Australia - An Ashton Irwin fanfic

Chapter 27

"What the hell is your problem!?" I yelled, too loud for the comfort of my head but I was pissed. "You think you can just waltz right in and..and take a photo of Luke and me and sent it to Ashton just to make him pissed at me? You have fucking issues and I'm tired of them."

"I have issues?" She said, taking a step towards me. "You're the one that can't chose which boy you want to be with. The cute, lovesick guitarist or the sexy, possessive drummer?"

"First of all, Ashton is not possessive. I can understand why he feels so cautious when I'm with Luke. But why do you and him think I have some sort of hidden feelings for Luke!" I shouted, throwing my hands in the air. "Get it through both of your heads that Luke and I are just fucking friends!" I rarely ever said fuck out loud, only in my thoughts but I didn't know how else to show how pissed I was. "Right Luke? Tell her there's no bond tying us together." I turned to him and gave him a hopeful look.

He looked like he struggled forming the words to roll off his tongue but they slipped their way through. "Jules and I just friends so stop whatever game you're trying to make us play. Also, you seem to forget that you didn't even show up last night to go to bed. Where were you? With Caleb?" The tone in Luke's voice was kind of scary, it even scared me a little bit.

Charlie's face stayed pissed, but her skin paled. "That's none of your concern."

"Well neither was taking a picture of me and her," Luke nodded his head at me. "and neither was sending it to Ash. I could easily turn you in to the chaperones."

"You're one to talk. Why were you in here?" She crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow.

"I was sick and asked him to help me," I said, feeling no reason to mention that I was suffering my first hangover.

She rolled her eyes. "This isn't over," she snapped and walked out of the room, probably back to Caleb's.

As soon as she left, I pulled my phone out to call Ashton but I froze.

"What if he believes her and not me?" I hopelessly asked, Luke who was not sitting on the edge of the tub with his head in his hands.

His bright sapphire eyes looked up at me. As I studied them, they looked almost...sad? "He'd be stupid to believe her over you. Just try, Jules."

I bit my lip and called him.

"Hello?" his voice, barely audible. It scared me how quiet he was.

"Ashton...did you..." I paused to squeeze my eyes to keep tears from falling. Taking a deep breath, I reopened them and started over. "Did you get Charlie's text?" I managed to squeak out.

"Yeah," he said, still quiet.

"Ash, please let me--" I said but was interrupted.

"No, I get it Juliette. You choose him."

"No, that's the thing; you don't get it!" I said, starting to panic. This was why I never did stuff like this over the phone because they could hang up and it would serioulsy just be all over within a second. "Last night after I...well you know,"

"You got drunk," he finished for me.

"Yeah," I whispered. "After that, I went to bed probably right after I called you. I woke up and threw up and Luke was there to help. My stomach and head still hurt like hell but in the picture, he was just trying to make me feel better." I babbled.

"Why was he there in the first place?" He asked, his voice unsteady like he was trying to keep from shouting.

"Be..because I asked him to stay," I closed my eyes. This was going nowhere. "I was drunk and Charlie wasn't even in the room and I didn't want to be left alone."

"Juliette, I would have stayed up all damn night on the phone to talk to you so you wouldn't feel alone." The thought of that made me smile but who knows what I would have said in my drunken state. Probably bring up him lying or something else I wouldn't have wanted to discuss on the phone, this conversation included. "Did..did you sleep with him?" He said after the pause. His voice cracked from the pain I was causing him. I remembered Luke saying Ashton never released his anger, that he would just display hurt and sorrow to any situation of this sort. I could already see his hurt, sullen face; the one that I've caused one too many times.

"Ashton, you know I wouldn't do that," I said, trying to imply the fact that even him and I haven't even slept with one another.

"People do crazy stuff when they're drunk, Juliette."

"I know but he was sober. He didn't even have a full bottle but even if he did he wouldn't dare to try. Your friendship means too much to him." I paced back and forth on the cold bathroom tiles.

"It didn't stop him before."

"I know what happened with Casey hurt you."

"How do you know about that?" He said, the surprise clear in his voice.

"Luke told me. Don't be mad at him, I made him tell me okay? But I just want you to know that I would never choose Luke over you. I would never make the same stupid mistake Casey did because I love you, Ashton. I love you so much, words can't even comprehend how much I do."

I heard him sigh a sigh of relief, which had me do the same.

"I have to go and get ready for wherever we're going today but I just wanted to explain myself. I didn't want you do think I was hiding anything from you."

"I know," he said.

"I'll talk to you later," I said, unsure if he was still upset.

"Forever?" The way he said it made my heart get stuck in my throat. He sounded so sad and weak in a way. Could one picture like that hurt him so badly?

"Forever." I hung up quickly before I bawled my eyes out.

"How did it go?" Luke asked standing in front of me, the only comfort being exerted was his hand rubbing my scapula.

"I can tell he's hurt," I sniffled. It was weird, but in a way I wanted Luke to hug me close and tell me everything was going to be alright. He was always good at comforting me but I could tell he wanted to keep his distrance so avoid another dramatic situation.

"Did he believe you at least?"

"I think he did...I'm not sure. He sounded so broken...even after I explained myself and told him I loved him, I could tell he was scared. That there was still that doubt in his mind that I was going to choose you."

Luke's eyes lowered to the ground. "I think I'm going to go back to my room. You know, to get ready to leave."

"Yeah," I nodded and followed him out of the bathroom. "Thank you," I said as he put his hand on the door handle. His body stilled and he turned to me. "for staying here and helping me deal with Charlie," I whispered.

"You're welcome, Jules." And with that, he was gone.


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Nothing really happened that day. We ventured out in Perth and got a head start on our way back to Sydney later that night, planning to arrive within twenty four hours.

Luke decided to alternate back and forth between sitting next to Michael and Calum. If I was smart, I would say it almost seemed like Luke was avoiding me. I didn't mind sitting with Calum and Michael though. They easily made the bus rides fun and go by really really quick but Luke and I weirdly had more to talk about even though I knew him the same time period as the others.