Strawberries and Cigarettes (A Calum Hood AU)

1. Youth

"What if, What if we start to drive?
What if, What if we close our eyes?
What if, We're speeding through red lights into paradise" -Troye Sivan (Youth)

My family has always been super close to the Irwin's. It all started out when his great grandma became best friends with mine. They were inseparable since they were fourteen years old. When they both grew up and got married they were each other's bridesmaids. They vowed to never let their friendship die.

They ended up moving in next door to each other. The houses share a backyard with a giant cherry tree exactly in the middle. Their kids, who were Ashton and I's grandparents, treated each other like siblings.

The tradition carried on. Our Grandparents took over the houses next door to each other. Ashton's mom, Anne, is only a few years older than mine. They did everything like their family before them; however, things changed when my mom married my dad.

They were both pretty young when they got married at the age of twenty-one. They were high school sweethearts. They thought they were meant to be together, so whenever my dad had a better job offer in America, my mom felt as if she had no choice other than leaving with the love of her life.

Although they were on opposite sides of the world, Anne and my mother still made their friendship work. They would save up all year just to fly to see each other every summer. When Anne had Ashton, my mom naturally became his godmother.

Ashton and I have been friends since birth, Literally. He was only a tiny baby when Anne flew him to America to celebrate with my mother, so he doesn't remember, but according to our parents, we got along right from the start.

We would take turns every summer, either us flying to Australia, or them flying to America. Even when Lauren and Harry were born, Anne promised my mom she could be their godmother as well.

We spent way too much money on plane tickets up for a long while. My dad and mom got a divorce when I turned twelve. It wasn't anything too serious. There was no cheating or abuse or anything like that, they just simply didn't belong together. They would argue almost every day over the most ridiculous things.

After six months of living at her friend's house, I finally convinced my mother to move to Australia. We both knew that's where she really belongs. Of course, she wasn't going to leave without me.

So ever since then Ashton and I have spent all of our free time sitting by the old cherry tree until midnight. We've been grounded multiple times because Ashton always ends up getting caught when sneaking some of Anne's wine. Even though he gets me in trouble, he is more than my best friend: he's my brother.

From breakups to bringing each other home while being way too wasted, we always have each other's backs.

And that brings us to where we are today: Sitting at our local bakery working the same shift together.

"How much longer is this shift?" Ashton asked me while wiping down the tables.

Our main manager usually left us alone after we got out of school. We've been working here since my fifteenth birthday, so it's been a little over two years now. We both have keys to close down the store at five on our scheduled days.

I pull out my phone to check the time before giving the curly-haired boy an answer. "Four-fifty, thank goodness." I make my way over to the fruit-bar and grab the leftovers. Ashton and I always ended up snacking on whatever was left around this time of the day.

"Anything interesting happen at school today?" Ashton asked me while I sat the bowl down on our favorite table before taking a seat.

"Ash, you have me in two classes. If anything happened to me, you would know by now." Ashton was a year ahead of me, but we are able to take some of the same electives. We finally agreed on two: Photography and art. We had the option of taking another together, but couldn't agree on a final one. He is in music history while I chose journalism. I guess we can't do everything together.