Ashton's PoV:
Of all of the times I've had to leave Carter, this by far was the worst. It didn't feel right to leave her after everything that had happened this week but I really had no choice.
After she had been checked out of the hospital, Ari and Jason had bid their goodbyes and went to Jason's parents house in Sydney.
My mum had gone to get the car and I helped Carter and and Ender in, Michael joining my mum in the passenger seat while I sat with them in the back, before we took off back to my place.
By the time we had arrived home, Carter had passed out from the adrenaline of the day, her head resting on my shoulder.
Carefully I unbuckled her seatbelt and manoeuvred her out of the back seat, carrying her inside. I gently laid her on the bed and went back to grab my bag and Ender's back pack.
I knew Ender would want to stay with Carter and I tonight, so Michael took the guest room and I sent Ender to go change into his pyjamas while I went to say goodbye to my mom since I would be gone before she woke up tomorrow.
As I was walking back to my room the bathroom door opened.
"Did you brush your teeth?" I asked as Ender emerged from the bathroom.
"Oops." He said and ran back in, making me laugh quietly.
"I think you'd be a good dad to him." I heard someone say and turned to see Michael standing in the doorway of the guest room.
"What?" I asked.
"You're like a father figure to him, and it's nice to see him look up to you like he would a dad." Michael shrugged.
"Thanks." I said, not knowing how to reply.
Ender came scrambling out of the bathroom and we said goodnight to Michael before heading to my room where Carter was still asleep exactly like I'd left her.
As I laid down on my side, Ender crawled in between us, cuddling up to Carter.
"Ashton?" He whispered after I had turned off the lamp and had settled into a comfortable position.
"Yea, bud?" I whispered back.
"I know it might not seem like it, but Carter was really happy you were there."
"Why do you say that?" I quirked an eye brow.
"Because she's my sister, I just know. She gets really mad when she's scared, so she didn't mean to make you mad too." He looked up at me.
"I wasn't mad at her," I smiled slightly, "I was scared and worried too."
He nodded quickly.
"Oh, and she told you not to come see her because she said she didn't want you to feel ob...obigated?"
"Obligated." I winked.
"Yeah, that word." He cracked a grin.
"Thanks for telling me that, End. Now get some sleep." I reached out to ruffle his hair and he turned over to that he was facing Car.
I moved so that I was laying flat on my back, staring up at the ceiling.
Carter always made it seem like she didn't want me to feel obligated to do something for her; like taking care of Ender, or help her out, or do something special for her, or even come visit her when she could have possibly cracked her skull open.
I didn't know what else to do to make her believe that I actually wanted to do those things for her. I wanted to be there for her and Ender because I loved them.
But I very well knew that if I wanted her to believe me I would have to tell her that I love her and she wasn't ready for that and all of the baggage that came with it (in my case).
So I didn't mean for her to see me upset, and I really I hope I wasn't what made her upset.
I remember the first time she ever saw me get a little pissed off was when she had come over to Sydney for the first time.
She was in the kitchen with me and the boys and had reached up to get something and her shorts raised up, letting you catch a glimpse of the tan, round bottoms of her butt cheeks, along with a corner of the black thong she wore beneath them.
I had prayed no one had noticed but Calum had and began to choke on his drink.
Knowing that he had seen a a part of her that was private, and that I hadn't even seen yet, made me frustrated and I had snapped at him. Carter had gotten mad at me because I got mad at him but I had to tell her that he had just done something to piss me off. I didn't tell her about what he saw because I knew she would be too embarrassed and mortified.
After I had made sure she wasn't angry with me, I had to escape to the bathroom to "calm myself down", because I had to admit, that girl had me going crazy.
I'd never acted like this about a girl before and that was blatantly obvious to everyone including me.
Carter had this ability, without her even knowing, to make me literally fall in love with her even harder than I had been the minute before by just looking at me.
She was the reason I would lie awake in bed at night after a two hour show that should have wiped me out, planning on how I would propose to her because I knew she was the one.
