Ash’s POV

I woke up feeling terrible and cold. There was another body pressed against mine and arms were wrapped around me, pulling me close and not letting me escape. I wanted nothing more than some painkillers and a lot of water. So this was what a hangover felt like: slowly dying inside while you regret all the choices you made. I shouldn’t have drank the tequila; I should have started slow and gradually drink stronger things. This was so bad.

I tried getting up, desperately having to use the bathroom as well, but it only earned a groan from the other body. They pulled me back onto their chest and murmured, “don’t go.”

I stiffened up at the voice. Why was I in his arms? Why was he holding me? Why were we this close? Why was I doing all this with Alex! I shot up straight, a sharp pain shooting through my head and the need to throw up growing as time passed. Alex suddenly realised what was going on as well, and sat up as fast as he could, making our foreheads hit.

“Ouch!” I screamed as more pain was added. Alex shouted some profanities at the same time. My head was spinning and my stomach was churning, this wasn’t good.

“Shut up,” Jack whined from the floor and turned around to fall asleep again.

I scrambled to get up and bolted up the stairs, hoping to reach the bathroom in time. The door slammed shut and I skidded across the floor so I wouldn’t miss the toilet. In no time the contents on my stomach were being spewed out and I was desperately trying to keep my hair out of the way. This was so disgusting, I hated throwing up so much. Ugh. If I didn’t hate swearing, I would have been saying quite some rude words right now.

There was a knock on the door after I finally thought I finished, “are you ok in there?”

“Go away, Alex,” I groaned. He was only going to judge me for this. If he saw what was going on, he would always tease me about it. I did not need that, this was embarrassing enough. They probably still knew exactly what I had said, while I don’t remember anything after going to the bathroom before watching the movie.

But he came in anyway, holding a glass of water and something else, “here, take some advil.”

I flushed the toilet and washed my mouth with some water from the sink before gratefully taking the glass of water and red pills from him. Just wanting the terrible headache to away, I hungrily swallowed the medicine and gave the glass back to him, “thank you.”

“No problem,” he smiled shyly.

I smiled back before looking in the mirror. This was the worst I had looked in a while. The shirt I was wearing was way too big for me, my pants were nowhere to be seen, and my hair was a complete mess. Strand of hair were sticking out and other parts were knotted together. How it happened, I didn’t know, but it was certainly going to be very hard to get back to normal.

I turned to Alex and sighed with a chuckle, him giving me a grin back. He insisted that I didn’t look too bad and that he had seen worse, only making me think where and why he would have seen worse. This was really bad. I took a hair tie from my wrist and attempted to put the mess into a ponytail. When I was about to tie it all together, Alex stopped me.

“You forgot a piece,” he lightly grabbed the loose strand next to my face and handed it to me, lingering just a bit longer than he had to. His eye were focused on my face and I was starting to get weirded out by it.

“Umm, can you leave?” I asked him, “I kind of have to use to toilet.”

“Oh, uh, yeah, sure,” he nearly hit the wall while clumsily walking out of the bathroom and almost forgot to close the door.

----
Alex’s POV

I had managed to wake up the others while Ash went to use the bathroom. And I made a fucking complete fool of myself. After she looked in the mirror she gave me a look and I actually felt my heart skip a beat. It was like I actually thought I had a chance. So, I pointed out some hair she forgot to put in her ponytail, and actually dared to stroke it away. But my fucking eyes couldn’t leave her face anymore. She still looked beautiful when she had a hangover. But I fucking messed shit up. Ash gave me the weirdest look ever. She definitely didn’t like me the way I liked her. Fucking bullshit.

I didn’t tell Jack, Zack, or Rian about what happened, but they kept giving me weird looks. Maybe it was weird that I wasn’t joining in on their conversation about music - I normally did - maybe it was because my face looked weird. All I could think about was how I fucked up big time and that I wanted to cry. You don’t everyday realise you have literally no chance with the person you really like.

Ash came downstairs looking very pale. She looked at me like she was freaking out and then took a quick glance at the three other boys before settling them back on me. I watched as she took out her phone and texted somebody. Not even a couple of seconds later, my phone buzzed.

Of course Ash was the one who texted me. All it said was ‘we have to go home, now’.

I frowned and texted her back, ‘why?”

‘We just have to go.’

‘But it’s still early.’

‘Alex. Pleeeeaaaasseeee!’

‘Why, though?’

“Ok, what’s going on here,” Jack eyed both of us suspiciously, “we can totally tell you guys are texting each other while you’re in the same room.”

“You know, just casually confessing my love for him,” Ash rolled her eyes and I felt more pressure on my heart. It was going to break any moment now.

“What? Really?”

“No, you airhead,” Ash shrugged and started typing again, “why would I have feelings for Alex?”

Zack’s, Jack’s and Rian’s gazed all shifted to me and they quietly waited for me to react. But I couldn’t. The girl I actually liked for who she was, and not just for her looks, was ripping my heart into little pieces without even knowing it. I was going to have get over her. But part of me knew that wasn’t going to be possible. She had my heart without even wanting it.

My phone buzzed again, ‘just cause.’

I sighed, not wanting her stupid requests right now, ‘no.’

‘Alex, please! I really need to go home!”

‘Well, tell me why!’

‘I can’t.’

‘Just fucking tell me or we are not going.’

“Guys,” Rian spoke up this time, “you are giving each other looks that look like you want to kill each other.”

‘But it’s embarrassing,’ Ash text only got my attention very briefly.

“If she will fucking tell me why, I’ll stop looking at her like this!” I glared at Ash, hatred pouring from my eyes and turning into daggers.

“What is this even about?” Zack asked both of us.

“Well, she’s not fucking telling me why she-”

I got another text, one which I didn’t expect, ‘I got my period and don’t have anything I can use.’

“Oh…” I turned off my phone and stopped my shouting, “homework? Seriously?”

Ash gave me a very confused look and I tried to tell her to play along by widening my eyes. When she finally got it her mouth shaped an ‘o’ form before she replied, “yeah…”

“Ok, fine,” I got off the couch and looked at Jack, “well, we better get going. I don’t want my mom going all crazy again because I prevent Ash from doing her homework.”

“Oh, uhh, ok?” Jack raised an eyebrow at me, “I guess we’ll see you on Monday then?”

“Yep,” I collected my stuff and saw that Ash had already changed into her jeans and t-shirt from the day before, “see you later.”

Without saying another word, I beelined to the front door with Ash. I didn’t know how this shit worked. Was she going to be full of blood or something? Could she just keep it in? I didn’t fucking know.

“Are you going to be ok?” I asked her after stepping out of the house.

“Yeah,” she nodded, “thanks… for doing this for me and not telling the others.”

But my actions didn’t even make her consider liking me back. This was always going to be one sided, and nothing would change that.

“You better fucking be grateful for that.”

Notes

Poor Alex. Any hope he had built up last chapter had been destroyed now. Ash made clear that she didn't have any feelings. She probably doesn't know how much she hurt Alex... Ashlex is not doing well, is it? And Alex is getting mad at her again. Hopefully they can fix this, because things only seem to be going wrong whenever they just start to get right again.