After waiting for almost another hour, I finally got a text from Ashton telling me an address to wherever he wanted to meet up with me.
So I quickly got ready (I didn't dress up too much, I had no reason to), before getting in my car and driving to the address that Ashton had sent me to. When I arrived I was surprised to see that it was what looked to be some sort of abandoned warehouse, and I began to panic and wonder if Ashton was planning on murdering me. But now that I was here and already curious, I got out of my car anyway and walked inside, despite how nervous I had become.
When I entered the large room (which was practically empty, you know, being abandoned and all), it took me a while for my eyes to adjust to my surroundings, because all of the lights were off. Finally something moved in front of me, and I almost yet out a scream, but then I realized who it was.
"Christ, Murphy, it took you long enough!" Ashton snapped, raising his hands up in the air.
"You took an hour to tell me where to meet you!" I shot back, frustrated at the fact that Ashton was blaming me for this when he was the one that took forever to text me back. He was also the one that insisted on meeting up at some strange location, rather than his house, which was just down the street.
"What? No I didn't, you called me first!" Ashton argued. He took another drag from his cigarette, and this time he actually had the decency to turn to the side before exhaling.
"What?" I asked, "You called me and said we had to talk, and then you texted me this address!"
"You called me at my house about two hours ago and said to meet you here!" Ashton groaned. I was beyond confused now, because I really didn't think that Ashton was lying. He wouldn't try to deny this, it wasn't even a big enough deal for him to do so.
"No I didn't." I said, shaking my head. I searched through my pockets and finally pulled out my phone, opening up my recent call log. "See," I said, showing Ashton what time he called me and the text he'd sent.
"That wasn't me." Ashton shrugged. "I lost my phone two days ago."
"Oh, very funny, I know that it was you." I scoffed.
"If wasn't me!" Ashton stressed, annoyance clear in his voice.
"Just quit the act, Ashton, seriously. What did you want to talk to me about?" I asked, annoyed as well.
"I didn't call you!" Ashton yelled.
"Then who - ?" I was cut off by a loud buzzing noise and then the lights flickered on, and it startled Ashton so much that he dropped his cigarette to the floor. A loud scraping noise was heard from behind us and Ashton and I both screamed, immediately moving a few steps closer to each other.
"You brought me here to fucking kill me, didn't you?" Ashton whispered, pulling me closer to him. He wrapped his arms around me, and I couldn't tell if he was trying to protect me or protect himself.
"I didn't bring you here at all!" I snapped, but I wrapped my arms around Ashton's waist anyway because that scraping noise was growing louder and I honestly thought that both of us were about to die.
Finally the scraping stopped and Ashton and I hesitantly turned around, both of us too scared to see whatever was going on behind us.
"Michael Gordon Clifford, what the fuck is wrong with you?" Ashton screeched, glaring at Michael. He was sitting down in a metal chair that he obviously dragged across the entire room, his arms folded across his chest as he looked on at Ashton and I.
Michael just smiled.
"I'm going to kill you!" Ashton shouted, "Did you do all of this?"
Michael nodded, a big smirk still plastered across his face.
"Michael," I said slowly, taking a small step forward. By now Ashton and I had separated and were no longer holding onto each other for dear life. "Did you call me?"
"Did you call me?" Ashton questioned.
Michael nodded again. I should have known, Michael does that really creepy yet extremely accurate imitation of Ashton. That was why he almost called me Dani when I first answered the phone.
"What the hell, man?" Ashton yelled. "You sounded exactly like Dani!"
Michael shrugged, kind of like he was saying "well, what can you do?", and Ashton just groaned again.
"So why are we here?" I asked, though I wasn't really sure if Michael was actually going to answer me out loud or not. He probably wouldn't, not with Ashton standing here.
"He obviously wants us to talk things out." Ashton said, turning to face me.
"Oh." I nodded.
"That's what he said on the phone, didn't he?" Ashton asked. He looked at Michael. "You want us to talk things out, don't you?"
Michael nodded again, taking his phone out from his pocket and beginning to play around with it.
"So, I guess we should talk." Ashton said, shoving his hands down in his pockets. He looked down at the floor, like he was too nervous again to look me in the eye.
"Alright."
"Okay, so..." Ashton paused, and then he finally looked up at me. "Do you really think that we should have broken up in the first place?"
"No." I answered honestly, and I knew that this was probably my one chance to tell Ashton exactly how I felt, so I let everything out. "I think that it was really stupid, and like I said, I had almost no say in this. I mean, I understand that I made a few mistakes and you also made a few mistakes, but it wasn't anything that we should have broken up over. We could have stayed together and worked everything out, and we would have been completely fine in the end."
