"Alright Murphy, let's stop and breathe for a second." Ashton chuckled, taking his hands off of my waist and slowing bringing his lips away from mine.

We had been at this for the past hour and a half, doing nothing but having short conversations in between making out. It was all just fun, really. There was no big deal in doing this, and it wasn't the first time we had locked ourselves in Ashton's room to have a little fun either. We were just kids, we weren't hurting anyone. I knew that Ashton was a little hesitant about getting into a relationship again, and I wasn't trying to rush him at all. If he wasn't okay with what we were doing he would tell me and I would respect that.

I let out a sigh, my body falling back onto the bed. It was surprisingly tiring, what we were doing. Ashton seemed almost totally unphased by it, and I wondered if he was used to doing this with Kenzie. He hadn't told me much about their relationship, but it wouldn't surprise me if this was something they were into.

"What do you want to talk about now?" I asked, still staring up at the ceiling.

"Well, there's always music." Ashton breathed in and out, slowly crawling across the bed until he was hovering over me.

"We always talk about music." I rolled my eyes, nodding my head in the direction of the record player Ashton had set up in the corner of his room. He was playing The Killers today, as always. Ashton claimed that it was perfect make out music, but I hadn't noticed a difference yet.

"There's just so much to talk about." Ashton giggled. He stared down at me, a faint smile finding it's way onto his lips. Ashton blinked a few times before he leaned down and kissed me shortly, then let himself fall down on the bed next to me.

"Just say something, anything but music." I laughed.

"We can just make out again?" Ashton suggested.

"I think I need a break." I chuckled, hitting him gently on his chest.

"I guess I should say thank you, actually, for what you did last weekend." Ashton said quietly. We hadn't spoken at all about the events of last Saturday night, it was like we had decided to pretend it never happened. I didn't mind, it wasn't something that people usually went around having discussions about.

"It wasn't a big deal, I'm just happy I could help." I rolled onto my side so I could face Ashton, staring at him while he focused on the ceiling.

"I know. I just wanted to say thanks for coming over and taking care of me. No one else would have." Ashton swallowed hard and sat up again.

"I'm sorry." I said softly.

"It's alright, Murphy. Things are going to get better, everything's going to be okay." Ashton smiled.

I really admired Ashton an how he was handling all of this. I understood that he was going through a bit of a rough time but it was great that he knew that things would eventually turn out find. He was a little stubborn about it before, but I think that all it took was a scary situation in the rain to make him realize that he couldn't keep doing it to himself, that all it was doing was hurting him more.

I sat up and turned so my back was now facing Ashton, my legs dangling off the edge of his bed. I nodded, "You're right. Things are going to be fine."

"I'll be right back." Ashton said, jumping up from the bed.

"Where are you going?" I asked, though I had an answer in mind. Ashton walked over to his dresser and took a pack of cigarettes and a lighter off the top, holding them both in one hand.

"10 minutes, maybe less." He giggled, waving the pack around in his hand.

"And then you're going to come back and expect to make out with me." I said blankly, scowling at Ashton.

"I'll brush my teeth!" Ashton laughed once more before exiting the room. Less than a second later he came back and peaked his head around the doorway, still smiling. "I'll even chew a whole pack of gum before I come back in, just for you."

I sat alone in Ashton's room for the next few minutes, only the sound of Ashton's record player there to keep me company. Finally my curiosity got the best of me and I stood up, quickly making my way to Ashton's cluttered dresser on the other side of the room.

He didn't have very many interesting things on the top of it, just a few empty packs of cigarettes and some papers for school. I hated doing it, but somehow I convinced myself to open up a drawer, just to see what was inside. Apparently I picked a good drawer to open, and I didn't quite know how to feel when I did.

It was full of clothes, a girls clothes. I was assuming that they were Kenzie's as they were wrinkled and looked like they had been shoved in there for a very long time, like no one had even opened the drawer in months. In the middle of the pile of clothes shoved into the drawer there was a piece of paper sticking up, what looked like the corner of a newspaper. I remembered Luke saying something about reading about the accident in the newspaper, I wondered if this was it. Maybe I would be able to find out who the other car involved was. Before I could reach out and grab the paper I heard a knock, and I quickly drew my hand back. I turned around to see Michael standing in the doorway, leaning against the doorframe with a smirk on his face.

