My alarm went off at 5:30 as usual and Ashton groaned next to me. I slammed my hand on it and got up so I could start getting ready.
Gracie clung to me as I made the coffee and Ashton came down a few minutes later.
Instead of grabbing his mug like he usually did, he came up behind me, winding his arms around my waist, making sure not to get Gracie.
"I'm sorry about last night." He said softly.
"I'm not mad at you." I honestly answered.
"Still I feel guilty for making you feel like I wasn't proud of you." He kissed my shoulder.
"Listen to me," I moved so I could face him, "Don't feel bad. I'm not angry with you at all."
"Okay." He said quietly and I kissed his nose before taking Gracie upstairs to wake up Ender.
I made sure to make myself extra presentable today by fixing my hair and doing my makeup.
I didn't really have any job interviewing clothes so I wore a navy blue tee that said chase marina tours and white shorts. I paired that with my white converse that I had cleaned the day before.
"Do you think this is okay?" I asked Ashton as I walked downstairs.
"Look great, babe!" He smiled as he was helping Gracie put her shoes on.
We got Ender to school and then Ashton took me back to the house so I could wait it out until the interview.
At 2:40 Ashton drove me and Gracie back up to the school.
"Okay, so you, Gracie and Ender can go hang out in town and I'll meet you guys there after my interview."
"Sounds like a plan." He smiled and we waited for Ender to come outside.
I saw his blue hoodie and red backpack emerge from the building. He jogged over to the jeep and pulled himself in.
"Alright, I'm going to head to the athletic building." I said and started to get out of the jeep when Ashton reached out to tug back on my arm.
"Hey," He called me back and leaned across the centre console to lock his lips to mine, "Good luck."
"Thanks." I blushed heavily and waved goodbye to Gracie and Ender before turning around to walk into the building.
I looked back to watch the jeep pull away from the curb and then continued on my way into the school, making my way to the front office so I could sign in.
Betty, the schools front desk receptionist who had been working there for at least 50 years, came around the desk to give me a hug.
"Carter, how are you?" She asked me.
"I'm well, how are you?" I smiled.
"Well i'm still breathing so thats good enough for me." She laughed. "How can I help you?"
"I'm here to see Coach Robin on the open assistant coach position."
"Oh, you'd do so well at that." She clasped her hands together. "Well I'll call him and let him know you're here." She patted my arm and went back around the desk make the call.
I took a seat on one of the blue chairs in the waiting area they had set up.
"Coach Robin, Carter Chase is here for her interview." I listened to Mrs. Betty talk on the phone and then heard her hang it up.
"He'll be right down, you'll be doing the interview in the conference room." She poked her head over the desk and I nodded at her.
About five minutes later Coach Robin walked through the doors of the front office.
"Hey, Carter. Come on back." He smiled and I stood up, following him through a door to the back offices. We went into the conference room and took a seat at one of the chairs at the long light wooden table.
"So i'll just go ahead and get started. Uh, the job is for the assistant coach. You'd work all practices and games, home and away. You'd be put in charge of our offense while I worked with the defense." He explained.
"Okay. Would I be working with both the girl and boys teams or just one?"
"I'd probably start you off on the guys team and if I need you on the girls then I'd put you on both."
I nodded.
"Now Carter, you've played on my team before, I know you have the technical skills of a pro player, and I feel like with you on our coaching staff, our team could go to nationals."
"Wow, thank you." I smiled.
"But that said, most of the people applying for the job have coaching experience, played on professional teams, or at least have a teaching degree."
"Okay, so what does that mean for me?"
"You may have the least credentials but you have the skill I want. But my word isn't enough for the school to hire you. So I am going to bring you onto our varsity team for a few practices. They've lost all of their games this season and I want to see what will happen if we bring you onto the team for a couple of practices and see how they preform at the next game. If there are good outcomes then we can talk more about bringing you onto our staff full time."
I let that sink in for a moment.
"That sounds fair." I agreed.
I knew I didn't have the resume on paper to be an assistant coach, but I had the skill, and I was going to prove myself.
"Good." He smiled. "Do you have any questions for me?"
"Yes. When would you want me to come in for their practices?"
"Well theres one going on in about fifteen minutes. I'd have you come in probably later this week or next week, but if you'd like to check them out, I'd be happy to take you to the field."
"I'd like that." I said and we stood up from the table, heading out to the field.
The male footie team was out there running laps around the track.
Coach Robin blew the whistle around his neck and the guys came jogging towards us, forming a huddle.
"Okay, listen up!" He called loudly. "This Is Carter, she's going to be coming in for a few practices to work with you."
Someone in the mass of teenage boys whistled at me and I folded my arms across my stomach.
"You will treat her with respect and nothing less. She's here to improve your game and if I hear you do anything but listen to her and follow her instructions then you're off the team. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes Sir." They all said in unison.
"Alright. Now I want five sprints across the field, goal to goal." He blew the whistle again and the boys took off, making their way towards the goal.
"Well what do you think?" He asked.
"I think I can help out." I smiled.
"Glad to hear it." He shook my hand. "I'll have Ender let you know when to come by for practice."
"I'll be looking forward to it, thank you so much for even considering me."
"Of course, Carter."
I said good bye and then began to walk away from the school.
Main street was only a few blocks away so it would be easy for me to walk there to meet Ashton and the kids there.
I felt really happy about the way things had gone with the interview. Tonight i'd have Ender help me run a few drills for me to use with them and also come up with a strategy.
Pulling my phone from my pocket I texted Ashton that I was on my way. He responded saying he had a table at The Grill for us. I turned onto Main Street and began to walk up to the restaurant. I was only about fifty feet away when I heard shouting from across the street in front of the grocery store.
