Chapter 33: Chapter 31

“I’m sorry but did you say we’re moving to Australia?” I inquired, staring at her with wide eyes.

“Y-yes,” mom stuttered nervously.

“But we literally just moved here! We’ve not even been here for an entire year and now, you want to move again?” I asked, trying to keep my tone calm but failing.

“But-but wouldn’t this be good for us? I mean, we finally get to settle down,” she reasoned.

“In Australia,” I said sarcastically.

“It’s a great place! I looked up everything! The living conditions are great and safe, the education there is excellent, you’ll be able to fit in no time!” she started saying everything in one breath.

But I wasn’t listening. I didn’t want to move. How many times would I have to do this? How many times will I have to re-start my life? How many times will I have to be the new girl all over again? For once, I felt like I belonged somewhere and now, she wants to move again? And what’s the confirmation that we won’t move a month after staying in Australia? What if she gets a better job? Will she make me move again?

“No,” I cut her off. I didn’t even know if she heard me or not because I was too soft.

She stopped abruptly.

“No!” I said, louder this time. I looked up to meet her eyes. “I don’t want to move! I don’t!”

Before she could say anything, I swiftly turned on my heels and walked away from her. Frustration was seething through my entire body. Why is everything going wrong all of a sudden?

First, Austin had to meddle and create confusion and drama in my life. Then, Ethan decided to explode like a balloon with too much air. And now, out of the blue, mom wants to move to Australia? I shut my eyes with anger and sat down on my bed.

Okay, okay, I have to relax. I’m going to have to set things straight with Ethan first. I’m going to talk to him tomorrow in school and explain everything.

I glared at the cream colored wall as I tried to calm myself down.

It wasn’t working well.

The fact that my wall was plain and boring annoyed me further. Because we move so much, I never get the opportunity to decorate or personalize my room. As my thoughts wandered off, I felt my phone buzz next to me. I snatched it off angrily and unlocked it.

I felt my anger subside a bit as I read that it was a text from Jared.

We need to talk.

I stared at it for a moment, confused. I never liked such kind of texts. They simply made me nervous.

Okay..? Want me to call you now?

I quickly typed a reply and waited, biting the nail on my pinky finger. After a minute or so, he finally replied.

No. Meet me first thing tomorrow in school. I don’t want to do this over the phone.

I frowned slightly as I replied, agreeing to meet him tomorrow.

I let out a sigh through my nostrils and decided that I needed sleep. Getting of my bed, I shut off my phone and the curtains of the room.

Sleep refused to come easily, of course but I managed to doze off.

*

I took a deep breath before going down the stairs. Mom didn’t bother talking to me yesterday; I knew she wouldn’t. She never tries to talk to me when she knows I’m under the spell of anger. She always waited a day and I know that the minute I go down the steps, she’s going to try and talk to me.

I sighed and walked down the stairs. I could hear simmering from the kitchen which meant she was in there. After the sensible part of my brain convinced me into confronting mom, I walked towards the kitchen slowly. Very slowly.

Mom looked up as I entered the kitchen. I sat down on the chair, pretending to not acknowledge her. I absent-mindedly hit my fork against the ceramic plate.

“Are you going to talk to me calmly now?” she asked, flipping the omelet on the pan.

I kept my lips sealed. I didn’t want to talk about this early in the morning.

She sighed. “Ashley, don’t you think is going to be good for us? We’ll finally settle down! This is a huge opportunity! You can’t just expect me to let it pass.”

I continued my staring contest with the plate and did not say anything.

“Okay, so, this is what you’re doing to do?” she asked with a slight hint of anger. “Going to give me the silent treatment, are you? Alright, fine, you won’t keep quiet forever.”

She walked towards me and slid an omelet on to my plate. I stared at it till my stomach decided to grumble. Grumpily, I picked up my fork and knife and sliced it.

“Unfair,” I mumbled to myself quietly with anger. “Everything’s unfair.”

As I clearing off my plate, mom walked by me and said, “I’ll be waiting outside for you in the car.”

I let out a breath as she walked out of the kitchen. Quickly rinsing the plate, fork and knife, I rushed out of the kitchen and towards the car.

Mom didn’t look at me as I opened the door and sat in the car. She was busy checking her mails on her phone. I was glad that she didn’t say anything; I didn’t want to talk to her. She revved up the engine and the car started moving.

