Hopelessly Devoted

Chapter 26

Chapter 26
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        The first part of the school day flew by. Lunch was lighthearted. Biology was uneventful. When the final bell of the day rung, I waited outside the classroom door for Ashton.

When he walked through the door, he saw me and we started walking out together. I could tell that he was confused as to why I waited for him, so I got to the point.

"Remember that time that you said that you owed me a favor??" I asked hopefully, knowing that it never actually happened- I was just hoping that he would assume that it did.

"Nope.."

"Well you did."

"Nope." He replied. I turned to face him, growing slightly annoyed.

"Well, I need a favor," I said when we were next to his car. He looked up at me expectantly. I couldn't help but notice how good he looked in daylight. His blue eyes still sent shivers throughout my spine whenever I looked into them.

"I want you to teach me how to fight," I said quickly. He broke out into laughter. "What??" I asked.

"Well, in order to learn how to fight, you have to have a tough mindset, and I can't exactly teach you how to have that." He said and calmed down from laughing hysterically. Who did this bitch think he was??

"So I'm not tough??" I asked, stepping around the opposite side of the car. I stood in front of him and raised my fists. He started laughing again. "Fight me."

"W-" he laughed, "what?? I'm not fighting you," he said and turned away. I had no choice. I had to do it. Without thinking, I drove my fist into his bicep.

I'm sure that it hurt me much more than it even tickled him. I tried my hardest not to nurse my throbbing hand. He slowly turned back to me.

I thought he was going to be angry. All I saw on his face, however, was pure amusement. I resisted the urge to slap the obnoxious, stupid, incredibly attractive grin off of his face.

"What was that?" He held back a laugh.

"I punched you. Because I'm tough." I bit back the pain. He chuckled. He should really laugh more. It's honestly the cutest shit ever.

"Man, I guess you need lessons much more than I thought." He smirked. Damn..

"Well I mean, I'm not that bad." I defended.

"At least you got the element of surprise." He said. I suddenly had an incredibly cringey, yet efficient, idea.

"Look there's a bird behind you," I pointed.

"There's not a bird behind me." He said without looking.

"Well unless you grew fucking eyes on the back of your head then you don't actually know that, do you? smart ass," I kept pointing behind him. He rolled his eyes and slowly turned around.

I lunged forward, but before I could get to him he had already turned around and gotten me first. He had grabbed my arm, tucked it behind my back, faced me away from him so that he could hold my arms back, and pushed me against his car so that I couldn't move. Arggghhh...

"Okay, okay! You've made your point!" I growled and he let me go. I glared at him.

"You know, trying to beat me up is a really weird way of asking for a favor." He humored.

"Ugh, please just help me out here," I sighed.

"Why do you want them anyway?" He asked me. Oh shiz.

"Well I am a teenage girl who could use a little self-defense to stay safe- as we've established," I referred to George.

"Fine. Tomorrow after school. I'll drive you to Eli's. They have their own friggin gym in the basement." He said and I smiled in victory. He went to get in his car. "By the way," he turned back around.

"Next time you're asking someone for a favor... it would probably be better not to punch them," he said and sat down in the driver's seat. I chuckled and started walking to my car.

Well tomorrow will be fun...

        When I woke up, I hopped out of bed. Of course, this was 30 minutes after I was supposed to get up... but I still got up- and that rarely happens.

Ashton had offered me a ride to school as well, so that He wouldn't have to drive me back to my car at the school after the lesson.

I threw on a cute, casual outfit and grabbed some shorts and a T-shirt for after school. I stuffed my clothes in a bag and pulled my hair up.

Right when I was about to pour the milk into my cereal, I heard a car pull into my driveway. I grabbed my backpack and walked out the door.

I saw Ashton's black car in my driveway. I bit back a smile as I walked up to it. When I sat down in the passenger seat, I felt a little bit of anxiety bubble in the bottom of my stomach.

I was so use to taking my car to school every day, and it became like therapy in a way... but as soon as I remembered who's car I was in, that feeling instantly went away.

There was no better way to explain it, other than that just the mere presence of Ashton completely lifted all of the sinking pressure off of my heart. No one had ever felt so reviving to be around.

He started to back out of the driveway. His car felt so much smoother than mine, probably because mine was a piece of shit..

School went by extremely fast that day. I met up with Ashton after school in the parking lot and we began to drive to Eli's.

"So are you sure that Eli is okay with us using his house??" I asked Ashton, breaking the comfortable silence.

"Yeah. I asked him yesterday," he replied, not taking his eyes off of the road. I enjoyed the safe feeling that was dwelling in my heart.

I looked at him, then back at the road. I could tell that we were approaching Eli's house.

When we pulled into his driveway, I unbuckled myself and opened my door. The scent of the dry California air filled my senses as we walked to the door.

When Ashton got to the door, I expected him to ring the doorbell. Instead, he took his key chain and slid one of the keys into the door handle.

"He let you use his key??" I asked.

"He gave me one a while back. We basically share houses, considering that he has a frickin mansion that no one is in most of the time." He explained. Wow... best friend goals much??

When I stepped inside, I was flooded with the warming rush that I got whenever I walked into Eli's house. For an enormous house, it was very homey and welcoming.

Ashton led me to the workout room. The room was about 50ft by 50 ft, and contained punching bags, some workout machines, mats on the ground in the middle, a metal bench in the corner, a whole bunch of weights, a treadmill, and many other workout tools and gadgets that I didn't even know existed.

"Jesus.." I mumbled as I looked around.

"I know right," he replied, and started heading over to a door. "This is a bathroom if you want to get changed."

I walked over to the door and opened it, revealing a neatly decorated bathroom. I quickly slipped on my T shirt and short-shorts and headed back out.

Ashton was wearing a T-shirt and sweatpants. His hair, yet again, was messy and put together at the same time.

When I approached him, he turned to face me. I could tell that he wasn't putting up his usual, emotionless barrier. Instead, he looked kind of happy. It was weird, but I didn't ask him about it. The last thing I wanted was for him to block his emotions again.

Let's do this thing..