Gunnar wasn't the greatest boyfriend in the world – he would constantly forget dates, make you pay for everything when you did go out, and ditch Saturday plans with you to hang out with his friends – but he was still yours and you cared about him more than anything.
So it was no surprise that you immediately ran into the bathroom crying when you got to school and found him making out with another girl at his locker.
You had actually been excited to go to school that day – it was the one-year anniversary of when you and Gunnar officially became boyfriend and girlfriend, so you got him a nice gift in honor of it. It was just a simple little book of 'Reasons I Love You' that you'd made yourself – it admittedly wasn't as nice as you wanted to get him since you didn't exactly have your own source of income – but it was as nice as you could get with the money your parents allowed you to have to buy the things to make it.
You held it tightly in your hands after pulling it out of your backpack, closing your locker door and making your way to where Gunnar's locker was to give it to him. You were nervous about whether or not he would like it – he wasn't a particularly sentimental kind of guy – but you were sure it'd still make him smile.
But the moment you turned the corner and his locker came into view, your heart dropped.
There he was, your boyfriend of one year, making out with some girl you'd never even seen before.
You didn't know what to do at first – you just stood there frozen – but when you came out of it and realized people were staring at you, you quickly went in the opposite direction toward the bathrooms. There were already a few girls in there – all of them standing at the mirror – so you kept your head down as you passed them.
You dropped Gunnar's present in the trash can before locking yourself in the last stall, your palm pressed to your mouth as you sat yourself down on the toilet seat so they didn't know you were crying.
You knew Gunnar didn't care about you the way you cared about him – God knows you were the only one actually trying – but it wasn't like any other guys were pining for your attention. You were a nobody in the eyes of everyone else and you may not be bullied every single day of your life, but you knew your place and you knew that it was as an unmemorable part of the student body.
Your plan at that point was to just wait out the crowded hallways – and if that meant arriving to class a couple minutes late, so be it – but you were definitely not leaving that bathroom stall any time soon.
You began hearing gasps outside, but you didn't leave the bathroom, your curiosity being undermined by the fact that all you wanted to do in that moment was cry.
Unfortunately, your plan didn't exactly pan out the way you'd hoped.
You heard the squeaks of shoes on the linoleum floor get louder as whoever was running got closer to the bathroom. You didn't think much of it at first – maybe someone just really had to go – but you jumped lightly when people started speaking.
"What are you doing in here?!" one of the girls shrieked from where she stood at the mirror with her friends.
"Out," a male voice said roughly, making the girls quickly gather up their things and scurry out of the restroom. You held your breath, your mind racing at all the possible reasons a guy would be in the girl's bathroom.
Once all the girls were out, the guy came further into the room. You heard the distinct sound of the buckles on a leather jacket clinking against each other as he walked, looking at the bottoms of the stall doors as he searched for feet.
And your heart started racing; You only knew one person who wore leather jackets to school.
"Y/N?" Ashton murmured when he found your feet in the last stall, "Are you okay?" You let out a short hum, but he could tell you weren't being honest with him. "Can you come out?" he asked, "Please?" You were silent, making him sigh. "Y/N, I will crawl under this door," he threatened.
You frowned, but when you didn't make a sound again, you heard Ashton huff sharply. He stepped toward the door and you could see his shadow get lower, making you jump up from the toilet seat.
"Fine!" you squeaked softly as you unlocked the door and pulled it open, "I'm out!" Ashton stood back upright, smiling gently at you.
You closed your eyes and took a deep breath when he reached up and wiped the tears off of your cheeks, swallowing thickly as you exhaled. Sure, you had a crush on him, but then again... Everyone did.
Ashton Irwin certainly wasn't in the same social class as you, so it was obvious that people gravitated toward him. He was the school's troublemaker, but everyone loved him. The only people with a bad thing to say about Ashton were the ones who had the misfortune of suffering his wrath when they pissed him off and those who were simply just jealous.
You never thought that Ashton noticed you around school, let alone would come to see if you were okay after something like catching your boyfriend cheating on you.
"Are you okay?" Ashton asked again lowly once he'd gotten rid of all your tears. And you didn't know why, but you couldn't force yourself to lie to him.
"No," you whispered, "But I'll probably live."
"Probably?" he cocked an eyebrow, earning himself a small shrug.
"Wouldn't be the first time I've cried in a school bathroom and I'm sure it won't be the last," you replied. You were understandably confused by the brief look of sadness on his face, but since he'd brushed it off so quickly, you decided not to mention it.
