Settle Down // Irwin

29

"Are you busy all day today?" Calum asks Jade over the phone.

"I shouldn't be." Jade shrugs and puts Calum on speaker phone so she can get her and Ashton some bottles of water for when he arrives.

"Aren't you tutoring Ashton today?" Calum asks another question.

"Yeah," Jade replies and pulls out her textbook.

"So aren't you gonna go out with him later?" Something crashes on Calum's end of the line. Calum lets out a long annoyed groan.

"What the hell was that?!" Jade asks with worry.

"My bass." Calum groans and Jade hears a thud.

"You have a bass?" Jade raises an eyebrow even though Calum can't see her.

"Yeah, I need it for music." Calum explain, probably shrugging his shoulders. "But now it's broken. If you aren't busy can you come to the mall with me to see if I can get a new one?"

"Sure." Jade replies, happy her and Calum are going to spend some time together. "I'll let Ashton know when he comes over." Jade tells Calum and opens the textbook at the page she has dog-eared.

"Cool," Calum replies in the same happy tone as Jade.

"Wait, it's Saturday? Aren't you tutoring?" Jade asks.

"Yeah, but she's gone now." Calum tells Jade.

"Charlie?"

"No she's Wednesday. This is someone else." Calum answers. "I'll talk to you later. I have to clean this up before my dad kills me."

Jade lets out a little laugh. "Okay, see you later."

"Meet you at the mall?"

"Sure!" Jade replies.

"Okay, bye." Calum says before hanging up.

Jade continues going through the textbook and dog-earring other pages to go over with Ashton. She was fine until she hears the front door slam, it makes her jump.

The living room door is then thrown open and Jade turns around quickly to see her mom, still in her work uniform, looking pissed.

"Jade," she tries to say as sweetly as possible.

"Yeah..." Jade automatically thinks she has done something wrong. Or maybe Mr Renwick got in touch with her mom to tell her her math grades are slipping. That's what he was telling Jade on Wednesday, and Ashton resit date. She didn't want to tell him the whole truth because he knew he would worry or blame himself, somehow. She just made sure to avoid that.

"Where is your dad?" Her mom tries to remain calm.

"Upstairs." Jade says back unsurely. "Why?"

"Is he awake?" Jade's mom asks and Jade shrugs in reply. "interesting." Is all Jade's mom says before storming up the stairs. Then there is a lot of yelling.

Jade learned from a pretty young age to block the yelling out. It's better that way and she isn't as scared. She just doesn't let herself get involved in their arguments. She can't. She doesn't know where it might lead. So Jade carries on as normal, like always.

The shouting stops when the doorbell rings. Jade practically runs to the door to let Ashton in. She knows her parents will stop or at least try to if they know there is company.

"Hey there." Jade says with relief at Ashton's smiling face.

Ashton pulls Jade into a slow kiss. "Hi." He says when he pulls away. Jade can feel her cheeks getting hot. "How are you?" He asks coming into her house.