We'd only known each other for a relatively short amount of time, but to me I felt like that didn't matter because to me when you knew you knew. And I knew that this was the girl I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.
It saddened me that I wouldn't be able to ask her father for her hand in marriage so I knew I would ask Ender. This wouldn't be for a while of course, because I was currently on a world wide tour (that she didn't know about) and our relationship was still so new... but that was my plan.
Looking over to my left I saw Carters peaceful sleeping face; her mouth slightly open and I could see the pink line on her skin from where she had cut herself when she hit her head.
Sighing deeply I turned onto my side so I was facing her and closed my eyes, letting myself get some sleep because I had to wake up in a few hours and get on a plane to fly to the UK because we had a show in Cardiff tomorrow night.
When my alarm went off at 6:00 A.M. I cringed at the sound and hurried to turn it off, yawning before getting out of bed.
Michael was in the hallway when I left my room, heading towards the bathroom like me. We each took a sink to brush our teeth and make ourselves look halfway decent.
"Our car will be here at 7:00." He mumbled as he ran a hand through his dyed hair, messing with the sides. I nodded in response and headed back to my room to change clothes quickly and grab my bag.
I heard movement behind me and turned to see Carter stirring in her sleep. Now would be the best time to say goodbye.
Walking over to her side of the bed, I kneeled down so I was face level with her.
"Car. Babe." I used my hand to stroke her cheek.
"Mmph." She made a few little noises as she surfaced into consciousness, and slowly her eyes creaked open, showing off that dazzling grey.
"Hey, I have to leave to go back to London, but I wanted to say goodbye." My thumb rubbed circles on her cheek.
"You're leaving right now?" She asked a little louder, moving to sit up.
"Yeah. I'm sorry I can't stay longer, but I have to get back to work."
"Oh, okay." She said, her eyes still confused, but sat up so she could slip out of bed.
Taking her hand in mine and grabbing my bag with the other I began to walk out towards the front door where I could see a black SUV sitting outside and Michael at the door with his bag.
"Bye Michael, i'll see you soon. Thanks for coming to see me." She let go of my hand to give him a sleepy hug.
"I'm glad you're all good." He gave her a smile. "Take care of yourself, okay?"
"I will." She smiled up at him.
She came back over to me and I set my bag on the ground, opening my arms to her. She fell into them practically in her groggy state and I ended up supporting most of her weight. Her arms went around my neck as I tugged her closer.
"I'll see you this weekend." I promised her and she nodded in reply.
"Okay, I miss you." She yawned into my chest.
"Miss you too. Be safe. Tell Ender I'll see him for his game this weekend."
"Okay." She leaned up and pressed her lips to my cheek.
I ducked my head down to give her a kiss. Capturing her bottom lip between mine I swayed her slightly in my arms.
"Have a safe flight you two." She said to both of us when I had finally released her from my hold.
"I'll call you when I land." I waved to her as we walked out the door and she closed it behind us.
My mom would be taking her to the ferry today so her and Ender could go home finally after all of this past weeks events.
Michael and I threw our travel bags into the floor of the SUV next to us, said hello to Dave one of our body guards, and the driver began the route to the airport.
As soon as we had pulled up to the departures, you could see the large amount of people swarming the doors; and when our SUV pulled up, the screams of teenage girls pierced the air.
Dave got out first while a few other airport security guards held the girls at bay. I exited the car first and Michael followed, the screams getting louder. I could hear the clicks of their phone cameras and decided if I wanted to stop for pictures.
"Ashton is your family, okay?" One of the girls called to me and I turned in the direction to where it came from.
"Yes, it's all good." I smiled at them and then went to take a few photos with a few fans and then Dave led Michael and I inside.
The band and I were supposed to have a radio interviews last Saturday to promote the tour we were currently on, but when I had found out the news about Carter I had to back out.
Management thought it would be better if one of the guys came with me so my absence seemed less suspicious. And since Cal was already coming with me next weekend to go see Ender's game, Michael offered to go.
