I felt a light breeze come from the window as my eyes fluttered open. I hadn't yet looked around or moved, I just lay there. I felt the comfort of my soft blankets and mattress below me. A few long and deep breaths were taken in satisfaction. The satisfaction, of getting a little bit of sleep and waking up in my bed. But that, is when the realization hit me. I was in my bed. Last thing I remembered, was falling asleep on the passenger seat of Luke's car, and in that moment I awoke in my own bed. Had I gotten out of the car and took a nap? No I didn't. I knew I was tired, but not tired enough to forget events from merely a few hours back. But alas, I was in my own room and bed. Had Luke transported me here? That was the only possible explanation I could think of.
I got up from lying down, and let my feet hang off of the bed. My hand stroked my face in attempt to wake up and ease the obvious confusion. My questions were answered when I saw my bag from 'Adammos Closet' lying on the floor next to my bed, along with my purse. Yes, Luke transported me in.
To sit and wonder about the events prior to my nap, would be stupid. I rummaged through my bag, trying to find my phone, still quite scatter brained. No matter how not superficial I was, the feeling of seeing the grey metal square at the bottom of the bag, was a slight relief. Once I clicked the button, the time came up, as usual, and I was horrified to see the time. It was 3:50, and as confused as I was, I remembered Ashton was coming to pick me up at 4:00.
I jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom trying to save whatever had happened to my face. Lack of sleep, then rushed makeup, cried makeup, and then slept on makeup was not a good look for me. I would be the poster child for raccoon eyes, if that was even a thing. I decided washing the toxic crap off of my face would be the easiest and most efficient thing to do, in the approximate ten minutes that I had.
After washing the makeup off, the deep blue circles and puffy eyes made their appearance and that was when I decided to cover them up with more makeup. Since the last few days, I got the hang of doing this in a fast fashion. Once the mascara made its way back into the gold tube, as if on cue, my doorbell rang. I frantically ran down the steps and opened the door. A grinning head of shaggy hair stood opposite of the door and I reciprocated the grin.
"Hey Ashton." I said out of breath. He walked in through a door and shot me a very suspicious glare. He bobbed his head up the staircase almost to check if someone else was there. Was he thinking....? No he wouldn't.
"Hi Peyton. Stressed out?" He chimed taking a seat at the table.
I laughed slightly and joined him.
"What gave you the impression? My nearly black eyes or my lack of breath?" I stated and gestured that we both go upstairs since I still had to get a few things.
"I was going to say your lack of breath, but now that you mention the eyes..." Ashton teased and I laughed in agreement.
"I just have to get a few things, then we can go." I said packing random crap that I could need into my bag. Ashton sat down on my bed and waited.
"Adammos Closet huh? Well i'm excited to see what you've come up with." He exclaimed holding the bag and I humorously took it from him.
"So am I. That's why, its a surprise." I grinned and Ashton raised his eyebrows up and down in understanding. I felt a chilly draft on my shoulders and that's when another realization hit me. I was wearing a sweatshirt at the mall and now I stand here, in a tank top.
"Huh, son of a..." I quietly trailed off finding my sweat shirt on the other side of my bed. He actually undressed me. Granted, it was only my sweatshirt but he took articles of clothing off of my body against my will. I caught myself slightly exaggerating, but nonetheless I was pissed.
"Everything okay?" Ashton laughed.
"Um, yeah, I just got my sweatshirt dirty." I lied. I didn't want Ashton to know. I would tell him about the oh so fun mall trip, but certain things could be left unsaid. For mine and Luke's sake.
-
"They really do have great milkshakes here." I said taking a sip of my strawberry banana flavored one. I was trying to avoid the conversation I knew was coming, so boasting about a milky treat could spare me some time. Ashton nodded in agreement and almost drank half of it in one sip.
"So.." Ashton smirked.
"So.." I mimicked and smirked back. Knowing exactly what was coming.
"What happened?" He giggled. I took a sigh, something that I obviously was doing a lot today.
"In which retrospect?" I was doing it again. Stalling. I didn't know how to go about any of this. The whole Maggie thing is hard to talk about, because it involves topics that I have a hard time getting into. And talking about Luke only gets me aggravated.
"Let's start with you and Maggie. Why did you leave school today?" He asked. But along with his raging curiosity, I felt like there was compassion and care behind those words. With Ashton I felt like he really wanted to know because he wanted to help. That certainly eased things.
"Well, it started out great. We talked and watched movies and I was a normal sterotypical teenage girl for 45 seconds." I laughed. That weird mechanism thing was back.
"And then.." He pondered.
"Then I fell asleep and.." I took a pause.
"Look Ashton, before I came to Australia, life wasn't easy. I don't really want to go into it now, but there are things that just won't stop haunting me. They consume so much of everyday..." I started to explain. I was utterly surprised at how much came out, but I felt a strange feeling of relief.
Ashton's eyes became so much more caring and sensitive in that moment. He moved his chair a bit closer so that I felt safe to continue.
