summer child | ashton irwin

Nineteen

Nineteen

June 3, 2022

5:58pm

Los Angeles, California

Sage

"If you don't like her, we can leave," Ashton quickly offered, which made me laugh.

"Leave? It's here," I reminded him, which made him freeze.

"Right, well, uh, you can leave," he stuttered. "Or I can tell her to leave, or-"

"Ashton, it's ok," I reassured him.

"I don't know why I'm nervous,"

"It'll be fine," I promised him. "It's just dinner, and your ordered it anyways, so nothing can go wrong,"

"Well, lots of things can go wrong,"

"With that attitude, yeah," before he could respond, the doorbell rang which made him freeze. "Your girlfriend's here," I sang. He rolled his eyes but walked off to the front door. I could hear the excitement in his voice when he saw it was her, which made me lightly smile. It was clear he liked her, but that also worried me. He didn't seem like this with my mom, and that made me question if he liked or, or if he wanted me here. Honestly, I was a reminder of her. Would he still want me here if he was dating Margaret?

I was snapped out of my worries when Ashton entered the room with her. I saw why he liked her, she was very pretty. SHe had long brown hair, her makeup was perfect, and she just seemed like a nice person. It was the complete opposite of my mom. My mom had short blonde hair, she never really smiled, and was very closed off from everyone. I never knew why they dated.
"Sage, this is Margaret," he introduced me.

"It's so nice to meet you Sage, Ashton talks a lot about you," she grinned, but I looked at Ashton with confusion.

"Really?"

"Yeah, of course," he smiled.

"It's nice to meet you too," I told Margaret. Before any of us could say anything else, the doorbell rang again, which meant the food was here. The two went to grab it, then put everything on the counter and we filled out plates with whatever we wanted.

"So Ashton said you like making jewelry," she said.

"Yeah, I make some necklaces and bracelets,"

"You'll have to show me some," she smiled and I nodded.

"How did you guys meet?"

"Through some friends," she told me.

"Oh, that's cool,"

"I do a lot with concerts and venues, and we were both at a friend's concert and I met him there," she explained. When she said that, the story sounded oddly familiar. I glanced over at Ashton who seemed visibly uncomfortable, which was when it hit me. That was the same concert he met my mom at. I didn't say anything in response, but nodded. Quickly, Ashton changed the subject.

"So, Margaret was going to come to some of the concerts for this tour," he said. Again, I just nodded and spun my pasta around with my fork. "And I asked the crew, you can bring your friend to the LA and New York ones," I knew he was trying to ease all the tension, but it was still uncomfortable.

"I'm gonna go grab my jewelry, excuse me," I quickly got up and started to go upstairs. I could hear Margaret asking Ashton if she did anything wrong, but Ashton was quickly reassuring her that she was fine. I went into my room and shut the door, taking deep breaths so I wouldn't cry and mess up my makeup, but I was clearly failing at that.

"Sage," I heard Ashton enter the room with a sigh.

"You didn't tell me that she knew my mom," my voice cracked.

"She didn't, not well at least," he said, but I kept my back to him. "We weren't dating then, I was dating your mom-"

"But you didn't like her," I spun around, finally looking at him.

"I did like her, I cared a lot about her,"

"Did you love her?"

"Yes, I loved her,"

"But you weren't in love, were you?" I questioned, which made him silent.

"It was a very complicated relationship, and we both wanted different things. We tried to make it work, but it wouldn't," he clarified. "And that has nothing to do with you, my opinions about her don't reflect how I feel about you at all,"

"Are you still going to want me around if you date her?"

"Of course I am," he quickly said, shocked that I would even think that. "You're a part of my life, I made that promise to you. No matter what happens, you're here to stay, nothing will change that," he pulled me into a hug and I rested my head against him as I hugged him back tightly. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, I didn't want to make things uncomfortable, but I was wrong,"

"It's ok," I mumbled. "I like her though,"

"You do?" I glanced up at him to see him looking down at me.

"Yeah," I confirmed with a small smile. I could tell that relieved him as he smiled at me.

"I'm glad,"

"Can we go back down?"

"Yeah, let's head back down,"