A Certain Romance || Ashton Irwin

Jesus Frowns Upon Spitters

With Ashton, one should never become too comfortable around him. Never let your guard down and never open your heart to him. Never trust him at all. Never trust him to lend an open ear and shoulder to lean on. He did not give a shit about anyone that was not Ashton Irwin. That was the angry conclusion I came to as I sat at my usual lunch table all alone. I saw no point of staying and watching Ashton sleep or offering to take care of him. I was so pissed off I left Lily with him. That was now his problem, not ours.

Madeline finally texted me back around 10 am, telling me that her and my brother broke things off a few days ago and she had no clue where Sam could possibly be.

Taking the city bus, I made it to school in time for English. Coming to school was no better than being at Ashton's. Thursday's were always boring and now they were probably the mandatory day of the week everyone chose to ignore me or act like I was not sitting next to them.

The cafeteria was louder than any other time I could recall it to be, probably because I was sitting by myself without a soul to talk to. Michael and Luke sat at the football table. I could take a lucky guess on their conversation topics; Michael wasn't talking (what a surprise this week), sitting back and listening to the rest of the team take low blows at Luke while laughing so hard they could choke on their drinks. Preferably, I'd like to see them all choke on each other's dicks and drop dead.

"Hey!"

I looked up from my notebook where I was reading over the potential first draft of my English essay. The essay was a nice way to distract myself, there weren't any other classes offering anything worth my time so it was the easiest thing to envelope myself in some paper useless to myself. But there was Kay sitting opposite from me, snacking on a bag of chips. "Oh, hey."

"Michael and Luke?" She asked.

"Where they belong." I pointed the end of my pen towards the football table.

"Shouldn't you be sitting at the table next to theirs?" She referred to the cheer table.

I never understood why the two went together; football and cheer.

"I like this one." I shrugged. "Where's Callista?"

"She went off campus for lunch." Kay crumbled up the empty bag she was holding. "Couldn't be bothered getting a ticket because she was craving KFC." School security was the stupidest thing. They were never around where they needed to be. But they were always ready to ticket anyone who went off campus to get lunch, shacking up at the few fast food restaurants that were nearby. The whole logic of giving out tickets to students because they wanted better food didn't make sense to me.

My phone buzzed with a text from one of Sam's best friends, he also said he hadn't seen my brother in awhile. Concern began to grow on me

"What's wrong?" Kay looked to me with concern.

"Drug dealer lost my order." I angrily threw my phone into the first compartment that was unzipped.

"Those damn idiots can never get a thing right." She joked with a light chuckle as she stood up. "I'll see you around, Sage. Promised my health teacher I'd show up early to class this time."

After Kay's departure the bell rang, everyone else began cleaning up and heading to their next class while I wasn't sure I wanted to finish out this school day.

"Am I not good enough to sit with anymore?" I blurted out to Luke as he passed by the table.

"What are you talking about? You weren't even here this morning." He looked at me with a mixture of confusion and hurt that only meant he was lying.

"Oh Jesus fucking Christ, Luke. I was there in English. We sit right next to each other. You made eye contact with me and awkwardly looked away." Swinging my backpack on my shoulder, I tried to level up with Luke. Impossible. I know. "What's going on? You and Michael letting the team get to your heads?"

"Hey Luke, lets go." One of the guys called.

Luke's take on a sympathetic look was the fakest thing I'd seen as he walked away.

-

"Elizabeth canceled practice again." Samantha sighed, holding her and Michael's health baby between her torso and her forearm.

I walked between her and Lydia towards the student parking lot. Lydia was lending us a ride because she panicked when we told her we were going to be taking the city bus to our homes. Lydia also refused to have anything to do with her and Calum's baby, taking a full zero for the class on her own part and leaving the entire job to Calum. I'd do the same.

"Still upset about Calum and her sister?" I snorted.

"Past it." Lydia insisted, leaning against her car. "They're on better terms now."

"She most likely canceled practice to give him some low rate blow job and spit in his face because pretend Catholic girls don't swallow." Samantha swiped a bit of chapstick on her lips.

"Jesus frowns upon spitters." I lightheartedly scolded making the girls laugh.

"Who's that guy over there?" Samantha blocked out the harsh outside light with her hand, staring across the street. "The one with the motorcycle."

"I'd swallow for him." Lydia raised a brow, tilting her head. Her eyes glued to the guy looking around the school ground, anxiously slamming his helmet into the palm of his hand.

The closer I stepped towards him the more he looked familiar. I squinted my eyes at the head of messy brown hair and tanned skin that mimicked my own.

"Shit." I hissed.

"You know him?" Lydia questioned.

"That's my brother." I shook my head in disbelief, walking towards Sam with the feeling that I was magnetically being drawn to him, floating almost.

"Sage!" I heard one of the girls call out, but I didn't give my attention back.

There I stood in front of my brother. A cut marking his top lip, his nose looking like it'd taken a recent beating, and numerous other bruises and cuts scattered over his face. I wondered if sibling telepathy was a thing because I hadn't experienced it until today. I knew there was something to Sam's disappearance. And it might have been scarier than I wanted to accept.

"Sam, what the hell?" I grabbed his chin, looking over his face one too many times. The damage to his face frightened me, but I couldn't stop staring. "Who did this to you?"

He shook his head, his eyes avoiding mine.

"Get on the bike." He grabbed my wrist and pulled my hand from his chin.

"I'm not getting on the bike until you explain." I shoved away the helmet he was holding out to me.

"You always talked about getting on one, being rebellious." Sam stepped on the other side of the bike and dragged his fingers over the gas tank, smiling to himself. "You wanted to feel like you were apart of Sons."

"Sam."

"Get on the bike and I'll explain when we get home."