"Let me walk you to class," he said.
"Ashton, you don't ha-"
"I want to," he insisted. You looked at him for a moment before caving.
"Okay," you said so quietly that he almost didn't hear it.
Without warning, Ashton grabbed your hand and started pulling you out of the bathroom. You struggled to keep up at first, but he slowed to a pace that allowed you to walk beside him, tangling your fingers together as you found yourself approaching Gunnar's locker.
All eyes were on you at this point, but you thought you'd be able to get by your boyfriend – err... ex-boyfriend...? – without him saying anything.
But, of course, you were wrong.
"What the hell is this?" Gunnar asked, making Ashton stop dead in his tracks.
You yelped softly as you were yanked back since his hand was still holding yours. Ashton pulled you behind him slightly, his hand still keeping a firm grip on your own, as he narrowed his eyes at the boy in front of him.
"What the hell does it look like?" Ashton returned – and it was then that you noticed the bruise underneath Gunnar's left eye.
You had no idea why he was defending you – you'd never even talked to him before today – but you weren't going to lie and say you weren't incredibly curious as to where this confrontation was going.
"It looks like I'm just finding out my girlfriend is cheating on me with a Hot Topic model reject," he shot back. You furrowed your eyebrows at the insult – if you could even call it that – as Ashton immediately fired back.
"I don't think I need to remind anybody that she's not the type of disgusting excuse of a person that would cheat on someone – unlike you," he grumbled, "And as far as I'm concerned, I would start getting used to calling her your ex-girlfriend because if I ever catch you trying talk to her again, I'm gonna do a lot worse to you than that-" He nodded his head to his black eye, inadvertently letting you know that Ashton had been the one to inflict the bruise.
"I'm sorry; I was unaware that my relationship with my girlfriend included you now," Gunnar laughed bitterly, clearly taunting him, "And I would hardly consider what you did justified seeing as you had no reason to do it."
"Ashton doesn't hit people without a reason, Gunnar," you reminded him softly, finally speaking.
"I was talking to Ashton, babe – not you," he said shortly, and you knew he was only giving you a pet name – something he never did – because Ashton was there.
You felt Ashton squeeze your hand and in the split second that his opposite arm was coming up, your free hand shot across his stomach in front of him to grab his wrist. His hand was balled up into a fist, but it quickly relaxed when you slid your own hand down and laced your fingers together in order to keep him from doing something stupid.
"Don't talk to her again," you heard Ashton growl as you pulled him away from the situation.
When you got him what you considered to be far enough away, you released one of his hands so you could continue pulling him along more comfortably. You took him to a hallway you knew was low-traffic in the morning, happy to find it was a ghost town when you turned the corner. You let out a soft breath, releasing Ashton's hand and leaning up again some random person's locker.
Your eyes were closed as you took a moment to process everything that had just happened. But it wasn't long after letting go that you felt hands return to your cheeks. You opened your eyes again to find Ashton looking at you intently.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"You've asked me that like, three times already," you said softly, the corner of your mouth twitching slightly.
"I know," he nodded, barely smiling back at you, "I just want to make sure."
"I'm fine, Ashton," you sighed.
"No, you're not," he called your bluff, making you laugh under your breath.
"I will be," you assured him, "Eventually." You noticed Ashton glance at the clock at the other end of the hallway, seeing there were only a few minutes before class started.
"I'll walk you to class," he said, just as he'd done earlier, and you didn't bother trying to protest that time.
You pushed yourself off of the locker as Ashton's hand found yours again, taking you the long way around so you wouldn't have to go back past Gunnar. He held you close to him, ignoring the second glances the two of you got as people were making sure they really were seeing the two of you together.
After getting your books from your locker, Ashton walked you down the hallway to your first class of the day. His voice stopped you from going inside though.
"If you need anything, my locker's right beside Mrs. Scranton's room," he told you. You gave him a genuine smile, surprising him when you reached up and pressed your lips to the middle of his cheek.
"Thanks, Ashton," you said softly as you pulled back. He looked at you with a blank stare for a moment before he shyly leaned down, kissing your cheekbone as well.
"See you at lunch," he murmured against your skin, scurrying away before you noticed the blush on his cheeks – you did, of course.
And you didn't realize it, but Ashton looked over his shoulder as you entered the classroom, allowing him to see your bottom lip caught between your teeth and the bright pink tint on your cheeks.
~
inspiration: https://imaginescake.tumblr.com/post/165606281937/luke-hemmings