All the way to school, I stared out of the window. When we finally arrived, I got out of the car as fast as possible.

“Ashley,” mom said, making me stop in my track and turn to face her. I didn’t want to but it was like a reflex. “You do know that I won’t do anything that will upset you, right?”

Instantly, I felt a pang of guilt inside of me. My eyes decided to look at my feet instead. I bit the insides of my mouth. Mom didn’t wait for me to say anything and drove off.

Guilt- I’ve always hated that feeling. It slowly eats your feelings. It doesn’t let you get you concentrate at all. Basically, it sucks.

I tried to push my thoughts out of my mind and started walking towards Jared’s locker. Ever since he sent me that text, I was desperate to know what he wanted to talk about. What if Ethan’s there?

I stopped walking immediately as the thought sprang into my mind. I wasn’t ready to face him yet. I didn’t even know what I was going to say to him! Okay, if he is there, I’m positive he’ll be the one to talk first. Just go with the flow. Yes, go with the flow.

As I neared Jared’s locker, I felt my spirits drop. Neither Jared nor Ethan was there. Michael, though, was there with his head inside his locker.

“Hi,” I said, walking up to him.

Startled, his head sprang out of his locker. His expression changed to a concerned one as his eyes landed on my face.

“Ashley!” he breathed and pulled me in for a hug. I hugged him back, shocked.

“Michael, is something wrong?” I asked, confused.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” he exclaimed in my shoulder.

“Why are you apologizing?” I asked, pulling away to look at him.

“It’s my fault. I should’ve agreed with Ethan and kept an eye on you!” he said, shutting his eyes with frustration.

The confusion left me as I realized what he was talking about.

“Abby told me what happened this morning. I should’ve known that Ethan was asking me to follow you around for a reason! Abby would obviously ask me to do the opposite because being a girl, she wants privacy and stuff but I should’ve thought about it from my viewpoint! I should’ve put myself and Abby in the place of you and Ethan! Why was I so stu-”

“Michael!” I cut him off loudly. “Calm down! It wasn’t your fault at all! Can you and Abby stop blaming yourselves?”

“But-”

“It’s not your fault,” I told him, dragging out the words.

“Are you alright, though?” he asked after a moment.

“Yeah,” I said, faking a smile but my mind was screaming no.

He sighed with relief and hugged me again. I felt tears forming in my eyes. This is exactly what I was going to miss out on if I moved. I rapidly blinked my eyes to make sure there was no hint of my eyes looking teary.

“I didn’t know you could talk so much, Michael,” I joked as we pulled away.

He cracked a smile. “I choose not to talk much.”

I shook my head, chuckling lightly.

“Hey Michael, have you seen Jared anywhere?” I asked.

“Jared?” he inquired and I nodded. “Oh! He’s not here today. His dad forced him to go camping last night. Of course, he didn’t want to but you know, dads.”

“Camping? But why all of a sudden!” I cried.

“I have no idea,” he said, looking at me curiously due to my outburst. “Something wrong?”

“He wanted to talk to me about something,” I responded.

“He’s probably just concerned about you,” he said, shrugging.

“I guess,” I said, dropping it.

“Don’t worry; he’ll be back in a few days,” he assured me.

I sighed and gave him a brief nod. “Well, I’m going to head towards my class. If you meet Abby, let her know I’m okay,” I told him.

He nodded. “See you later.”

“Yeah,” I said.

I started walking to my class silently. Why is this happening to me? Why is everything going downhill? I am no closer to finding out what happened that night at the party than I am to convincing mom to not move to Australia. Lost in my thoughts, I continued walking absent-mindedly when I banged into someone just as I was about to enter the classroom. The books that I had removed from my bag fell down with a thud as I yelped. Instantly, I crouched down to retrieve my books.

I looked up to apologize to who I had walked into but the person had already walked away. I frowned and looked behind me to the figure of Ethan walking away from me.

A/N- Hello! Michael can talk just as much as Abby is he wants to :P Ethan's still being a jerk..

I started re-reading Harry Potter for the third time and I wanted to know are there any Potterheads out there?

I recently finished the Goblet of Fire (the 4th one) and it was so emotional. To those of you who have read it, hasn't Rowling written Dumbledore's speech excellently?

To those of you who haven't read the book, what are you doing! I strongly recommend it! It's wow!

Please leave votes and comments! I really love reading what you think about my writing and the characters and the plot :)