So I had sent out a tweet apologising for not being there but I had a family emergency at home and that Mikey was coming home with me and we would be back for the next show.
Although we didn't really know if that was true because if Carter had been in worse condition then we would've had to postpone the rest of the dates on the UK tour.
The boys weren't the only ones begging me to tell Carter the truth, management had been on my case about it as well. They said it would be good for press but that was exactly one of the reasons why I wasn't telling her about any of this.
I didn't want her to be seen as a press puppet and refused to exploit her for the bands benefit.
It was a miracle we hadn't been found out already.
When we were on vacation, Haven Harbour seemed so harmless so I really had no fears until one day I had been in the grocery store buying beer for the guys and I, and the woman in line behind me pointed to a magazine on the rack next to me and asked me if I was the boy on the cover with the bold print label that said "5SOS talks AMA nomination and their dream girl".
At that moment I knew it wouldn't be as easy as I thought to hide it from Carter.
Later that day I had gone back and bought out all of those magazines and any others I could find in any store that sold paper of some kind.
After that I had made the decision to have a bodyguard sent out there to make sure she wasn't suddenly ambushed by a bunch of teenagers one day asking her if she was dating the drummer from 5 Seconds of Summer.
His job at first was to make sure that any magazines with any mention of us weren't on any shelves and to make sure there were no pictures of her and I together on social media.
Though one day a picture of me, Carter, and Ender in my jeep surfaced on Twitter. It was taken when we were in Sydney and the photo was quite blurry but you could still tell it was me. The photo was taken on my side of the car so the fan didn't get a good shot of Carter or Ender who were facing the other way in the backseat so the fans wrote it off that I was driving around family members.
After that I had him step up security on Carter and Ender but that had backfired when he had gotten too close and Carter had noticed. She called me freaking out and I had to calm her down before calling the guy management had hired and telling him to back off.
Since then there had been no other incidents.
By now Michael and I had gotten through airport security and were taken by back hallways to our boarding area and then straight onto the plane.
"You okay, man?" Michael asked as we sat down next to each other.
"Yeah, I just wish I wasn't leaving her right now." I sighed.
"Carter's a strong girl, she'll be fine. And it's only a week." He tried to comfort me.
"But still...she could hit her head again, her house could be robbed, she could get in a boat crash-" I started listing things off and Michael immediately stopped me.
"Don't be paranoid just because this one accident happened. She's an adult, she can take care of herself."
I sighed. "You're right. I just feel like such a shit boyfriend."
"I can see that." Michael shrugged and I sent him a glare to which he started to laugh.
The flight felt like it lasted eternity and when we finally landed we were met with another mob of teenage girls.
We didn't stop for photos and made our way quickly to our car with Dave ushering us through the people, but that didn't stop me from hearing several girls shout at me "Hey Ashton, who's your girlfriend?"
Michael gave me a strange look and as soon as we got in the car he already had his phone out.
"Oh shit." He stared wide eyed at the phone and passed it to me, my eyes immediately going wide and my body filling with dread.
He was on the Twitter page of a popular 5sos update account looking at the top post.
A caption read "Ashton and mystery girl outside of St. Vincent's hospital " and below was a picture taken outside of the hospital by a fan. I'd had both of my arms around Carters' shoulders, and my lips were planted firmly to her forehead.
"Shit." I whispered, the blood draining from my face.
This wasn't good.
--
hey guys!
just a few quick announcements:
1. I'm going to be going back to previous chapters and adding pictures and other things. so if you wish you can go back and look at the pictures I will have up by tomorrow of Carter, Ender, her parents, and Ari
2. I have a cast list up! Yay! it took me a while to figure out who I wanted to play Carter but it's finally revealed in the car list (and now by me) as Lily Collins!
I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll have the next one up soon! And as always, comment and vote if you'd like. I like seeing you guys get so invested in the story haha
much love xx -M