"Close the drawer." Michael said, his face barely changing it's expression.

I sighed and shut the drawer, turning away from the dresser completely and walking back over to Ashton's bed. I took a seat on the edge of it, expecting Michael to join me.

"Do you just sit around the house and spy on people?" I asked.

Michael shrugged. "Only when I'm bored."

"Ashton's just out having a cigarette, he'll be back soon." I mentioned nonchalantly, just in case Michael had anything strange to tell me before Ashton returned.

"He'll be a while. He's always a while." Michael nodded. He made his way over to the bed and sat beside me, awkwardly bringing his knees up to his chest.

"Why are you so mad at him?" I asked. I knew why Michael was upset in general, but I still wasn't sure why he blamed Ashton for the whole thing.

"You know why." Michael said simply, and I realized that I wasn't going to be getting any information out of him.

"That wasn't his fault." I said.

"He was drunk." Michael snapped, his gaze focusing on the drawer that I had opened a few minutes ago. His eyes were slowly filling with tears, but something inside of me knew that he wasn't going to cry in front of me. Michael wasn't that weak.

"But he didn't mean to, he - " I tried to explain, but Michael didn't let me finish.

"I really don't want to talk about this, Dani." He cut me off. He raised his hands up and covered his face with them, breathing in deeply as he tried to calm himself down.

"Sorry." I said quietly.

"I'm not supposed to talk about it, it just makes me feel worse. And I didn't take my medication today so if I start to think about it things are going to get bad." Michael finally looked back up at me, the tears now gone.

"You should just take it, it's meant to make you feel better." I said. Although I had only talked to Michael a few times, I liked him. I considered him my friend and I wanted him to get better.

"But then I would be doing what they want." Michael sniffed once and wiped under his nose with the back of his hand. He tried to smile at me, but I could tell that he just wasn't able to today. He was too sad.

"What's wrong with that?" I asked.

"I guess you could say I don't like to play by the rules." He shrugged.

"You're just going to make things worse." I warned him. I was just looking out for him, I didn't want him to feel like this.

"Good." Michael said, standing up from the bed. He began to head for the door, but turned around when I spoke again.

"You're ridiculous." I smiled, biting my lip. Michael didn't have a chance to say anything back because we heard a door slam, letting us know that Ashton was done outside.

"I'll just be going now. See you later." Michael whispered, giving me a small wave before heading out of the room and disappearing down the hallway.

Ashton returned a few minutes later, after mindlessly walking past his bedroom door three times. I wasn't sure if was looking for something, and for a second I wondered if he had forgotten I was even there.

"I brushed my teeth!" Ashton yelled, finally walking through the door. He gave me a big cheesy smile as he came and sit down next to me.

"Congratulations. I'm proud of you." I smirked, squirming as Ashton's hands made their way from my waist and up the sides of my shirt. I ignored the cold feeling of his fingers and brought a hand up to the side of Ashton's face, my fingers tangling themselves in Ashton's hair.

"Don't be so rude, Murphy." He laughed, finally dipping down and pressing his lips to mine again. He leaned forward until I was pushed back against the bed again, already lost in my own little world.

-

"Murphy, no! You're doing it all wrong!" Ashton's laughter filled my ears as leaned in closer to me, trying to see his feet past my body.

We had been walking back to my house when Ashton came up with the great idea to make me stand on his feet as we walked. You know, like a little girl would do to her father when they were just playing around. It really wasn't working out, because Ashton definitely wasn't my father and I wasn't a little girl anyone, but he insisted that we try this.

"I'm not doing anything wrong, you're supposed to be walking!" I giggled as I held onto Ashton's hands for support, almost loosing my balance.

"I can't walk with you standing on my feet." Ashton said seriously, but his serious tone didn't last long before he burst into laughter again, not able to handle himself anymore.

