savior

forty five

DAY TWENTY NINE; TWO DAYS TO GO

Early in the morning, right after I woke up, I got out of bed, slipped on some shoes, threw a jacket over my head, and took a trip to Ashton's apartment. It took four knocks until the door was opened, and the one to open it was little Harry. In one of his hands was a fruit flavored popsicle, and in the other was a milk jug, in which he drank straight from the opening. "'Sup?" he asked, laughing a little bit.

I didn't know why he was acting the way he was, because Ashton never let them have treats before breakfast. Plus, he usually had better manners than he was expressing then.

"Where's Ashton?" I questioned, taking a peek inside of the apartment. Harry threw open the rest of the door, inviting me in. I could hear Lauren in her room, talking loudly to someone on the phone.

Harry took another popsicle from the freezer. That's when I took a long look around the apartment. Near the bathroom door, on the floor, was a trail of toilet paper leading to Harry's bedroom on the other side of the hall. On the kitchen counter was a giant pile of spilled cereal, next to an empty bowl. Milk was dripping from the counter also. The place was atrocious.

I made my way over to Ashton's bedroom and opened the door, hoping to see that he was there, probably sleeping. But once again, he was nowhere to be found. "Harry, where's Ashton?" I repeated, stepping out of his room into the hallway. Harry just shrugged.

"He left. He said he'd be right back, but he didn't say where he was going," Harry answered, shoving a cookie from the pantry into his mouth. "It's okay, though. Ashton leaves us alone here all the time."

Suddenly I started to panic, because if they didn't know where he was, I probably wouldn't have found him either. And it was getting so close to the end of the month, when the incident could happen, and he could do it whenever if he really wanted to.

Ashton had avoided all contact with me for the past few days, and I had no idea how he felt about me not being around. It sucked knowing that he didn't want anything to do with me anymore. I know we didn't date for long, but we were good friends for a while, and he just dropped everything. It hurt my feelings, to be honest, but I guess I deserved it for hurting his even worse. I wish I could make him happy again.

Lauren came out of her room, and smiled at me when she saw me. Then she wrapped her arms around me and embraced me in a hug. I rubbed on her back. She let me go.

"I'm glad you're here," she said to me. "Ashton has been moping non-stop in his room. And he's been so strict. We're not allowed to go anywhere, unless it's school. I don't think he realizes that we have friends, too."

Harry plopped down on the couch, raising the popsicle over his head. "Yeah! And we're not allowed to go in his room anymore to hang out with him." He crossed his arms over his chest, resulting in the popsicle getting on his arms. In attempt to get it off, he maneuvered his arm in a way that made it possible for him to lick it off. I almost laughed.

Everything they were telling me didn't make sense, because whenever I came over, Ashton was always letting his siblings come in and out of his room. And one time, Lauren wanted to hang out with her friend, Marissa, and Ashton just told her what time to be home. It did seem a little unfair to them.

I hung out with Harry and Lauren for a few hours, helping them clean up the apartment so they wouldn't get in trouble when Ashton came home. Around noon, I was going to leave and head over to my own apartment to get something to eat and clean myself up a little. But I changed my mind when I heard the knob of the front door twisting. Harry and Lauren stood up from the floor, where we were cleaning up a milk puddle, but I stayed put in my spot.