Nicotine | Ashton Irwin ✔

2.2

The first thing Ara did when Liam left was pace back and forth for an hour. Teddy watched as she went back and forth, running her hands through her hair nervously. She was hyperventilating, and crying all at once.

Teddy gripped her shoulders, stopping her movement. "Ara you need to breath." He ordered. She choked out a sob, falling into his chest. "Shh," he said, rubbing her back.

"What if something bad has happened to him!" She cried. "I-"

"Ara, listen to me. If he's anything like you, he's not going down without a fight."

"What do we do?" She asked.

"We should probably call his friends." Teddy said.

"I don't know what their numbers are!" She exclaimed with a bit of anger.

"What about Sam? She's lived here longer than us."

"I'll try." Ara replied. She grabbed her phone from off the counter and dialed up Sam. It rang four times before Sam answer.

"Hello?" Someone mumbled

"Sam?"

"Ara? Why are you calling at- 12:00 a.m."

"I need to know if you have either Michael, Calum or Luke's number." Ara said.

"Why?"

"Something is wrong with Ashton and nobody will tell me anything."

"Uh, let me check. If I have one of their numbers, I'll have them call you, yeah?"

"Okay, thank you." She hung up, and sighed.

"Now we wait." Teddy sighed.

Fortunately for them they didn't have to wait long, because Ara's phone rang five minutes later with an unknown number.

"Hello?" She said.

"Yeah, Ara?"

"Michael?"

"Yeah? I got a phone call from your friend Sam, saying you had a problem."

"It's more of an Ashton problem." She replied, running a hand through her hair again.

"What's wrong with Ashton?"

"He c-called me, and he was scared. James had a gun and he went after him because he was shooting at his mother but then there was a gunshot and the line went dead. My dad's there now, he's a cop. But no one will tell me anything." She cried.

"Why did he call you instead of one of us?" Michael asked, anger slightly evident.

"I don't know. H-He seemed surprised when I answered which makes me think that he called the first number he saw." She said. There was a long pause of silent.

"Jesus." Michael breathed out. "Where are you? Are you with him?" He asked suddenly.

"No, I'm at my place. I wanted to go see if Ashton was okay, but I didn't want to be there at the same time. I didn't know what else to do but update you guys." Ara sighed.

"I'll call Calum and Luke." Michael said.

"Okay."