HappyFace | Ashton Irwin

Chapter Eight: Stuck in a Box

"Hey, Ashton!" Annie greeted as she approached the lunch table, "How are you?"

Ashton smiled, "G-Good, how are you?" He stuttered and Annie noticed but didn't mention it. He only seemed to stutter at school.

"Fine," Annie faked a smile. It was only her second day back at school and her teachers had piled so much work on her it was insane. She has so much to do and so little time to do it.

Ashton believed her lie of being fine because why would Annie lie? Ashton really never had to lie about his emotions because nobody really cared. Nobody gave a shit wether or not he was happy until recently.

"Hey, guys!" Calum pulled his hands out of the pockets of his red and black varsity jacket as he sat down next to Ashton, "No lunch today, Ashton?" He questioned suspiciously.

Ashton tensed and Annie took note of this, "N-Not t-today," He stuttered badly, "Where's y-your lunch?"

"Right here," He said when Jules came up to the table, placing a brown paper bag in front of Calum. He opened it up, revealing a red apple, a brownie, a bag of barbecue chips, and a ham and cheese sandwich. "Thanks, babe!" He grinned, placing a big sloppy kiss on Jules's lips.

Annie groaned, I obviously annoyed, "Ugh, you guys are so cute!"

Jules smirked, "And that's a bad thing?" She took Calum's bag of chips and tossed it over to Ashton. The boy picked them up, confused, but shrugged and opened them up to begin eating.

Annie just rolled her eyes in annoyance, "When did you guys get together anyway?" She reached over and grabbed Calum's apple, taking a big bite out of it.

Jules and Calum looked at each other and shrugged, "I don't really know, It kind of just happened," Jules laughed, taking a bite of Calum's sandwich.

"You guys are taking all my food!" Calum cried, grabbing the sandwich from Jules and taking a bite of it.

Jules snatched the sandwich out off his hands, "Well, I made the food so I get to eat it!" She grinned.

"You guys are so cute it makes me want to throw up," Annie scoffed, "Come on, Ashton, let's go! We don't need them!"

Annie got up and walked around the fake wooden picnic table to the side where Ashton was sitting. She grabbed his wrist in attempt to yank him up and drag him out of the room with her for a dramatic affect, but immediately let go when Ashton winced in pain.

"Ashton, what's wrong?" Jules's asked, her voice coated with concern, "Are you hurt?"

Ashton's face paled. He looked as if he had seen a ghost. He shook his head eagerly, "N-no." Tears welled up in his eyes.

"Hey, it's okay." Jules cooed, sending a glare to Annie.

While Jules was trying her best to calm Ashton down Calum just sat there confused and Annie was completely zoned out, in her own little world where she was being flashed back to one of the worst weeks of her life.

"Annie, what the hell is that?" Valerie, Annie's close friend at the time, asked sharply.

Annie looked up from the ground with a confused look on her face, "What're you talking about?" She giggled, completely unaware.

"Your wrist!" Valerie snapped, causing Annie to tense. She glanced at her wrist, quickly pulling down her sleeve as it has brushed up slightly, revealing little red lines.

"Oh, um, my dog scratched me," Annie lied easily. This wasn't the first time she had used that excuse.

Valerie got up and walked across to wear Annie was sitting and plopped down on the ground next to her, "Annie, give me your arm."