Settle Down // Irwin

14

"Why am I invited?" Ashton asks Michael whilst he puts his helmet and gear away from this afternoons football practice. Luke has secured them a game against another high school in the city and Ashton didn't really see the point to it all. It was just Luke being his weird self and doing something that didn't need to be done.

"She seems to like you." Michael shrugs and closes his locker. Then Ashton hears him mumble, "even though you made her cry." Ashton lets it go.

"But we barely speak." Ashton still didn't get it. Why was Charlie Collins inviting him to her part? Did she not get that Ashton didn't really like her that much? "Since when did you two begin speaking again anyway?" Ashton asks Michael who was leaning against his locker.

He shrugs in response. "I dunno. She gets really bad mood swings sometimes." Michael explains. "One minute she is going on about how happy she is to see me again. The next I'm worried she might punch me in the face."

Ashton just nods in fake understanding and closes his locker. He didn't really care about Michael's girl problems. He has enough of then on his own. To be fair to Jade it wasn't really her fault. It was Ashton's, and he knew that.

He had to treat her like that on Saturday though. If he didn't he knew Luke would do. He would never leave Jade alone. He would just find a new way to annoy her or sexually harass her in some way. He would also start to suspect something was found on between her and Ashton and that is the last thing that needs to happen. That is last thing Ashton needs, Luke knowing about Ashton liking Jade.

Of course after Saturday Ashton couldn't look at Jade ever again. He couldn't look at her and could barely think about her without feeling extremely guilty. He just wanted to curl up into a ball and cry whenever he thought about the way he pretended to not know who she is. The way her face looked when he was so mean to her. So he never went to the tutoring class on Wednesday and only after technically missing three different sessions his grades in math started to slip.

She probably hates him now. He hates himself now.

"Ash?" Michael's voice brings Ashton out of his day dream.

"Huh?" Ashton blinks a couple times and looks at Michael. "Yeah?"

"You ready to go?" Michael looks slightly concerned.

"Oh, yeah. Sure." Ashton runs his fingers through his hair and follows Michael out of the locker room and through the school.

"Are you sure you don't want to go?" Michael says to Ashton as they near the exit out of the school.

"I just don't really feel like it." Ashton shrugs. He really didn't want to go.

"But you love parties."

"Not true." Ashton replies. "I love getting drunk. Parties just usually come with getting drunk." This makes Michael smirk.

"So you'll have a great time!" He cheers and Ashton rolls his eyes, thankful that no one is about to hear him and Michael's stupid conversation.

"I'll think about." Ashton lies to his friend. He wasn't going to think about it. He was going to say he was thinking about it and then not go.

"Great!" Michael replies enthusiastically.

They get out of the school and walk past the football field. The flood lights are still on and Ashton can see Luke, still in full gear, running around the field. Every now and then he will drop down, do a couple press ups, then start running again. Or he will stop and sprint on his feet, then do the press ups, then run some more. You would think he was a professional already because of how intense he trains.