The Real World |5sos fanfic|

Part 8- Just Us

'We can't thank you enough for coming!' Calum said again. They were finally finished practice and they had started packing up their equipment. 

'It's no problem, honestly,' Gorge said, gleaming. He'd participated all afternoon, giving the boys advice on where they could improve and praising what was already good.'I enjoyed it.'

I just nodded my head. I took my phone out of my pocket to check the time. I had taken an extra shift and was supposed to be in work at 8 tonight. I was already twenty past 7. 

'Oh shit!' I said, standing up as quickly as I could, grabbing my bag, 'I have to get to work! I have to be there at 8'

Gorge looked at me disapprovingly, 'Jess it's a Wednesday, I thought you didn't work today! Don't tell me...'

'Not now!' I snapped, I was angre at myself for not paying more attention to the time. 'When's the next bus?'

'There's one every hour on the house. So in like...' Gorge paused, checking the time on his phone. 'Yeh, 40 minutes.'

'Shit,' I repeated, it would take another half an hour to get the the bar by bus. 'Shit!'

'I'll drive you.' My eyes shot up to look at Ashton, who was still sitting behind his drum kit, swirling one of his sticks in his hands, effortlessly. 

'No,' I stammered, 'It's fine, I'll just, em, I'll...' 

'No Jess, I'll take you there.'  He smiled, causing my heart to beat at a worrying rate.

'Ok,' I hoped the nerves that were causing my knees to shake hadn't transpired to my voice.

*

I sat in the passenger seat of Ashton's car. It wasn't the van that he had been driving the other day to transport the band. It was a small, red car that wasn't old or new.  There was an overpowering air-freshener hanging from the rear view mirror; lavender.

'My mum's,' he said, he obviously had noticed I was looking at it, examining every inch of it. I wasn't interested in the car at all. I was interested in calming myself down and distracting myself  by looking at the interior of this ordinary car.

'It's nice,' I said. Lame.

He just chuckled as he backed out of the driveway. He put his arm on the back of my seat as he turned his body to look out the back window. His fingers brushed my covered sholders. It still sent a tingle through my whole body.

My empty stare remained on the road in front of us as we drove on. I didn't trust myself to look anywhere else because I knew deep down my eyes would end up on the boy sitting beside me. The most handsome person I'd ever seen.

My palms were damp with sweat and my head was dizzy. This was the perfect chance to talk to Ashton. He was right here beside me. I had thought about this moment so much over the past week. I wanted to know about his life, who he was. I just couldn't bring myself to ask him anything.

He didn't seem to mind the silence. I was aching for him to be the brave one, to say something. Anything.

He didn't. Instead he turned on the radio.

Sports news was on. Great.

'You like sport?' he asked, not taking his eyes off the road as we approached a set of red lights.

'Hm? Sorry what?' his question caught me off guard, I had drifted into a daydream.

He stopped the car and looked over at me. His black glasses framed his hazel eyes perfectly.

'Sport... do you like it?' he laughed, his dimples were back. 

'Oh, no not really, well a little bit but not a lot, it depends on the sport,' I rambled on, looking is his direction but not directly at him. 'I used to do basketball.'

'Really?' he said, he seemed interested which surprised me. 'Why did you stop?' His focus was back on the road ahead which made me relax a little.

'I just didn't have time,' I said, playing the the spare hair tie I had on my wrist. 'With school and work and... you know.' I didn't want to weigh him down with details.

'Fair enough, fair enough,' Ashton said, turning a cornor smoothly. 'The boys dropped out of college to focus on our music.'

'Seriously?' I was shocked, 'Is it not a bit... I don't know, sudden?' I didn't want to offend him, but I thought it was a bit soon.

'Hey, Jess, we're dreamers! We want to play sold out concerts all over the world. Music is our lives, it saved us.' I looked over at him to see him smiling widely, foolishly. 'We want our dreams to come true!' 

'Really? But... what if you're disappointed?' I asked, it was an honest question. 

'What do you mean?' he still wore his smile.

'I mean, what if it does come true and it's nothing like you imagined. What if,' I turned to face him now, feeling more confident, more engaged. 'What if reality and dreams aren't meant to collide? Maybe we should keep them separate?'

He was intrigued. 'Interesting point, Jess. I'll let you know how we get on.' He gave me a cheeky wink.

I blushed and laughed, looking down at my feet. Ashton was so cool and confident. Nothing seemed to faze him. 

We neared the bar, a wave of disappointment washed over me. I wanted this moment to last forever. Just me and Ashton. Just us. 

He found an empty space just in front of the door, he pulled in and stopped. His movement, even in the car, was swift and elegant. 

I hesitated before taking off my seatbelt. Ashton had got me to the bar with five minutes to spare.

'Ashton, thank you so so much, honestly Barney would have killed me if I was late,' I began, fiddling with the hair tie in my hand. 

'It's fine!' Ashton said, looking over at me.

I felt his eyes burning into the side of my face. I put all my effort into not going bright red, again. 

'I just... Thanks.'

'I enjoyed it.' He said, smiling at me, 'maybe we should do this again?' 

'What? Maybe you should drive me to work again?' my checks flushed now, with hope and fear. 

'I meant hang out, just the two of us. But if this is the only way this is going to happen ok.'

'Just us?' my heart fluttered.

'Just us.' 

Just us.

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