"You're lame." I bit my lip, turning around to face Ashton. I stayed on his feet, giving myself some extra height.

"I am not lame, I'm exciting." Ashton pouted.

"You really aren't." I smirked at him, carefully stepping off of his feet as I began to walk away from him.

"You can be such a buzzkill sometimes." Ashton complained as he walked behind me, kicking stones at the back of my feet.

"Oh, don't get so upset." I rolled my eyes. I held my hand out behind me and within a second Ashton had ran forward and taken it, intertwining our fingers.

We walked the rest of the way to my house in silence until we had reached my front door, where Ashton awkwardly let go of my hand and stared at me for a good 10 seconds.

"Can I help you?" I asked jokingly, breaking his concentration.

"Just deciding if I want to kiss you or not." Ashton shrugged. "I don't want your mom to pop out of the bushes and attack me."

"My mom doesn't even care." I groaned. That was a lie, I was pretty sure that my mom would pounce on Ashton if she saw us kissing each other. She was just liked that, ever since earlier in the year when she caught me with that guy I was trying to sneak in the house.

"It doesn't feel like that." Ashton said nervously, looking down at the ground.

"Why don't you come inside?" I offered, already pulling the door open and dragging Ashton inside.

"What? But your parents.." Ashton trailed off, looking confused.

"I bet they won't even notice us. They've probably already eaten, we can order a pizza and hang out in my room for a little while." I bit down on my bottom lip, leading Ashton through the front door.

"Well hanging out does sound nice." Ashton wrapped his arms around my waist from behind, his voice a low whisper in my ear.

"Danielle, is that you?" My mom's voice called from the living room, obviously having heard the door slam shut. She entered the room, a surprised look on her face when she saw Ashton standing with me, like that.

Ashton quickly untangled his arms from around my waist, pushing me forward a little to meet my mother. He stood awkwardly beside me, staring down at his feet. I was thankful that he had stayed, if it were me in his situation I would have bolted out the door already.

"Hi. This is my friend, Ashton." I said, pointing to Ashton. His head immediately snapped up and he stepped forward, reaching out to shake my mothers hand.

"Hi, Mrs. Murphy, we met a few weeks ago at your party. I'm good friends with your daughter." Ashton said, tripping over his words a little as he spoke.

"Hello, Ashton. It's nice to see you again." My mother shook his hand, giving him a small smile before turning back to me.

"Was Ashton just walking you home?" She asked.

"Actually, we were planning on going upstairs for a while." I said, praying that my mother would allow it just this once.

"Oh, alright then. Can I see you in the kitchen before you go up, please?" My mom requested, briskly turning on her heal and walking out of the room.

"You get so cheesy around my parents." I laughed, turning to face Ashton again.

"I want to make a good impression." He shrugged, trying to look as innocent as he could in his faded band shirt and ripped up jeans.

"You don't need to, it doesn't matter what they think anyway." I rolled my eyes again, pushing Ashton in the direction of the stairs. He turned around once more, grabbing both of my hands in his and squeezing tightly.

"Do you want me to leave?" Ashton asked. "I think you're going to get in trouble, I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay. Just go up to my room, I'll be there in a minute." I sighed, bracing myself for what was to come.

Ashton finally backed away from me and started running up the stairs two at a time, seeming eager to get upstairs. "Good luck!"

I slowly entered the kitchen, prepared to have my mother yell at me for bringing a boy to the house unannounced. I honestly didn't think she would even be around to see Ashton and I come inside, but apparently I was wrong. I guess I had a habit of getting caught in situations like this.

"I thought we talked about this, Danielle." My mom sighed as soon as I entered the room. She was sitting at the table, her phone in one hand while the other rested on the mouse of her laptop. Of course she was doing work, even at a time like this.

"What did we talk about?" I asked.

"I don't want you hanging out with that boy." She stared, not looking away from the screen in front of her.

"What's wrong with him?" I questioned, not ready to budge. I liked Ashton and my mothers opinions would never change that no matter how hard she tried.

