status :: 5SOS

four

Ashton wasn't really surprised, honestly.

It was late. It to be expected, someone eventually coming in to attempt to steal something. Ashton was surprised it only happened once that day—most of the time he'd at least encounter three in a night alone. If anything, his constant need to stop them from leaving without purchasing an item was starting to bore him. Of course, he understood the struggles of having very little money, but rules where rules, and he couldn't bend them in favor of those who seemed to be struggling a bit more than everyone was, no matter how much his moral compass was begging him to.

Ashton decided to close the shop early that night. Due to his exhaustion from sitting around all day and hardly sleeping the previous night, he was pretty sure he'd fall asleep against the register if he didn't get rest soon enough. It only took a few minutes to shut off the lights and manually lock the front doors. He attempted to open the doors after locking like he always did, just to make sure it was locked tight. After letting out a sigh all while silently thanking God the day was over, he started off towards his house. It was chilly outside—but then again, it was night, so the gentle breeze sweeping through the air was expected.

At home, it was just him and his mother. For any other person, they'd most likely imagine that being home with just your mother would be lonely and boring, but quite frankly, Ashton enjoyed it. It was quiet and calm, and he and his mother would only get into small fights about the stupidest of things before making up afterwards, being all the other had. To add on to that, he also had a decent house—decent as in better than most. It wasn't exactly his, though, or his mother's. Before they managed to settle down there, it had actually belonged to an old relative beforehand who moved and already paid the place off.

For what seemed like hours but in reality was only minutes, he finally arrived at his front doorstep. Ashton turned the door knob and entered the house, he could hear his mother in the kitchen singing along to an old Beatles song playing on an even older record player. The music automatically relaxed him. He almost thought that his mother put it on purposefully, knowing that he would be coming in soon and it would soothe him.

His admiration for music began at an early age. He was always surrounded by melodies, to the point where he began banging on things to create rhythms of his own as a small child. It would prove to get him in trouble a few times, but it was easy to tell that he loved it. Everyone thought he had a future in the industry, but where he grew up was the most inconvenient place to have aspirations that large.

"Mom, I'm home," he called out, placing his coat on the rack and taking his shoes off. Ashton walked towards the kitchen, their house wasn't small but it wasn't overly large either. It was perfect for just two people.

"How was work?" His mom asked. She could notice the drained expression on her son's face almost straight away. "Did anyone try and steal today?"

"There was this one kid tried to take a packet of potato chips," Ashton informed, every night as he came home from work it was always the same question. He didn't mind his mother asking though, she had a right to be concerned as running a store in North Hollendale was a nightmare from the very beginning.

"Only one?"

"Only one," he repeated his mother's previous words. He was too tired to even think about answering the next question, but he knew that in order to keep his mother happy he had to keep the conversation alive.

"Do you remember what he looked like?"

"No. Sorry, Mom," Ashton lied. He remember perfectly what the boy looked like. He couldn't get his forest green eyes out of his head—he wasn't attracted to boy in any way Ashton just liked the colour of his eyes, that's all. It was almost like something in his brain was forcing him to remember them, like they'd appear again later. He shook the thought and thankfully his mom didn't push the subject any further. Maybe Ashton's little lie worked after all.