessed in the bathroom.
'So... Are you going to explain what was happening back then?'. It was understandable that Ashton may not have wanted to all about his situation, especially considering it was just the small hours of the morning. But to my surprise, he nodded lightly, and I was happy that he was willing to open up.
'I was sick'
'You don't say?', I quipped sarcastically. Maybe he wasn't going to be cooperating quite as easily as I'd hoped. 'Why were you sick though, Ashton, tell me', I pressed the topic further.
'I just was.'
'Oh really?'
'Yes, really', Ashton lied through gritted teeth, which was rather pointless seeing as though he and I both knew that I saw what had happened.
'Ashton, come on! Cooperate a little, please? I saw you, you know I did', I cried, sounding pathetically desperate.
'You saw me what?', he said, his innocent act not working on me.
'I saw you with your fucking hand shoved down your throat! I seriously wouldn't be surprised if it didn't come out your ass, it was that far in'
'Oh'
'Oh? Just "oh"? Ashton, this is serious, why can't you see that?'
'Serious? Why exactly is this serious? And why exactly do you care anyway?', he asked with bitterness hanging off every word.
'It's serious because it's not healthy, puking your guts out!'
'It's puking calories out, not my "guts" '
I rolled my eyes at how cocky the guy I'd befriended less than twenty four hours ago could be.
'Well, it wouldn't be unlikely if you vomited your organs out by the sounds you were making in there!', I said, my voice rising at a fast rate.
'Fine! Okay. Alright then. So it's not "healthy", I guess you're right-'
'I know I'm right'
'Good for you, smart ass. Now let me finish. Please? Okay, so it's not "healthy" I guess, but what would I rather do ? Empty the contents of food from me, or get even fatter? That's not a tough choice to make'
'You are not fat, Ashton!', I almost yelled, emphasising the not.
He muttered something under his breath which I failed to hear, and I didn't dare ask him to repeat himself, in case he flipped out.
'I care about my friends, Ashton, and I'd consider you one of them. I just can't bare to watch you go on like this'
'Like what?', he questioned so casually, like it wasn't obvious.
'Like this! Not eating, then when you do, fucking throwing it all up again. And that's not even mentioning your wrists'
He let out a long sigh, and slid back into the sleeping bag.
'Can we talk about this another day? I'm fucking tired', he begged and I caved in without putting up a fight.
'Fine, another time. I do care about you, you know that, right?', I told him as he was already making himself comfortable, and made a humming sound in response, which was good enough for me.
I'd already lost someone special to me, I wasn't going to let another friend get away that easily.
Hey guys! I'm so so soooo sorry I haven't updated in like ten days. I've had the majority of this chapter done within a day or two after I published Doritos, but I was considering changing a big part of this. However, I've decided I'd like to keep it the way it is, as I have a direction that I really want this story to go in, and this can play a part in that. I will 100% start updating every four days at the most, I'd say less but I don't want to disappoint in case its not two days for example. Thank you for reading this guys, the amount of reads I've had already overwhelms me.