simmer down // a.i. [ON HOLD]

[3] the summer of summers

‘Hey, I can live with that.’

Beck took a drink from his can of coke before Ciara lunged into action, pushing forward and jabbing his under his ribs. He fell forward, spitting coke everywhere, laughing uncontrollably. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud too as Ciara ruthlessly continued to tickle him. They were so cute.

‘Okay! Okay! Please - stop, Ciara! Shit!’ he laugh-yelled.

Ciara grinned. ‘Aaaand what else?’

‘I’ll tell you, I swear! Let up! Please!’ he gasped, tears in his eyes.

‘Fine, but only because you said please.’ Ciara let go and calmly returned to eating her food as if nothing had happened.

Beck straightened up and grinned.

‘You suck.’

She stopped, arms poised. ‘If I have to tickle you again, that’s kind of embarrassing. Look at Em! She’s desperate for news on that guy!’

I blushed. ‘What? No!’

The two of them burst out laughing and I groaned. Why am I so stupid?

‘Guys! Ughh!’

Ciara wiped her eyes and leant back.

‘Okay, we’re done. Beck, out with it - what did he say?’

Beck wiped his mouth carefully, and sat back too.

‘Alright. Well, I carried their bags onto the elevator to go up to their rooms, and I was holding the curly-haired-‘

‘His name’s Ashton,’ I put in. Ciara looked at me funny, but Beck nodded and continued.

‘Okay, Ashton then. So I was holding Ashton’s drum-kit, and we got into the lift together. Then he randomly was like, ‘Hey, do you know Emma, that girl who works on reception?’ and I said I did, and he started asking me about how long you’re working here for, and if you have a boyfriend and stuff.’

‘Did you tell him?’ Ciara was on the edge of her seat, staring at Beck with great intensity. It was kind of scary.

‘Well, yeah. He gave me, like, a $20 tip. And when I told him I played the guitar a bit, he said we should hang out sometime.’

Beck picked up a left-over chip from his plate and chewed it thoughtfully.

‘He’s a pretty cool guy Emma. Not really one that strikes me as a ‘dick’. But whatever - each to his own I guess.’

What was going on?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After saying goodnight to Beck, Ciara and I headed back to our rooms. She couldn’t stop talking, of course.

‘Em, do you know what this means? He asked after you! He asked if you had a boyfriend! He’s obviously interested!’

I shrugged.

‘Or maybe he was hoping I wouldn’t be here long, and if I had a boyfriend, he could say that was why I rejected him in the first place.’ I made a face and said very sarcastically, ‘We wouldn’t want amazing Ashton’s pride tarnished, of course.’

Ciara gave me a playful punch. ‘Oh, stop being such a killjoy. This is going to be the biggest summer in the history of summers. We’re spending it with 5 Seconds of Summer!’

She started to spin happily down the hall, giggling to herself at all the ‘summers’.

‘And don’t forget - my room in half an hour. For your lesson on 5SOS! Woohoo!’ She paused for a moment, before resuming her giddy twirling, ducking into a door at the end of the corridor.

I shook my head, smiling. She was certainly right about one thing.

It was going to be a hell of a summer.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I let myself into my room and gingerly tugged off my heels, falling back onto the couch with a sigh. Looking around, I saw all my luggage had been brought up, and I mentally reminded myself to thank Beck tomorrow. I shut my eyes.

I was pretty sure my ‘first day’ experience would go down in history as the craziest ever. Thank god it was over.

I stood up again, and changed into some comfortable clothes, thinking about what Ciara had said.

Did she really think Ashton asked about me because he liked me?

I contemplated it for a little while before coming to the conclusion that it was complete and utter bullshit. Nothing he had said to me today had proved he was anything but interested in me. He was just like a clichéd, average teen snob, riddled with fame. The popularity had obviously gone to his head - and now he thought he could get any girl he wanted?

That’s disgraceful. The way he rocks up, thinking he controls the universe, him and his band at the centre. He acts as if he expects people to bow down at his feet! What a big-head!

The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. So by the time I finally arrived at Ciara’s door, I was positively livid.

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sorry it’s taken me so long to update! i went away, and then when i got back, i was all caught up with my tumblr bc i changed it all and yeahhh :) if you follow me, i’ll dedicate a chapter to you x {educashton.tumblr.com}

anyway, so this chapter’s a bit of a filler, but it’s leading up to the next one. keep liking, voting and reading baes!!

love emma xx