Thirty-Nine
*Ashton's POV*
As we arrived back at our apartment, we met the mess that was our lounge room. We hardly ever made an effort to properly clean up the house, we usually yelled at eachother to pick items up off the floor. After I had put my suitcase in my bedroom, I headed to the coffee table and picked up the air conditioner remote, turning it on.
After the air conditioning started to blow out cold air, I joined Luke and Calum on the couch, who had already went back to their old habits of watching television all day. The show that was playing I could easily recognize as Friends, as the theme song had started to play.
"Why are we watching this Luke?" Calum asked, rolling his eyes.
"Don't you wanna find out what happens to Ross and Rachel?" Luke laughed in reply. Calum sighed continuing to watch the show.
Looking behind me, I noticed that Michael had left the room instead of joining us on the couch. He had been acting strange recently, and it had been making me feel quite suspicious. He used to be the loud one, screaming whenever he had the chance, he had became the quiet one who ran away whenever he could. Just thinking about that made me shudder.
As I zoned back into reality, I noticed Luke and Calum were now having an argument about who was the best character. "Obviously Joey is the best!" Luke argued.
"Not a chance! Phoebe is most definitely the best." Calum replied.
"Oh really." The two boys continued to bicker until the ad-break was over and the show contiued.
I tried to stop thinking about Michael, but somehow he continued to be the only person in my thoughts. After trying to focus on the television multiple times, I accepted the fact that I wasn't going to get him out of my mind.
The more I thought of him, the more I thought about him kissing that girl, kissing Becca, kissing anyone that wasn't me. Whenever I thought about that, I remember breaking up with Michael, and the scene replays in my head continuously. Then I think about Michael breaking up with me, which makes the pain worse.
Standing up to go to my bedroom, I was shortly stopped by Calum and Luke. "Why are you and Mike always ditching us?" Calum asked, followed by a shrug.
"I mean we aren't that boring are we?" Luke laughed.
"But seriously, it's like we aren't even your friends anymore."
"You are! It's just-" I tried to think of words to say, but my mind became a mess.
"Exactly. Do you hate us or something?" Luke stared at me for an answer, looking away when I couldn't think of the words to speak.
Without replying, I ran from the room and into my bedroom. I bit down on my lips until they were most likely pouring down with blood so I wouldn't cry, but eventually even that failed.
Grabbing my journal, I was about to write when I noticed yet another note on the front cover. Great. "Ashton Irwin. Are you happy? Really are you FUCKING happy?" I read the note aloud, before ripping it to shreds. It seemed as though the whole Earth had just turned against me.
Why did Michael start sending these notes? Why did Michael ever date me? How could have Michael thought of someone as awful as me and ditched a girl to be with me? Questions started to form in my head, and I found it hard to throw them out.
"No." I mumbled, reaching for my phone case.
"No!" I yelled now, throwing my phone across the room. It landed on the carpet, luckily not smashing.
"Why did you yell?" Luke asked, swinging open the door to my bedroom.
"No reason." I lied.
"Of course there was a reason, you just don't want to tell me." I stared down at the floor. "You don't trust me do you?"
"I don't know." I replied, biting down on my lip.
"You either won't tell me because you hate me or it's about what we have discussed before. I think its the latter, but I really do not want to know." He closed the door behind him and I stared at the door for a moment. Why could Luke read people so well?
I lay back on my bed and stared up at the ceiling. It seemed almost peaceful, like if you were staring up at the stars. But of course I figured out there could never be peace long ago.
"Make a wish on our sorry little hearts-." A Love Like War started to play once I put my headphones in and put my music on shuffle. It wasn't my favourite song by All Time Low, but it was probably in my top ten.
---
"Ashton!" Calum called, waking me up. I must've fell asleep while listening to music. It still looked as though it was day, probably only around four.
"I'm getting up." I replied back. After I had stood up, I headed to the lounge-room where Luke, Michael and Calum were.
"Why did you wake me up?" I stretched out my arms and yawned. While I stretched I made sure not to let my scars show.
"Robert called." Robert was apart of the group of people who worked for our management. He was definitely one of my favourites, always joking around not just discussing money and etc.
"And?" I was confused.
