The Chase ▹ Ashton Irwin

CHAPTER SIXTY FOUR

"Brooke," my mother's voice said from outside my door that monday morning. "Hurry up so you're not late." I sighed, and brushed my hair out, throwing on a random outfit and brushing my teeth.

My mother was not the same as she was a couple days ago, unfortunately. She's much more timid, and awkward to be around, and its obvious to everyone thats around her. Ever since saturday night, I've been too scared to really talk to either of my parents, and I spent all day yesterday in my room getting my homework done. Memories of the fury in my father's eyes and fear in my mother's when I had come down stairs to see them fighting at 11:00 at night never seemed to leave my mind. I know I'm probably making a bigger deal out of this than I should be, but maybe Ashton's right: maybe I'm just anxious. Maybe I should ask him for advice, beacause he definitely knows way more about this stuff than I do.

I was dreading 5th and 6th period today, for obvious reasons. I didn't know how I was going to manage being stuck in a classroom with Nick for an hour, and then another hour sitting next to Jessie right after. After last friday, I've been fearing this day, even though I know niether of them are really after me at this point. They both made me sick, and I didn't want to even look at them ever again. But, I'm gonna have to, and so is Ashton. I felt bad, because I could already guess what Ashton's going to be like when I see him in a few minutes at school: tired, worried, and scared. He has no reason to be either of those things, because he did nothing wrong. I hoped and prayed that he would be his usual self: chirpy, and happy. But, I really couldn't give you an accurate guess.

I grabbed my bag off of my desk chair, and stuffed my phone into my pocket as I walked down stairs. I guess my dad went into work early this morning, because the house seemed peaceful, even though I knew it was the complete opposite. I shook the worry out of my system, and walked out to my mom's car to get a ride to school. Wow, I really wish I had my own car at this point; I hate having to get rides from my mom and get rides from my boyfriend who could barely pay for the gas his old truck takes up. I waited in silence, debating whether I should I text Ashton or not. I hope he was awake, and not over sleeping again.

Relief flooded over me as my phone vibated, and it was Ashton.

"My morning text is a little late, but gooooood morning! :)" he said. A smile spread across my face, and my muscles relaxed as i sat back against the seat. My mother walked out, and climbed into the driver's seat beside me.

"Does a late morning text mean you're going to be late for school again?" I texted back. The car fell to an awkward silence, and I didn't know if I should say something or just keep my mouth shut. Maybe I'll just keep my mouth shut this time.

"Nooo I'm here! I was just charging my phone in the library, because it was dead" he replied. I smiled to myself again, because I read all these texts in his voice, and it was really cute.

"Have a good day." My mother said quietly as we pulled up to Palo Verde. I looked back to her, and nodded, a small smile on my face. I turned my back to her, and began walking towards the enterance of the school as I heard her car speed off. As I came into the courtyard, I looked around to the tree to see Calum and Natalie, but Ashton wasn't there.

"Library?" I guessed as I walked up to them. Natalie looked up from her phone and nodded. "Okay, I'll be back!" I waved to them. I turned towards the library, keeping my head down incase I was to run into Jessie or Nick. Again, more nervousness bubbled inside of me for 5th and 6th period that I'm gonna have to go to later in the day. I shook off those thoughts as I walked into the library and looked around.

There were a lot of people in the library, sitting at tables or computers, trying to get their homework done 10 mnutes before school starts. My eyes wanered to an empt corner to see Ashton sitting alone with his back to the wall, his phone charging the outlet next to him and his eyebrows furrowed as his eyes raced across the pages of some book. I smiled to myself, and I walked up to him. I tapped his foot to mine, and he looked up for only a couple seconds.

"Hey babe." He muttered. I looked at him, confused, but sat down next to him.

"Anything wrong?" I asked.

"Yes!" He said. "Everything's wrong! Why does Sam get so pissed that Charlie kissed her?"

I looked at the cover of the book he was reading, and saw it to be "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" One of my favorites, actually.

"I mean, c'mon," I replied. "He's dating Mary Elizabeth and he just kissed another girl in front of her. Don't you think that's a little sketchy?"

"I guess so," Ashton said. He sighed, and stuffed the book into hs back pack. "But Sam is very stupid because she doesn't see how much Charlie cares about her."

I was about to say that Charlie's in love with her, but something in my mind told me not too. I wasn't sure why.

"You're very cute," I said, running my hand through his hair as he looked over to me. "When you get obsessive over books." I kissed his lips softly, and groaned when the bell rang. Ashton got up and helped me to my feet, unplugging his phone and putting it in his back pocket.

