The Drummer || a.i [completed]

60 - last night we fell apart

and broke to pieces,
our love was in the hall,
all packed in boxes

"You know you're beautiful, don't you?" His eyes were shining, but they'd lost the gleam that they used to have.

I held eye contact for a moment before turning away and heading to my next lesson. What was it I had now? English? Oh great, I could take refuge from my boyfriend with Calum and Cassidy.

"Because you really are," he said. He was determined to get me to take notice of him.

"Look, Ash, if you feel bad about what happened on Sunday, you can forget about it. I don't mind taking care of you. You're my boyfriend, it's what I'm here for," I assured him, stopping and turning around to face him dead on.

He smiled and shook his head. "Can't I tell my girlfriend that she's beautiful without her thinking there's an ulterior motive behind it?"

I carried on walking and said over my shoulder to him, "there are a lot of beautiful people in the world, Ashton."

I hurried into the English classroom and sat down. Two days since Ashton showed up intoxicated at my house and he was acting like we were the perfect couple. It confused me half to death.

"Hey Cal," I greeted my best friend when he looked over at me.

His eyes still showed me sympathy. It was as if I was a china plate with a chip on the side; people still used it, but only if all the other dishes were already gone.

"Hi, Tavie. How are you?" he asked, smiling softly.

I shrugged. "I'm okay."

"Want to hang out after school?"

My forced smile grew in to a wide, genuine grin. I hadn't hung out with Calum for so long. It hadn't been just me and him, and I needed that now.

This is why I was proud to call him my best friend.

"That would be great, Cal," I replied with an enthusiastic nod.

The teacher walked in and we began our English lesson of the day.

My mind was able to ignore the nagging problem of Ashton and focus on Hamlet for an hour and twenty minutes, and I was grateful for that. Recently, school had been an escape instead of prison... how messed up was that?

As I walked out of the classroom, I ducked my head so I could hide behind curtains of red hair, but I still couldn't escape him and his doll-face smiles.

"Hey, Tave," he said, and I was blinded for a second by shining white teeth.

"Hi, Ashton. You okay?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I was just going to walk you to your next lesson."

"Alright," I replied, smiling a little.

We walked hand in hand, silently, through the halls. He squeezed my hand once, and I looked up at him quickly. But his eyes stayed firmly in front of him, guiding us through busy hallways to the door of my class.

I noticed him tense for a second as we approached my classroom and I followed his line of sight to a brown-haired girl watching us from her locker. She wore a tight, red-lipped smile and her eyes raked up and down Ash's body.

For some reason, I'd imagined that he would have enjoyed that kind of gawking. Maybe he would have a few months ago, but now, with all that's happened, he just stared at her emotionlessly, his hand clinging to mine.

I guessed that this girl was one that he'd been seeing, but I just ignored it. We stopped outside the door and I kissed him on the cheek, which made surprised hazel eyes turn to meet mine.