"And for the second time, I had a really vivid nightmare. Like crazy vivid. I woke up shaking and crying and that got me late to school." I felt my voice become lower, since it was getting me wound up.
"Pey..." Ashton whispered frowning and looking at me.
"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, I see this is hard for you." He said.
I shook my head.
"It is, but it's okay." I then smiled.
I continued to tell Ashton about the frantic trip to school and how that ended. I spent too much time ranting about my stupid math teacher and his antics. Ashton gave me a high five for standing up to the prick and I knew that it was well deserved.
"So how did you end up at the mall? With Luke?" He laughed and exaggerated on the 'Luke' part.
"Well my locker is next to his, and he saw me on the floor. I mentioned that I was skipping the day and he dragged me to the mall." I told. Ashton's stupid confused grin hadn't left his face.
"So he just offered to go to the mall?" He asked finishing the huge milkshake.
"Yep."
"Jesus that boy is strange." Ashton sighed, still laughing.
"Tell me about it. we ended up fighting twice, and I ended up yelling at some Jeremy. " I complained remembering the quiffed hair freak.
Ashton's smile suddenly faded and he furrowed his brows.
"Jeremy?" He asked in shock
"Yeah...what about him." I sipped on the milkshake.
"I can't believe he ran into Jeremy." Ashton spoke out loud. He was obviously in his own train of thought and this Jeremy prick was apparently well known.
"What did he say?" Ashton's tone of voice worried me a little bit. He was so serious and weird.
"He made some kind of comment about Luke being out of the house, and then he went on to me and insulted me. Then he mentioned something about not moving on or letting go, I don't even know to be honest."
I didn't want to involve myself too much in this. Whatever connection or obvious history Luke, and maybe Ashton had with this guy, was not something I needed to deal with right now.
"Shit...And what did you say to him?" He asked.
"I told them to take their prep school asses back to Abercrombie." I smirked.
Ashton burst into laughter and shook his head.
"You didn't." He countered. And I just nodded.
"I'm seeing a new side to you Foster. Telling two guys off in a day. Not bad." He jokingly punched my shoulder.
I shrugged at his comment and then continued to just spill the events of the day. Every detail from the car ride, to the mall fight, then the second mall fight and everything else in between. Ashton was extremely attentive and I felt like I was really being listened to. He would laugh or shake his head every now and then, showing a funny or even negative reaction at mine or Luke's doings. Finally, I got to the part when I woke up in my bed, sweat-shirtless. I told myself before that I would keep that a secret, but I couldn't at that point.
Ashton's eyes grew wider and his mouth almost dropped to the floor.
"I don't get him sometimes." He shook his head. I took the last sip of my milky treat to avoid speaking or saying anything else.
"I don't know. Like since two weeks, I have the impression like he wants to be friendly and even get to know me, but then he ends up exploding." I admitted. It was a feeling that I did have over the span of two weeks. Everyone that I've met so far, has been clear about their opinions of me. Some people are nasty and don't have an interest to know me, and I don't care to know them. Then there's a few like Ashton and his friends who have shown interest in getting to know me quite quickly. I never expected that I would reciprocate feelings of friendship, but I feel like I want to know them better too.
But then there's Luke. I never really know where I stand with him and its confusing. Every now and then he'll try to do nice or in Luke's world nice things, or even just be open to conversation, but there's always something stopping him.
I mentioned this to Ashton at the table and he looked like he was in thought.
"I know what you mean. He was the exact same with me and the other guys in the beginning. He still even is most of the time." He said, proving my theory.
"What do you mean?" I asked, wanting an elaboration.
"After the whole thing went down a while back, he closed himself off. I think he was scared that if he let people in again, they might end up like his old friends. That people would use him or I don't even know exactly, but yeah." Ashton seemed rather vague if I was honest. I wasn't sure he even knew where he was going with that explanation but whatever he said did make some sort of sense. I felt myslef relate to Luke in the smallest bit, since I am extremely closed off. Even though I have a few more people in my life, doesn't mean I'm ready for much more.
"Well enough about that." I chuckled, since this was going a more depressing road and I just wasn't in the mood to go there.
"Yeah, so are you excited for tomorrow? I know I am excited to see what your crazy little head came up with." Ashton joked.
"So now I'm crazy huh?" I sarcastically stated. Ashton just continued to giggle and he then called for a cheque. I felt ten pounds lighter since I told him a lot. It was a strange feeling to tell people things, but I just had my mom's voice in my head the whole time telling me to accept people. And from what it seems like, I really was.
(A.N, Hey guys! Ok so I know I said I would update this on Monday, which I did but I forgot to press publish! I pressed save and not publish so my mistake and sorry! I know its abit short but think of it as a double update for me! I am in the mood to write so im hoping that the next chapter will be on Thursday! I will try my hardest! Thank you for reading and thank you to those dedicated readers! I notice you and you know who you are! Xx -Liz)