"I'm skipping 6th period." Ashton said, wrapping his hand around mine.

"What?!" I said, looking up at him. "You can't leave me in there with Satan's long lost sister!"

Ashton cracked up at my words, but I was still very alarmed. There's no way I'm gonna sit in that classroom next to her without Ashton. "Ashton I'm serious!" I pleaded.

"You didn't let me finish!" He said back. We walked up to our art room, and I reluctantly let go of his hand to sit down across from him. "You're ditching with me."

"Ditch?" I asked, startled. I watched as Ashton threw his backpack onto the counter and opened it, taking out his tore up sketch book and his old charcoal pencils. "I couldn't do that."

"Why not? It's easy." Ashton replied, his voice soft. My heart sank as the bell rang, and I gave him one more look, as if to say "we'll continue this later", and gave my attention to Miss Hullen.

...

"I've got a lot of work and grading to get through this morning," Miss Hullen said. "So, uh, just do whatever to keep you guys occupied for the next hour."

There was a chorus of relieved sighs throughout the room, and instantly the talking volume picked up. I had no idea what to do, because there was no homework to be done, and I didn't feel like drawing anything. I forgot my pencils, anyways. And I also didn't want to borrow Ashton's because his looked like they were about to become too short to function, they were so old. I looked over to him as he instantly flipped to an empty page, and took one pencil in his hands, his eyes full of focus. He looked back up at me as his hand glided along the paper, a cheeky smile on his face.

"Like I was saying," he said. "Its easy to ditch!"

"Yeah but, I can't miss English," I said. "I'm not smart enough to catch up...like you."

"Hey now," Ashton said. "I'll get you caught up! Because at this point, its either you and me stuck in a room with 'Satan's long lost sister', or you and me missing a boring as fuck class to go get milkshakes."

"You and me?"

"Exactly!" Ashton smiled. His dimples popped up on his cheeks, and he looked down at his paper. I wasn't quite sure what he was drawing, but it was mezmorising to see his hand glide along the crisp white sheet, making some small and some big strokes of lead across it.

"Alright fine," I finally agreed. I pursed my lips and got out my phone to just do random shit on. "What are you drawing babe?"

"It's a surprise," Ashton replied. "So no peeking."

I nodded and laughed, and kept my eyes away from his hands for the rest of the class. By the time there was only 10 minutes left, I heard a heavy breathe from across the table.

"Finished." Ashton said. I looked over to him as he tore the page out, and slid it over to me. My eyes widened in pure amazement at what Ashton had done in one simple hour. It was a picture of two hands, clapsed together, as if they were both made to fit in one another. It looked like a legit black and white photograph, as all his stuff does. It was simply two hands holding each other, yet it looked so merely intamite. I tilted my head to the side, and I looked up to him in realization.

"Is this us?" I asked. Ashton nodded, and pointed to the smaller hand. "I even remembered that little freckle on the side of your index finger."

I glanced down at my hands and realized for the first time that there is actually a small freckle on the side of my index finger. "I didn't even know I had that." I laughed.

"Wow, I guess I stare at you way more than I should, huh?" Ashton said. I looked up at him, and he just smiled at me. I looked back down at his drawing. It really was beautful, I loved it.

"Can I keep it?" I asked. A proud look glimmered in Ashton's eyes, and he nodded.

"Well, I gotta sign it first," He joked. "It's an artist thing."

"Ooooh, right." I played along. I watched as Ashton titled his head to the side, his hand spazzing over the picture and a really nice signature becoming the result.

"Think of all the phone cases that signature will be on," I said as I neatly placed it in my bag. "When you meet your fans."

Ashton rolled his eyes and laughed as the bell rang. I got up, slung my bag over my shoulder, and took Ashton's hand in mine. More nervousness bubbled into my system at the thought that my cass with Nick was just after lunch.

"Hey, Ashton?" I said as we came to his 2nd period classroom.

"Yeah Babe?" he replied. I know I really shouldn't say this, but I didn't care.

"Can we skip 5th too?"

Ashton looked at me with a smile. "Course!" He replied. "I mean, I've got nothing to loose, why not?"

"Thank you." I said, leaning into him, wrapping my arms around his torso as he did the same to me. With a light kiss on his soft lips, I walked across the courtyard to my next period. I know I really shouldn't skip class like this, but Ashton's right. If its as easy as he says it is, then I could do it if I tried.

...

The lunch bell rang, and I looked over to Ashton, my eyebrows raised. "Now what?" I asked.

"We leave!" He said happily, wrapping his fingers around mine.

