Shattered (Continuation of: The Chase) ▹ Ashton Irwin

Chapter Eighteen

Friday rolled around too quickly for me. It felt like it was just Monday morning, but it was literally the complete opposite. Don't get me wrong, I hate school and I'm glad I'm one week closer to summer, but for some reason I just felt uneasy for this day. This week has been...weird, if I could say so. What with Leila being nice to me out of nowhere, Jessie staring at me all the time, Michael acting really odd for no reason, and my two little arguments with Ashton... it all made me really nervous. It made me have a really sickly feeling in my stomach, and I'm just happy that it's almost over.

But what Leila had told me on Monday still creeped me out. She said she wanted me to like, hang out with her tonight, but how the hell could I do that? I can't, that's the answer. How would I, when literally everyone I love hates her? And as much as I want to say I hate her guts with a passion, it would be bitchy of me since she's always been generally sweet to me. Which also creeps me out, because she knows who I hang out with and who my boyfriend is. And I'm pretty sure she hates them all as much as they hate her; especially Ashton.

The final bell of the day rang, and I was relieved and also tense at the same time. I really hoped Leila doesn't text me or anything, because there's no way I'm gonna be the first one to do it. She scares me, to be honest.

I watched as the class full of Friday-pumped students got up and started packing up their bags to leave. I instantly looked over to Ashton, who was looking back at me with a his lips curled in a smile. I shot him a look as if to say 'what are we gonna do tonight?' and he shot me one back that said 'Who knows?' with a little shrug. His eyes darted to the side of me for a breif second, and he looked back in my direction with a sudden expression of uneasiness. I furrowed my eyebrows at him, but looked over to my side to see Jessie staring at Ashton, before looking straight back down to all the stuff she was packing up. She had a lonely look on her stupid face, and I wanted to laugh.

As she got up, her eyes darted over to me. "What?" she snapped.

"What?" I mimicked. Jessie rolled her blue eyes, and walked away and towards the door. I rolled my eyes as well, and looked over to Ashton with a sigh. He laughed, and got up at the same time as me.

"What's her deal?" I asked as we exited the classroom and out to the courtyard.

"No fuckin clue," he laughed. "But I'm scared."

"Scared of Jessie?" I said, amused.

"Those eyes are like ice jabbing into my soul." Ashton joked, draping his arm over my shoulder. We walked out to find the usual group of people, and I looked up at Ashton as we did so. He wore a red bandana to push his brown hair up, and he looked fucking perfect. I let my eyes travel down his body as we walked in silence, and my attention was brought back to his face when I heard him chuckle.

"You checking me out?" He asked.

"Little bit." I shrugged with a laugh.

"It's okay," Ashton said. "I stared at you the whole 6th period so shhh."

His words made an idiotic smile slide onto my face, and I looked down so he couldn't see that I was probably blushing. I stare at him during that class a lot too. I was about to say the same, but I stopped when I felt my phone vibrate in my back pocket. I took it into my hands, and all at once my heart skipped a beat and sank. Of course, I had a message from Leila.

"You still up for tonight?" it said. I thought about how I should answer, but I didn't know what to say. Do I say I'm busy? Do I say that I just really don't want to hang out with her? I'm still so confused on why she asked me; I think she's fucking with me. I looked up at Ashton again, and I decided on asking him if we were going to do someting tonight. If he says yes, then I'll be off the hook with this whole Leila thing. If not, I don't know.