"We don't know really. We are having a meeting, who knows why, in an hour." I nodded, sitting on the couch next to Michael.
There was an awkward silence for a while, only the occasional cough or shift. The television was off for some reason, so I had no where to look. I was certain the other three boys felt the same way.
"What do you think the meetings about?" Luke finally spoke.
"Album, I guess." Michael mumbled. He looked as though he had fell asleep as well, his hair was messier than mine.
"Yeah, but wouldn't they have told us earlier?" Calum questioned.
"Possibly, but still. I think it's about the album." Michael replied. I stayed quiet in the conversation, trying not to think of what on Earth it could be about.
"Yeah ok. On another subject that isn't as boring, what should we have for dinner after the meeting?" Calum said, and Luke started laughing.
"Pizza definitely." I answered immediately. Luke and Calum nodded, while Michael looked like he didn't care in the least.
About forty minutes later, we decided that it was time to leave. It wasn't that far away, but it was best to be early. I didn't bother to fix my hair, instead just left it messy as we headed to my car.
I sat in the driver's seat, and the other three boys started to get in the car. Luke sat in the passenger while the other two sat in the back seats. Driving the car, I was easily distracted multiple, and probably almost crashed. Luke kept giving me looks like I was a psychopath.
"About time!"
"I swear we were going to die." Luke laughed, opening the door and climbing out of the car. I grabbed the keys and locked the car before following the three boys into the building.
The building was cold, the result of air conditioning. I could easily see my reflection in the glass flooring, which made me scared that I was going to smash the floor somehow. "Hey boys!" Robert greeted us.
"Hi." We replied, almost in unison.
"Okay you have a meeting in that room." He said pointing to a room to our right. "I don't really know what it's about... Good luck I guess."
I was the first to enter the room, it was mainly empty except for a table and chairs surrounding it. It occured to me that I had been in this room before when I sat down in a seat, just after we had signed to the record label. The only part of that meeting I remembered was that I was shaking for a while of it.
"Is anyone even going to come?" Michael mumbled after we had been sitting in the room for around three minutes. Not even ten seconds after he said that, two men entered the room and sat down in the chairs opposite us.
"Hello Ashton, Calum, Michael, Luke." One of the men said. I remember him from somewhere, probably the last time we were in this room. I gave them an awkward wave, staring out the door,
"You're probably wondering why we called this meeting." The second man continued.
"Why else wouldn't we be fucking talking?" Michael mumbled, he didn't look interested. His head was pressed against his palm, he was avoiding eye contact with anyone. The men chose to ignore him at that moment.
"Anyway I'm sure you've all been on Twitter recently." We nodded, unsure on where this was leading to.
"And you've seen rumours?"
"We always see rumours, non-stop. Get to the point." Michael spoke again.
"Michael this is partially about you so I would advise you to stop." The second man said. Michael didn't seem to care though.
"Can we please get to the point?" Luke asked. The room was silent for a moment, the only thing I could hear was people talking from outside the room and someones feet tapping against the floor.
"You've heard of 'Mashton'?" He said using air-quotes for 'Mashton'. We nodded, and I bit on my lip, afraid of where it was leading to.
"Yeah and I've also heard of Becston, Mecca, Becum, basically everything that has the slightest chance of happening!" I knew Michael also knew where these men were going to say.
"Shut up Michael!" Calum yelled, and Michael rolled his eyes in return. The men continued to ignore us, and went on with their talking.
"So yes Mashton. We have seen enough posts about it on everything to have to ask you, are you two together?"
Looking over at Michael, he was now staring at me. We were both unsure on whether to tell them the long story, or just tell the short answer. I knew the men were giving us strange looks, but my eyes stayed on Michael.
"No." Calum answered for us.
"How can we be so sure with you saying it?"
"Because I'm friends with them and we have had a conversation together."
"Michael, Ashton. Are you together?" He asked, looking at me.
"No." We said in unison. I bit down on my lip once again after saying it.
"Okay. Good." The second man said.
"But still, you saying it here won't get people to believe us. We are going to have to give them a distraction from Mashton."
"A fake girlfriend?"
"Perfect." I needed to cover my mouth so I wouldn't scream.
-{ Sorry I didn't update for about ten days. I was camping again. }-