"You guys are ditching?" Calum asked, slinging his packback over his shoulder.

"Yeah," Ashton nodded. "Anyone wanna come?"

"I've got important shit in my next class." Michael sighed.

"Ya'll are just too bad ass for me," Natalie laughed. "Don't get caught."

"You act like you just met me," Ashton chuckled. He looked over to me, and smiled. "Lets go."

I said bye to everyone, and kept my hand in Ashton's as we made our way to the back enterance of the school. I gulped, because I knew Jessie's 5th period was over here. Ashton's grip on my hand grew tighter in one second, and I looked over to the left of us to see Nick, Jessie, and a bunch of football players surrounding her. Her face had a sassy smirk on it as she talked to all of them, and I drew my eyes away from her as she glanced over to us. I kept my eyes on the ground, and I think Ashton was too.

We got to the staircase that leads to the back parking lot, and I couldn't help but look around, incase anyone was watching us. I whipped my head from left to right, and Ashton just laughed.

"Don't you laugh at me." I said.

"You act like you just met me too!" He chuckled. "I don't get caught. Never have, never will."

I couldn't argue with that. "Do you think, with everything you've done, if you were to get caught, you would be in Juvy or whatever?" I asked out of curiousity.

"Oh definitely." Ashton replied, we both laughed.

"Just be careful." I said, kissing him on the cheek before climbing into his car.

...

"Wait, I got this," Ashton said as the waitress came up to us. "One banana milkshake and one chocolate milkshake."

"Wow Ashton you know me so well," I joked as the waitress wrote it down and walked away. "You've cracked my code."

"Oh please, I know everything about Brooke Anderson." Ashton played along.

"I actually think you do know everything." I laughed.

"Really? There isn't one thing about you that you've never told me before?" He asked. I pursed my lips and shook my head no.

"C'mon," Ashton laughed. "There has to be one thing. Just one."

"Hmmmmm..." I thought. There isn't really anything important about me that I haven't told him. "I don't like pickles?"

Ashton instantly started laughing, his eyes squinting and hss dimples popping up on his cheeks. "Thank you for that touching story," He joked. "I don't like pickles either."

"Now I feel like we've known eachother for ages." I said.

"It does feel like that, doesn't it?" he smiled.

...

By the time we were done fooling around the city for 2 hours, school had ended and we had made it back to my house to study. My mom wasn't home yet, so it was just Ashton and I on my bed, textbooks spread out around us.

"45...?" Ashton said to break the silence.

"Exactly!" I replied, looking at his work.

"Fuck yes." Ashton said proudly.

"See?" I asked, kissing his cheek. "It's easy."

"Now I am done," Ashton laughed, pushing his textbook off the bed. "Time for a victory cuddle."

Before I could say anything, his arms wrapped around my waist, and I let out a little screech as he pulled me onto his lap, laying his back onto the matress with me on top of him. I laughed, and slowly brought my lips to his, running my hands through his soft brown hair. My lips curled into a smile as he playfull bit my bottom lip, and I opened my eyes to look into his. God I loved his beautiful eyes.

"Hi there." He laughed quietly, running his hands from my upper back to my lower back, rubbing little circles on it. I nuzzled into his neck in comfort, breathing in his scent through my nostrils and into my lungs. I opened my eyes back up as I felt his legs shift under mine, and our fingers being intertwined with another.

"Its quite interesting, the whole holding hands thing." He said. I looked up at him to see him examining our hands that were tightly clapsed together. "I mean look how different our hands are. Yours are so tiny compared to mine, and I think thats adorable."

"They're two different hands that belong to completely different people-"

"Yet they fit together perfectly." Ashton finished my sentence for me. My eyes met his, and I smiled.

"I guess we're no different after all." I said, pressing another soft kiss to his collar bones.

...

*Jessie's POV*

"Are you sure this is safe?" I asked Nick. It was about 5:30 pm, and I had lied to my mom and told her that I was getting extra help with something after school. Luckily for us, all the staff stays here unitl about 6:00. I looked around the parking lot, but there were no other people around us.

"Of course it's safe," Nick replied, his eyes darting around as well. "I think this is it."

We walked up to a brand new, white Audi parked near the back of the parking lot. I recognized it as the car Mr. Vallen drives to school every morning. It was a really nice car, I must say.

"Yeah I think you're right." I agreed. I looked over to him, my eyebrows raised. "Did you get the hammer from your house?"

"Course I did." Nick smirked. I laughed and turned back to the car, and watched as Nick made the first blow to the wind shield, glass flying everywhere with one huge bang.