A Certain Romance || Ashton Irwin

A Possible Date Night

"Where exactly are you going, Sage?" Mom stopped me dead in my tracks once she noticed I had on shoes and I held my house keys in my left hand.

She sat at the island in the kitchen with a glass of red wine in front of her. Ashton leaned atop the island with his weight resting on his forearms. Their conversation appeared pleasant, hearing Ashton's recognizable giggle before I disturbed them with my presence.

My Mom never expected me to have a social life after school. So many years had go by and I always stayed home on the evenings during the weekday, saving my weekends for anything productive and social.

I looked over to Ashton, hoping he would answer for me since she had a strong liking towards him anyway. Almost like he was the son she had always hoped for. Sam was glued to her side until he turned 15, that was when he started to realize how controlling she was. He relied less on our mom and more on himself to make him happy.

"Ashton's." I finally said after noticing Ashton wouldn't have my back here. Maybe he was scared of the grand Mrs. Sirois. "He's ordering dinner and we're having a movie night."

"I'll keep my hands to myself, Mrs. Sirois." Ashton stepped in. "Do not worry."

I knew he'd be as gentlemanly as possible until he no longer could and he would say something stupid to ruin the moment, making me want to leave.

"Guess it'll be another dinner alone for me tonight." My Dad typically worked evenings and Sam never returned home most times, opting to spend his time at his girlfriend's apartment. That usually left me and my Mom to have dinner together. Most nights dinner was quiet. I listened to her sip on expensive wine and our forks hit the fine china, having nothing to truly say to each other. We had nothing in common. Where she gushed over the finer things in life, I was okay with anything toned down and simple. She wanted to talk designers and I didn't wanted to speak at all. It was awkward to take in that she was solely a parent to me and not a best friend. I had always longed for the mother-daughter friendship that was all around me. Sammy was close to her mom. They were open about everything with each other and sometimes took weekend trips down to San Francisco. And I could barely look my own Mother in the eye.

"Sam should be coming home in a hour." I lied even though she already knew the truth. Sam wouldn't be back and there was no point in hoping he would.

"I never count on it anymore." She started to fill her wine glass with the remnants in the bottle. "Well, you two have fun."

"Thanks." I nodded as Ashton walked over to my side so we could start our journey next door.

"11 pm sharp, Sage." My Mother said dryly, annoyed with her own routine of telling me my curfew.

"Noted." Was the last thing I said to her before we left the house.

"So, I couldn't find any movies that looked good enough to watch." Ashton fiddled with his keys, trying to find the right one to open his door. He was still becoming familiar with all aspects of the change he made from Australia to America.

"Not a problem. I'm not in a movie mood tonight anyway." I carefully stepped into house, watching my step to not trip over anything and make a fool of myself in front of him.

I knew all of this was meant to be pretend to ruin Calum, but nevertheless I was conscious about my every move and word around Ashton. I didn't want to miss a beat and ruin my progress so far. Sure it was only a little bit of progress, but it was something.

"I figured we could go into town and do something?" He tossed his keys on a table that was set by the door then sounded off the alarm system to his house. "Ice cream? Bowling? Pool? Sky View Observatory? Shorty's to play some games?"