"He's a bad influence, I can tell. He smokes, and drinks, and, and...gets into car crashes!" She huffed, waving her hands in the air in frustration. My mom finally glanced up at me, her lips set in a thin straight line.

"Will you please stop using that against him? So what if he got drunk and got in an accident, that's not his fault! He made a mistake, get over it!" I groaned. I was sick of my mother and everyone else blaming Ashton for this stupid car crash. Even though Ashton was the one driving the car, there was more to the story than everyone else thought and it bothered me that no one ever wanted to stick around and hear it.

"You're not going to feel this same way when he leaves." My mom shrugged, returning her gaze back to her computer.

"He isn't going to leave." I said sternly. I crossed my arms over my chest, taking a stand for once.

"Trust me, a boy like that is not going to stick around." She scoffed.

"He isn't just going to leave me out of no where, Mom. Him and his last girlfriend dated for three years." I defended, though I knew bringing up Ashton's ex-girlfriend wasn't the greatest idea.

"Well, then she died because of something that he should have been in control of." My mom said, her lips pursed. "I'm just trying to protect you."

"I'm almost eighteen, I don't need protection anymore!" I yelled at my mom, not even trying to be proper with her anymore.

"He's just going to hurt you." She shrugged.

I gulped, trying to collect all of my thoughts before I exploded in my mothers face. "Well, it's fine that you think that, but you're wrong. I like Ashton and I'm really happy with him. I wish you would just accept that but if you aren't going to then that's fine. I don't care what you think."

I didn't wait for my mother to respond to me before I stormed out of the room, ignoring her protests for me to get back in there. I had been trying hard to follow her little rules and expectations for as long as I remember, and now I was finally giving up. It was fine, I didn't need her, she was hardly a mother to me half of the time anyway.

I stomped up the stairs and down the hallway until I reached my room, where Ashton was waiting inside for me. I took a deep breath before opening the door, trying my hardest not to scream out loud with how frustrated I was. I finally pushed the door open, only to be met by Ashton standing on the other side of it.

"Hi." He said quietly. I assumed that he had noticed the look on my face and figured out that my talk with my mom hadn't gone well. I stepped through the doorway and kicked the door shut behind me, finally giving Ashton and I some privacy.

"Hey." I took my bottom lip in between teeth and looked up at the ceiling, focusing on not crying. I didn't cry, I hadn't cried in a very long time and I wasn't about to start now.

"Come here." Ashton sighed. He wrapped his fingers around my wrist and pulled me forward, immediately enveloping me into a hug.

I let my arms wrap themselves around his waist as I held myself close to him, burying my face in his chest. His arms hung loosely around the rest of my body while he rubbed my back, occasionally whispering sweet things into my ear. I was not going to cry, no matter how upset I got over this.

"Dani, it's okay." Ashton mumbled, his lips resting firmly on the top of my head. "It's okay if you want to"

"If I want to what?" I asked, already choking back a sob.

"You can cry, Dani. I'm right here, it's okay." Ashton whispered. I had mentioned to him once before that I didn't like crying, probably on the night he snuck in through my window. We had spoken about how I hadn't cried in the longest time, because nothing was every big enough to make me want to. It was strange, how he remembered.

So with Ashton's words slowly replaying themselves in the back of my mind, I finally let out all of the tears I had been holding back, allowing myself to finally feel relieved as I sobbed into Ashton's t-shirt. I hated myself for giving in like this, but at this point there was nothing I could do. I guess it didn't hurt anyone for me to let it out every once and a while.

"I'll always be here, Dani." Ashton whispered as I cried, "I'm not leaving."

-

WOW THIS CHAPTER WAS ALL OVER THE PLACE MY EMOTIONS ARE FLYING

I feel like the end didn't make much sense basically Dani got fed up with her mom both reprimanding her and not actually like a real mother at all, so she broke down and luckily Ashton was there to be with her :) YAAAYY MURWIN

Anyway I hope you guys all like this sorry for the long wait