The New Irwin {Adopted by Ashton Irwin}

Chapter 10

"Can I get a one scoop vanilla cone, please?" I ask Ashton as we walk into the shop. He nods and goes to order while I find a table. I find one and sit down, pulling out my phone, checking the time.

8:37 P.M.

I tap on the Instagram icon and see that I have 100.8k followers while I have literally no instagram posts yet, making me choke on air. To my luck, Calum walks over as I choke, looking at me like I'm crazy.

"What was that?" He says sitting across from me. I turn my phone and show him my followers. He chuckles and shakes his head. I decide to post something.

I post a picture of Calum and I with the caption. "Ice cream with the fam" and post it. Not long after, many likes and comments rolled in. I look through them. Some are nice but there are a lot of mean ones. A lot saying that I'm fat and that if I was skinnier I would be really pretty.

The rest of the guys walk up with our ice cream and Ashton hands me mine. The boys start talking about their next LA concert while I look through Instagram. I try to ignore the comments and pull up my camera and start recording.

I record the boys eating and talking. Soon, Michael notices and shouts, "Hey, she's recording us!" While pointing to me. Then a chorus of "Hey!'s" sound loud enough to be heard through out the entire shop. I laugh and stop recording, posting the video to my story.

"What kind did you you get?" I ask Ashton.

"Wild Berry." He states.

  "Ooh." I say, licking my own ice cream.

  A few minutes later, we're walking out of the shop. It's dark, and this area of town is sketchy. I grab onto Ashton's hand for some sort of comfort as anxiety wracks through my body. He looks down at me with worried eyes and notices my scared eyes. He lets go of my hand and wraps his arm around me, rubbing my arm.

  We make it to the car and I hop in quickly and we start driving with Ashton driving, Calum in the passengers seat, Luke in the window seat, Michael in the middle, and me in the other window seat. We stay silent for a few minutes with the soft buzz of music playing in the background. I look out the window silently, enjoying the view of the woods on this nearly deserted road. Suddenly, a small shadow  comes out of the woods and I immediately recognize as a puppy. It starts to run out into the road when I scream,

  "Dad, stop the car!"

  The car screeches to an abrupt stop. Ashton then turns around with a look of annoyance and worry. "What's wrong?"

  I don't answer him, instead, I open my door and rush out of the car. I rush in front of the car and stop, not wanting to scare it. It is now in the middle of the road, staring at me with scared eyes.

  "Hi, baby." I coo. I start clicking my tongue to get it to come to me. It takes a few timid steps forward, but stops. Ashton's door opens and he gets out, but I look back at him and shake my head furiously at him, telling him to stay put, before he can investigate. "I won't hurt you, love." I say in a soft voice. I slowly start to inch my way over to it. I stop halfway and start clicking my tongue again. It slowly, but surely walks over to sniff my hand. I start petting it to let him know I won't hurt it, and pick it up. I examine it. It's all dirty and has no tag. You can see it's ribs. I come to conclusion that this dog is a male German Shepherd.

  I make my way over to Ashton. I stop in front of him, holding the puppy in my arms. "Dad, can we take him home? I don't think he has a family. He doesn't have a tag and he's all dirty." I ask. Ashton sighs, thinking for a minute. "Please." I beg. "He must be so hungry!"

  Ashton looks in my eyes. I guess he noticed my desperation, because the next thing he says is,

  "It's okay with me if it's okay with the boys. They live there too. But he will be your responsibility." He states. My eyes light up and I climb into the drivers seat so that all of the boys can hear me.

  "Dad says I can keep him if it's okay with you guys." I state, excitement and hope obvious in my features. "Can I, please, please, please?" I beg like an annoying little girl. They all exchange looks with each other, before Calum speaks up.

  "Yeah, you can keep him."

  "I'm not picking up his shit." Michael claims.

  "Thank you so much, you're literally the best!" I exclaim. I give Calum a kiss on the cheek and reach back to do the same with Luke and Michael before carefully getting out of the car with the puppy. I give Ashton a kiss on the cheek before walking passed him and to my side of the car. I gently sit down and start stroking the thin puppy.

"We need to stop for dog stuff." I state as we start driving.

"There's a PetSmart on the way home. We'll stop there." Ashton claims.

"How convenient." I reply.

§

All five of us walk into the PetSmart, me holding the puppy still. We walk around and find a leash, a collar, a huge water bowl (because he's a German Shepherd. He'll be huge.), a good size food bowl, some puppy food, shampoo, and a few toys. We walk up to the cashier and place most of our items on the counter when the cashier gasps. We all look up and see her looking at the boys in awe.

"Aww, look, she's a fan, guys." I say to them.

"A huge one." She says. "Can I get a picture?"

The boys nod and I move away to get out of the frame. She probably wouldn't want me in the picture. The boys all group up together with her when she says something that I wouldn't have expected anyone to ever say.

"Autumn, you're apart of the family too. Can you be the picture?"

"You want me in the picture?" I ask timidly. She nods and Ashton laughs before gently pulling me over. I hold the puppy closer and smile at the camera. Luke takes the picture, since he has long arms and he's in a position where he can get everyone in the picture, and hands the phone back to the girl. She thanks us and then goes back to checking us out.

"So who's this little guy?" She asks.

"We found him on the road. If I hadn't seen him and screamed at Ashton to stop we would've ran over him. He came out of nowhere." I state. She awes and finishes checking us out.

We thank her as we walk out. We make it to the car and load all of the stuff in the trunk and get in the car.