Ashton woke up the next morning, and pulled on his running shorts, a cut off t-shirt, and his black nikes. He grabbed the water bottles out of his fridge and threw them into his backpack with the granola bars.
He watched some tv and waited until he saw Caitlyn's car pull up outside.
"Hey there, long time no see," Ashton smiled getting into Caitlyn's car.
"Goodmorning, i'm glad you accepted my offer," Caitlyn smiled backing out of Ashton's driveway.
Ashton had texted her a few days ago after getting her number at work not too long ago. He hadn't seen Caitlyn in almost 10 years, he was wondering how she was doing. She offered going out and catching up, which Ashton accepted.
"Oh by the way I got us some muffins, they're in that bag," Caitlyn said stopping at a stop light.
"Thanks," Ashton said picking up the bag and grabbing one.
"I brought some water bottles and sunscreen in my backpack also," Ashton said pointing to his jaw string backpack by his feet.
Caitlyn nodded and turned up the radio. The two drove quietly for the short ride while Ashton ate the breakfast Caitlyn brought. The drive wasn't long. They decided to go on a hike to the Hollywood sign which wasn't too far from where Ashton lived. Even though he had lived here for a long time, he had never hiked up to the actual sign. When Caitlyn asked, he figured why not? Neither of them had done it, and it would be a good way to catch up.
Soon they pulled into the gravel parking lot and Caitlyn put the car in park. Ashton got out of the car and swung his backpack on his back before pulling his sunglasses on his face. Caitlyn shut her car door and the two headed up the trail.
"So are you officially moved back to Cali?" Ashton asked as they walked up an incline.
Caitlyn nodded, "Yeah we just finally got a house and stuff a month ago. It's good to be back to some place familiar you know?"
"I've lived in my house for almost as long as I can remember. I don't know what it would be like for my life to change so drastically and then I have to move to a new home where there's new people around," Ashton said as he kept his eyes focused on the ground he was climbing up, he didn't want to slip.
"It was hard, but I mean it got easier everyday."
Ashton nodded and walked along side Caitlyn, wanting to know more about how she was doing but not wanting to intrude on her personal life.
"Are you living with your brother?" Ashton asked. When he was younger, Ashton would always play with Caitlyn and her siblings since they only lived a few houses down.
"Brandon? Yeah we got the house together. You know it felt wrong not moving and trying to adjust to my old surroundings without him since we went through everything together. It was easier for us to get a house together anyways, after saving up from jobs and our foster parents helped a small amount," Caitlyn said as she side-smiled.
Ashton had known Caitlyn for a long time. They went to school together, and always walked home together since they lived so close. Ashton would go over to her house all the time. She had two brothers, Brandon and Derek. They were friends with Michael, Calum, and Luke too. They all got really close in middle school.
Well that was all before the accident happened.
One night, after Caitlyn's birthday party at her house, her family decided to go out to dinner. After spending the morning with all of Caitlyn's friends, her parents wanted to have some family time at a nice restaurant for Caitlyn's 13th. On their way back, they got into a bad accident. Only Caitlyn and Brandon survived. Their little brother Derek died later than night in the ER, while her parents died of impact.
"You still live in the same house, you did as when I met you" Caitlyn pointed out, pulling Ashton out of his memories.
"Yep," Ashton said. Caitlyn's house was immediately sold after the accident since her and Brandon were still so young.
"I went by my old house the other day," Caitlyn said holding Ashton's eye contact for a minute then looking back to the ground.
"Is it weird?" Ashton asked. She had a totally different life now, it must have been hard to think about what it was like before. Right afterwards, Caitlyn fell into a depression and her and Brandon were put into foster care. First a family that lived locally in California, but then they moved to Texas and Ashton lost touch with her after that.
"Yeah, it's just crazy to see the difference in my life after ten years. One day I was there with my parents with no cares, and then I was with strangers," Caitlyn said getting quiet towards the end.
"We don't have to talk about it," Ashton said not wanting to cross the line.
They walked in silence for a little while, the only sound was from the people around them, and the dirt and gravel as they walked.
"Oh hows your mom doing? Is she still a nurse at the hospital? I remember she wasn't sure if she still wanted to do medical work because of your little brother being born.. and your parents you know weren't sure," Caitlyn said trailing off at the mention of the divorce.
"Yeah she's still nursing, she makes good money. She's doing well too, but yeah my parents went through with the divorce," Ashton said before adding that he didn't mind talking about it.
"With everything I had going on, I was never sure if they split or what happened. I didn't get to talk to any of you guys much," Caitlyn said. They were at the top now.
"Yeah they did. But I understand, you had a lot going on and it happened," Ashton said taking a seat on one of the benches. He grabbed a water bottle from his backpack and snapped a few pictures. The city looked so cool from so high up.
Caitlyn took a water bottle Ashton passed from her and took off the cap, "Do you talk to him, your dad, or anything?"
Ashton had to hold back a scoff, "Oh no. I hadn't seen him since the day he left, a few days after you moved. He showed up in town a month ago. If it wasn't for my.." Ashton froze.
"If it wasn't for Reagan I probably would have punched him," Ashton said shaking his head.
He still couldn't believe his dad just showed up. He still couldn't believe he just threw himself into Harry and Lauren's lives. He wasn't going to put himself in Ashton's though. Ashton wouldn't let that happen.
Caitlyn chuckled for a minute, making Ashton ask what he did.
"You wouldn't hurt a fly let alone punch your own father," Caitlyn said shaking her head at him.
She was probably right. Ashton wasn't a fighter. Yeah he liked to box and beat the shit out of his drums, but he couldn't ever imagine himself actually punching another human being unless he had to protect someone.
Ashton paused for a second and tried to fight the smile on his face, "Okay true but if she didn't pull me out of there, I probably would have shouted some very nasty things and ruined my cousins wedding with a scene."
"Reagan? Did you meet her in high school. I don't remember her being in our middle school group of friends," Caitlyn asked.
Ashton shook his head, "I met her a little less than a year ago."
"Nostalgic tone you have there," Caitlyn chuckled. Even when they were in middle school she had just a light hearted way to talk about such heavy things.
"Long story short, we're not on good terms right now. I wish we were, but things don't always work out the way you plan," Ashton said with a sigh.
"I'm willing to listen if you want to talk about it."
With that, Ashton decided to talk about it. He needed to hear another opinion rather than his friends. He needed to hear what someone who didn't know Reagan thought.
He told Caitlyn about how they met at a party, and how Ashton thought it was weird at first for Reagan to just jump into their group. He told her about how he always thought she was pretty and how he admired her laugh. He explained the whole Foo Fighters concert and how she freaked out afterwards. He told her about how confused they both were, before they finally were able to face their feelings. He told her about how they finally started dating and how Ashton kind of moved in. He told her about the fight and how he was being overly-worried and stupid about Reagan talking to Ryan. He told her he was scared that he didn't match up to Ryan. He told her about what he said at Michael's house. He told her about Reagan's voicemail. He told her that he hadn't heard from Reagan at all since. Finally, he told her that Reagan was the only girl he could ever imagine being with, and the only girl he wanted.
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hi guys sorry for the wait!
if you're here and have read my fanfic photographs, I wanna say thank you for reading it and supporting it! it's at 200k which means so much!
I saw 5sos at rowyso bristow last night and I'm emotionally dead and I miss them