The Chase ▹ Ashton Irwin

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

"Shut the fuck up, Ashton!" She yelled. I had no idea where we were, but it was dark and hot and very stressful. I recognized it to be her dark basement that I hated so much.

"Jessie," I replied casually. "Can you calm down for one second?"

"NO!" She screamed. The alcohol in her system was making the worst come out of her. Not again. "Do you realize what you did to me?"

"Why do you always blame every single fucking thing on me?" I said, my voice raising. She looked at me with terrified eyes and black running down her cheeks. 

The room fell silent for what seemed like years. You could hear her heavy breathing, and my heart that was beating so fast with anger and saddness.

"Because you deserve it." She finally replied. "You deserve every single bad thing that has ever happened to you."

My temper instantly rose to an even greater extent, but it fell at an attempt to say something to that. Anything would have worked, but I was too shocked to force words out of my trembling mouth. Again, the room went dead silent.

"No..." My voice trailed off and I looked down to the floor, shuffling my weary feet.. I held back broken tears at her previous words. "No I don't. I didn't do this to you."

"Oh yeah?" she retorted. She took a step towards me and stumbled a bit, her pupils still pretty dialated from earlier that night. "Prove it."

"You did it to yourself!!" I yelled, throwing my arms up in the air in frustration.

It was as if I told her this every single night, and I was sick tired of it. She never seemed to care about what I said to her, and I was over the back and fourth thing we had going on.

"You sucked me into it!" She yelled back. "Every single thing is your fault!!"

"You're ridiculous." I spat, trying not to seem as weak as I really was.

Jessie let out a sarcastic "pft." and looked away. "And you're disgusting. No wonder your mother never came back."

 -

"Ashton?" Brooke's voice interrupted the odd trance I was in.

"Y-yeah?" I said startledly. She was looking at me with curious eyes, and her head was tilted to the left a bit. "Green." she replied. I turned my head back to the road and saw the red light we were stopped at had turned green. I let out an assuring laugh and stepped on the gas.

"You alright?" She asked. I kept my eyes glued to the road as she ran her thumb across my sweaty forehead.

"Yes!" I replied. "I'm fine babe."

"You sure?" She persisted. Her voice was full of wonder and understanding, even though I knew she wouldn't understand.

I looked over to her and smiled. Her face lit up slightly and she smiled back.

 -

We finally pulled up to her house, and I got out to open the door for Brooke. "Last night was fun as hell." She laughed. Her playful words made me start to feel better. I leaned up against my car and faced her, fixing my messy hair.

"You're way too badass for me, Brooke Anderson." I winked.

"Oh, on the contrary," Brooke played along. "You're the mastermind." She leaned over to me and placed her thumbs gently on my hips. My heart started to race at her touch.

My mind went back to that odd flashback I had just minutes ago, and I got pissed at myself. Why am I thinking about that right now? My frustratedness caused me to grab Brooke by the waist and bring her to my body. I crashed my lips into hers and gently put my other hand on her neck. She seemed surprised by my sudden actions, because she let out a startled gasp, which made me laugh as I softly bit her lower lip.

"I'll see you tomorrow, okay babe?" I said, putting my forehead to hers. She nodded, and gave me one last soft kiss before she turned and walked to her front doorstep. Our hands grazed eachother's arms as she walked away, and I slumped my body slightly as she opened her front door. I didn't want her to go. We gave eachother one last wave, and she shut the front door behind her.

"Fuuuuuck." I groaned as I walked back over to the driver's side of my truck. I didn't want to go home to my hot and stupid trailer. And plus, I just wanted to clear my mind.

As I drove down Brooke's street, my mind was spinning. Why the fuck was I thinking of Jessie all of a sudden? Of all people, as well? I haven't thought about that night for years, and it didn't make any sense to me. Maybe it was because Brooke had talked to her this morning? I honestly don't know. Its not like I wanted to think about that son of a bitch, or anything. 

I sighed, because Brooke is amazing. I wondered how she could possibly like me, after all the totally rediculous things Jessie probably told her. I also sighed, because it pissed me off, how Jessie has probably told her so many lies about me. I never did any of that to her, yet she blamed me everyday for it. She knew it would piss me off, because she knew, more than everyone, that saying things like that effected me on a personal level. Fucking bitch.

I didn't know where my mind was taking me, but I ended up pulling up to a gas station not too far from Brooke's neighbourhood. I looked at my dashboard, and saw I actually needed to fill up my car. Shit. This car is a fucking gas hog. I slightly pursed my lips as I pulled up to one of the pumps and hopped out of my seat. It was pretty hot today, but it's been worse. Somehow my skinny jeans weren't frying my legs off yet.

I jammed the pump into my car and waited for it to fill up. I felt bad, because every second that passed was another dollar out the window going towards this stupid car. Minutes went by, and I started to get pretty bored. I started tapping my hands on the edge of my trunk, and I made up a beat on the spot.

 Hey thats pretty good. I thought to myself. I'll remember that one.

I started to play the beat to "Jasey Rae" by ATL and looked down at my hands and focused on them for a while. 

"Nice beat." I heard a voice beside me. My eyes shot up and looked to the pump next to me to see that kid... Luke or whatever. He was wearing snobby rich boy clothes and he looked at me with a judgemental and grossed out look. What a dick.

"Thanks." I said in a monotone voice. I don't like him, for obvious reasons.

"Jasey Rae?" He asked. I nodded. I wondered how he knew that. It looked like to me he only listens to shit music. The machine next to me beeped, and I took the pump out of my car.

"Well," I said to Luke as I climbed into my car and jammed the keys into it. "I would love to stay and chat, but I gotta go meet my dealer." I winked sarcastically and sped away. I laughed to myself, and turned on the radio.

I decided to drive through downtown so I could waste more time and not go do all my homework. I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel and hummed along to a Fall Out Boy song that was playing on the radio. I passed the street Brooke and I had walked down last nght, and the liquor store we had stole from. This place looked even more scary and poor during the day. I shrugged to myself.

My eyes wandered out of the window to the old apartments that were stacked ontop of coffee shops and the ocasional strip club. They all looked gross and quite ancient, but much better than where I live now. My eyes focused on a sign hung above a cluster of apartments and I had to take a double-take. I slammed on the breaks and stopped my car in the middle of a vacant street. I looked out the window with furrowed eyebrows at the sign.

"2 BEDROOM APARTMENTS- 90$ A MONTH" it read. What the hell? Was this for real? My heart started to beat with hope at the fact that that was cheap as fuck. And also, they were above...A bookstore?! HOLY FUCKING SHIT. I raised my eyebrows and continued to look at the building. I sat there for a couple minutes, debating whether to park and get out, or just go home. Finally, I sighed.

"They're just fucking with you." I muttered to myself. I drove off.