FRIENDS

15

Ashton's POV

Regret filled me as I drove away from the airport.

I should've gone in with her. I shouldn't have left her alone. She's sad and her heart is broken, but I let her walk into that airport by herself. I'm letting her sit there for God knows how long with her thoughts as her only companion.

After she'd kissed me, everything stopped feeling real. I felt like I was living in some sort of alternate universe because never in a thousand years did I think that would happen. And now that it had, I wanted it to happen again and again. I had never kissed someone once and felt like I was addicted. Not until I'd felt Ivy's lips against mine.

But now, she was going to fly across the world to get away from the boy who broke her heart, and I have no idea when I'll see her again. We have our tour coming up right away and there's no getting away from that.

It didn't feel right, having something like that begin and having to ability for a continuation. It absolutely fucking sucked knowing that I wasn't going to have anything like that happen again for a long time, if ever.

I didn't know what it meant to her. Right now, it was probably to get a little bit of comfort because of everything that was happening. I was fine with that, but could it lead to more?

I hoped so. I wanted more from her. I wanted all of her.

I didn't know how to go home and face Michael, or even Calum for that matter. They both had hurt her on a level that I wasn't okay with and I didn't know how to be around them right now without absolutely losing it.

Calum may have been right about some of the things he said to Ivy, but he didn't have to be so cruel to her. He knows her just as well as I do; she's sensitive, especially when it comes to things to do with Michael.

Deep down, all three of us guys knew that Michael didn't have any feelings for Ivy, but we didn't have it in us to tell her. It would've absolutely crushed her and the last thing on earth I'd ever want to do was crush her. Luke and Calum had always claimed that it would sound better coming from me, that she'd take it best from me, but telling her would break my heart. So we all agreed that when it came to it, Michael would have to be the one to tell her.

Imagine our surprise when Ivy told us that while she and Michael had been drinking, he'd asked her to kiss him. When she came to us and told us about what had happened, about how it had almost gone too far, I wanted to kill him. Fuck the fact that he was my best friend and bandmate. We could find a new guitar player.

And the next day when he hadn't remembered, I'd almost lost it. He had everything I wanted in the palm of his hand, but he couldn't even see it. He didn't possess the ability to look at her and see how she hung the moon.

When I pulled up in front of the house, I just sat in the car for a little while. I didn't want to go in there and have all the boys sitting on the couch waiting for me to walk in. I wanted them to all be gone back to bed so that I'd have time to cool down. I didn't get angry very often, but when I did I needed to be left alone. And right now, seeing Calum or Michael wasn't a very good idea. I didn't have it in me to hurt Calum at this point, but Michael was a different story. He deserved a lot more than a punch in the face.

It was close to six when I finally walked through the front door. The lights were off but I could see Calum, Luke, and Michael all sitting in the living room in various states of being half asleep.

Cal shot up when he saw me, though. He had a sad look on his face and I knew he had sobered up enough to entirely regret what he'd said to Ivy, but it was too late. I could only imagine the things going on in her head right now. When she was sad and hurt, she was negative and overly hard on herself. I knew she was beating herself up, whether she was sitting on a plane or in the airport somewhere.