It was almost eight-thirty. Emily texted me, saying that she was almost here so I quickly changed into a pair of black skinny jeans and Ashton's white hoodie. He still hadn't texted me, and something just kept bothering me about his sudden distant behavior. I unplugged my phone and shoved some money into the back packet of my jeans, just as Emily honked from my driveway.
My mom and dad were home for dinner before they had to get back to the hospital. They'd been over for dinner a lot in the last few weeks. We'd been having all these family dinners and they'd been really nice too. Things just had been so much better these past few weeks.
Ever since I'd started hanging out with Ashton.
And I was thinking about him, again. Great.
"Bye, parents. I'll be back before you guys leave for your shift."
My parents had their next shift at 11:30 p.m. I'd probably be back before, I didn't know how long the whole process was since I'd only been there twice before, and both times I'd left with Ashton before it could end.
Even if I wasn't back, I'd text them. They'd understand.
"Okay Alexis, be safe. Text us if you need anything," my mom replied, going back to the files in front of her. They were probably patient files, considering the fact that my dad was looking at them too, and explaining something to her when I came downstairs.
I quickly got into Emily's car and hugged her.
"Ugh I haven't seen Drew in so long" she said, reversing out.
Even though Emily and Drew were probably the most in-love couple I knew, they could only see other on the weekends, considering the fact that they went to different schools and were just busy. They'd pick up right where the left off during the weekends though. It was really cool, and really different from the clingy relationships I was used to seeing around me where the boy would just ditch all his friends for her.
Even though I'd decided to respect Charlie, I could still be a little bitchy about it, I guess, as a coping mechanism.
"I know Em, Drew's pretty cool."
We just talked about Drew and about what was going to happen when we got there. There we two fights today, we'd probably miss the first considering the fact we were pretty late and we still had to drive for 30 minutes before we'd reach the venue. The second fight was bigger anyway, and the one Drew had bet on and arranged, so I guess that's the whole reason we were going there.
I wasn't particularly fascinated with the fights but it was nice to get out of the house and Emily just mentioned the open bar at the house they had the after party for the fight so, things were looking better now.
We made idle conversation as the 1975 played lowly in the background until we reached. Emily found a parking spot and after locking her car, we started walking towards the house. The neighborhood wasn't really bad, just empty. There weren't many houses here, and the few that existed, had their lights shut. Maybe that's why this was a good place to have underground fights, I guess? Because of how abandoned the entire area was.
Drew was just at the bottom of the stairs when we reached. Emily squealed before going to hug him and Drew chuckled before hugging her back. Once they were done, Emily turned around and Drew proceeded wave at me, his other arm not leaving Emily's waist.
Like I said, a cute couple.
"The first one's over, but the second one's starting in a few minutes so we can grab a drink till then," Drew said, before leading us to the bar.
I quickly paid for my beer, before Emily and Drew did the same and started maneuvering their way back through the crowd. Before we could reach however, our path was blocked by a familiar black-haired boy.
Mason.
He exchanged a few words with Drew, before focusing on me.
"Alexis, hey."
"Hi, Mason."
"Wait, you two know each other?" Emily seemed confused, looking between Mason and I.
"Yeah, we met the last time we were here," I said, signalling to the boy in question.
"Do you wanna come get a beer with me? Mason asked me.
"Uh, I already have one, but I'll come with."
I really didn't want to leave Emily, but she hadn't seen Drew in a while so it was probably better to give them some space. Emily looked at me in question before asking me, "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, go have fun. I'll come find you," I said, turning around to Mason who had started to back toward where we came from.
I followed him to the bar, where he ordered his own drink. The fight was starting behind me, but I wasn't really bothered.
"So, Alex, how do you know Drew?"
"Emily's my friend, and they're dating so," I shrugged before taking another sip.
Mason continued to drink and ask about how I liked this place, and just general things about my life. I'd learned that Mason was actually in college, and only organized these fights to earn a little money on the side. He didn't seem overly disturbing, so I decided he wasn't such a bad person to know. He moved here three years ago, and had been doing this since.
I was having fun with him and had honestly forgotten what happened in school today, (the three beers I had probably helped too).