"Yeah." Ashton nodded. "I'm sorry, I was just angry because you - because you - "
"I lied, I know, but I don't think you really get it. I know that I lied to you about being friends with Michael, and I really wanted to tell you about it, but Michael asked me to keep it a secret and I was trying to accept that." I explained, and thankfully Ashton didn't try to interrupt me as I spoke.
I continued, "Us becoming friends had nothing to do with the fact that he doesn't want to talk to you. You have to give him time for this on his own, because he has his reasons for being upset with you and they're good reasons. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about all of this right away, but you have to understand that I was put into a tough spot and I was just trying to make both of you happy, I just had absolutely no idea how to make that happen."
"I know. I understand, and I'm sorry that I got so upset with you over hiding that from me. I know that you had good intentions and I know that I shouldn't have made you promise something like that. I'm sorry, Murph, I really am." Ashton said quickly, as if he was trying to get all of his words out at once before he changed his mind about what he was saying.
"I'm also sorry for lying to you about my parents not being home that one night. I just... I felt as if you were beginning to give up on me, and I thought that if we didn't - " I paused, feeling a little uncomfortable with Michael right there. "I thought that if we didn't have sex right then and there you would just give up completely."
"Why would you think that?" Ashton asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Because it was pretty clear to me that you still had feelings for Kenzie, and I understand that you're never going to be completely over her, and that's alright. But when you told me that night that you loved me I just felt that if we weren't able to do what you wanted you'd just take it all back." I sighed, "I don't know, the whole thing was pretty stupid. I was just confused, because I was totally in love with someone who I knew didn't really love me back."
"Oh my God," Ashton mumbled, taking a quick glance at Michael, who was still playing on his phone. "I had no idea that you felt that way."
"It's okay." I said softly, looking down at the ground.
"It's not okay." Ashton groaned, running his fingers through his hair. "Dani, I meant it. I honestly meant it when I said that I love you. And I know that it's... hard, when I'm still in the process of getting over my ex-girlfriend, but you were right. She's gone and I don't think she would have liked very much if I was sitting around crying over her all day."
"You meant it?" I asked, finding it hard to believe. It was hard to believe that he felt that way about me after everything that we'd been through.
"I love you."
All I did was nod, because Ashton already knew that I still loved him as well.
"I'm so sorry, Murphy, I really am, for every horrible thing that I've ever done and not a day goes by where I don't wish that I could go back and do things differently. I meant every word that I ever said to you, about you fixing me and being the best thing that's happened to me in a long time and about me loving you no matter what." Ashton said, swallowing hard.
I took in a deep breath, because I was honestly surprised that Ashton was coming out and saying all of this to me. I wish that he would have said all of this sooner, then maybe we wouldn't have as many problems as we did now, but it didn't make much of a difference to me. Ashton just needed an extra little push, so did I, and thanks to Michael we both got that.
"I'm sorry that I got mad about so many stupid things and I'm sorry that I broke up with you for one little mistake. You were right, we should have just stayed together and worked out our problems instead of just breaking up and causing even more shit. Please, please, forgive me." Ashton took a step closer to me, grabbing both of my hands in his.
I didn't need much time to think, because hearing all of that from Ashton was all I really needed, and I knew what I wanted now.
"I forgive you." I said, just barely over a whisper, and watched as Ashton's frown slowly turned into a huge smile, taking up his whole face.
"Really?" Ashton smiled, like he couldn't believe this either.
"Yes, Ashton, I forgive you." I chuckled and pulled him forward, wrapping my arms around him in a big hug.
"God," Ashton muttered to himself, pressing his lips to my forehead. "I really do love you so much."
"I love you, too." I mumbled into Ashton's chest, feeling an overwhelming sense of joy rush through my body because I knew now that things would finally be okay again.
There was another screeching noise and I looked up, seeing that Michael had stood and pushed his chair back a little as he did. I pulled away from Ashton and walked over to Michael, pulling him in for a hug as well.
"Thank you." I whispered, because Michael was really the one that put all of this together, and without him Ashton and I would have never come to a solution and we'd still be fighting.
Michael nodded, still refusing to speak, as he stepped away from me and turned to Ashton, who was waiting patiently off to the side. Michael walked over to Ashton and held his arms out, inviting him to come forward in a hug. A huge smile was brought to Ashton's face as he hugged Michael back, for probably the first time since before all of this drama started.
After the two boys hugged for a few minutes Michael relaxed and pulled away, placing both of his hands on Ashton's shoulders. He stared ahead at Ashton for a moment before finally opening his mouth to speak.
"I'm sorry."
-
I feel like I might delete this chapter and then rewrite it but for now I'll just post this lol yay happy ending HA there's still more
this was also so short I'm sorry but it was like to the point you know so I hope this is okay