Ignoring it, I kept walking figuring it was some couple fighting, until I made out a distinct voice. Ari.
My head whipped to the side to see her standing there with her hands in fists at her side, one of them curled around something that looked like paper while she glared up at the person in front of her. My eyes glanced to who she was screaming at and I froze.
It was Ashton.
"You son of a bitch, how dare you!" Ari yelled at him and I darted across the street, running towards them.
"Hey, what is going on?!" I asked pointedly when I reached them, my eyebrows arched up in concern.
Ari looked pissed off and I was actually slightly afraid while Ashton looked wide eyed and scared.
"Why don't you ask your rockstar boyfriend." She practically growled and shoved a magazine in my hands.
I didn't even get the chance to say anything to her before she stormed away, her feet stomping against the concrete as she tromped off.
"What the hell?" I asked my head turning back to look at Ashton, but he was just looking at me like someone had just shot his dog in front of him. His eyes were wide, mouth opened slightly like he wanted to say something but couldn't.
The magazine was still in my hands and I glanced down at it, my heart stopping.
There against the blue-grey background of a teen magazine was four people I knew very well: Michael, Luke, Calum, and Ashton. Underneath their photo was a caption that read 'From touring, new music, and romance; 5SOS tell all!'
I didn't even know what to think.
This was my boyfriends picture on the cover of a magazine.
My brain raced to put the pieces together.
Touring, new music...he was in a band? And apparently a pretty famous one since he was on the cover of a magazine. And Michael, Luke, and Calum were in it too? And he hadn't told me. He hadn't told me anything.
My mind was too much in shock to process much but I knew something for sure, Ashton wasn't who I thought he was.
Looking up at him, I hoped that he would tell me that it wasn't true, that he had some twin brother I didn't know about, or that this was all a joke, but no such words came out of his mouth. His eyebrows were furrowed together and he looked like only one thing: guilty.
Letting out an angry, confused, and in-disbelief breath, I flung the magazine into his hands, turning around to walk away.
"No, Carter wait, please!" He cried out and grabbed onto my arm to stop me from leaving. "I can explain!"
"Oh so you can tell me now but you couldn't tell me six months ago when we first met?!" I shouted at him, so incredibly angry.
"I was going to tell you." He said, a terrified look in his eyes.
"When? In a year? After we were married? After you had to go on another tour?!" I yelled.
"I was going to tell you this week." He said in a much quieter voice then mine.
"You're so full of it." I said disgusted and ripped my hand away from his grip.
"Car, please, I love you! I didn't want you to find out this way!" He reached out for me again.
"No! You can't just say you love me and think all of this is going to go away! You lied to me!"
"I'm so sorry." He said looking like he was actually about to cry. He stepped towards me to try to place a hand on my arm but I yanked my body away.
"Dont touch me!" I screamed at him.
Defeated, he dropped his arms to his sides, not knowing what to do.
I shook my head at him, biting my lip to try and stop myself from crying and turned away, looking for The Grill in my blurry eyesight.
I started to walk away when he called after me.
"Carter, let me take you home. We can talk about this." He pleaded with me.
Annoyed I turned back to face him, glaring.
"I dont want to talk to you right now. And I'll find a way home." I spat and then spun back, trudging across the street and into The Grill where Gracie and Ender were sitting in a booth, both drinking milkshakes through straws.
"Lets go." I said in monotone and pulled my wallet from my back pocket, throwing a five dollar note onto the table.
"Wait, why?" Ender asked, looking confused.
"Because I said so, now lets go." The voice that left my lips was stern and bitter.
With Ender glancing confusedly at Gracie they both scooted out of the booth, following me out the door.
I started walking in the direction of the house but remembered it was two miles away, and Gracie and Ender couldn't walk that far; but I really didn't have much of a choice. I didn't know where Ari had gone and there was absolutely no way in hell I was calling Ashton.
So we walked. We walked about half a mile before Gracie started to whine and I picked her up. Ender hadn't said anything, but had a scowl on his face.
We had about a quarter of a mile until we reached the docks when Ender talked.
"Where's Ashton?"
"I dont know." I said moodily, yet honestly.
"Well is he coming to the house?"
"I dont know."
"Did you guys break up?"
"Can you stop asking questions? Please." I snapped at him and he turned away from me.
We finally got to the house and I opened the door, setting Gracie down.
"You suck Carter." Ender muttered at me as he tromped through the door and straight to the stairs.
"Ender!" I yelled at him but he turned down the hall and into his room, slamming the door shut.
I wasn't in the mood to deal with his bad attitude.
Gracie stood awkwardly in the kitchen, looking almost afraid. Immediately I felt guilty for taking my anger at Ashton out on both of them.
"Come here." I crouched down and she came over to me so I could give her a hug. "I didn't mean to scare you."
"It's okay Mommy." She said and I barely smiled.
The sound of my phone going off made me set her down and go check it. It was a text from Ari.
'Did you make it home?'
'Yeah' I typed back.
'Want me to come over?' She sent back.
'Please.'
I set my phone down on the counter, sighing. I needed to know what had happened in the fight between Ari and Ashton.
But I couldn't face him, there was no way I could look at him right now without losing it. He had lied to me all this time...I didn't even know who he was.
"Mommy, is Daddy coming back?" Gracie asked me as she climbed up onto the sofa, curling up next to me.
"Not right now." I answered her and then reached for my phone.
'Find somewhere else to sleep tonight.' I texted Ashton and then turned my phone off, not wanting or really caring if he replied.
--
And here it is!
(don't hate me don't hate me don't hate me)
This was probably the hardest chapter I've ever had to write I'm not even kidding
anyways, these next chapters are going to be pretty emotional so get ready!
As always, vote and comment if you'd like and I'll see you guys in the next chapter!
much love xx -M