I was mid conversation with Mason, laughing as he described how he'd gotten punched by one of the fighters in the beginning when he'd started this, when a blonde girl approached us.
She was wearing a pair of shorts, a green shirt and had a black jacket slung over her shoulder. She smiled at me before handing Mason something.
"Mase, could you give this to Ashton for me?"
She had to speak a little loud to be heard over the music and the cheering.
Mason froze, before quickly shoving the small object in his pocket before looking at me.
"He left it at my place on Monday and asked me to give it back to him here but I need to run and he's still in his fight," she explained.
What?
"Hi I'm sorry for being rude, I'm Maria," she turned to me this time, smiling at me again.
I tried to smile back, but it probably looked forced, "Alexis."
She didn't seem to notice and said, "Nice to meet you," and turned to Mason before saying, "Okay so I'm really late and I'm leaving, make sure to give this to Ash."
She left and Mason brought his drink to his lips again.
I was about to question him before loud cheering interrupted us.
The fight had ended.
"That was Ashton's fight, wasn't it?"
I didn't need Mason's confirmation; it was pretty obvious.
"Show me what Maria gave you."
Mason wordlessly retrieved a small rectangle object from his pocket.
It was Ashton's driver's license. Why did Maria have it?
I pocketed it and was about to go find Ashton when something clicked.
"Did Ashton send you here to distract me?"
"Yeah but, it's not what you think," he tried to explain.
"It's probably not, but all this really does make it seem suspicious, don't you think?" I sneered back.
I didn't wait for his reply before trying to make it to the ring, pushing through the crowd of people. I saw Ashton leaving the ring and walking towards me. He hadn't noticed me, so I was still expecting to catch him by surprise.
I left the crowd and sneaked to the side, waiting for Ashton to make it to the end. He stopped multiple times in between, talking to the people who were congratulating him.
I didn't even get to see his opponent so it was safe to guess who won, although, even he was injured. His lip was busted and he had a nasty bruise forming on the corner of his left eye.
My phone buzzed as I waited.
Emily: Did you know Ashton was fighting?
Sent 9:25 p.m.
Emily had seemed to figure out that something was wrong too but before I could reply, Ashton emerged from the crowd. He was headed to bar (where, Mason was still sitting). I had to catch him before that.
I quickly walked towards him and grabbed his arm.
He turned around and was about to say something when he realized who it was.
"Alexis?" he confirmed.
I placed the license in his palm and saw as recognition, which was quickly followed by panic, flashed through his eyes.
"Why were you at Maria's place on Monday? Was that where you were texting me from?"
Ashton sighed before replying, "not all, but the last one, yes."
"What were you doing there?"
"Uh... I..." he stuttered. It didn't take a genius to figure out why he was there.
"Ash, you don't have to lie. It's not like I'm your girlfriend, or anything really, you can sleep with whoever you want, if that's why you were there?" I needed him to confirm.
Ashton looked really taken aback for a second before his eyes turned cold.
"Okay well yeah, I did sleep with her. But it's not –" I cut him off before he could feed me some bullshit line about how it's not what it looks like.
"Great. Congratulations on your win, I'll see you later."
Mason was wrong, this was exactly what it looked like.
I turned around and disappeared into the crowd, finding Emily on the way out.
"Hey, did you know?" she asked when she saw me.
"No, but I just met him and the girl he slept with on Monday. She's really pretty," I shrugged.
Emily was quiet for a while before she dragged me away from Drew.
"Do you wanna go home?"
"No are you crazy? I'm still waiting for the open bar you promised."
And now, I definitely needed it.
"Lex, are you sure?" she seemed concerned.
"I'm fine, plus I'm not about to drag you away from Drew, you haven't seen him for a week."
She didn't look convinced so I continued, "Really Em, I'm fine. This fight thing and whatever followed wasn't too great for me so I'd actually appreciate the distraction okay? I promise I'm fine, let's go get drunk."
Emily cracked a small smile and gave me a comforting hug before we went back to Drew. We decided to take Emily's car, Drew would come back later and get his and left for the party.
How did this week take such a bad turn?
Well technically, the week didn't even start happy, considering the fact that he'd slept with her on Monday.
Great, so it was all a sham.
God, I really needed a fucking drink.
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