Eva's PoV

Of course it'd be him. Of all the places those guys could have been hanging out on a Friday night they've come to the same cinema as us, seeing the same film and they're literally sitting next to us. There was no escaping them. They followed us around like a bad smell.

"You know what? I'm not staying here." Ashton huffed, slipping his jacket back on.

"Can't believe you turned us down to spend a night with her." Calum huffed in Maya's direction, clearly still agitated that he'd been turned down for probably the first time in his life. Here's a lesson to you, Calum, life isn't fair.

"Will you two stop whining like a bunch of fucking kids?" Michael snapped, attracting the attention of half the row. Luckily the adverts we're playing loud enough to distract the rest of the room from the childish argument that ensued. "If you wanna be butthurt over a couple of girls then be my guests but you're not fucking ruining my night. Sit down and shut up."

"I'm not-" Ashton began to argue but Luke held his hand out to silence him. Ashton straightened where he sat, ready to slap his hand away - he must have thought better of it.

"You've been whining over earphones. Don't even deny it. You've been an arsehole to us ever since something went down in class that morning." Luke snapped. Ashton looked down and shook his head, remaining silent.

"You mean when he seriously hurt Eva? Sounds like he was an arsehole before then bud." Maya piped up to my surprise. I slapped her arm as if to silence her but she seemed to ignore it. "Maybe you all need to sort your priorities out."

"Ours? You're the one dropping a once in a lifetime invite to hang out with us to hang out with that loner." There it was. The word Ashton had never called me, flowing out of Calum's mouth like it was nothing. I cringed where I sat. This was so awkward. Why did we even decide to come to the cinema? I wished I had said no now and remained in the safety of my room.

"What part of this don't you get, Cal? I don't want to hang out with you. I don't want to date you or any of your friends." Maya sounded out every syllable clearly for Calum, annoying every one of the four who glared back at her.

"Maya, enough." I spoke to her without moving my lips. "Trust me."

"No. You trust me." She said back as she awaited Calum's response. He seemed almost dumbfounded for a good few seconds as he tried to come to terms with what she had said and come up with something good.

"No one says no to dating me." He muttered, his shoulders noticeably drooping for a second before he regained his normal composure.

"Nothing against you, I've got someone already." Maya said, sounding more polite. "Maybe if I was single..." she lied, but he seemed to believe it. I knew there was no way she'd date a guy like him.

"Well, he's a lucky guy." Calum said and I nodded in agreement, hoping this conversation would end as the beginning of the film played.

"She." She corrected him as she put an arm around my shoulders. For a moment, I was content in how confident she was in telling the others she wasn't interested in men, but then it suddenly dawned on me. Her hand was around my shoulders. She was telling them I was dating her. My stomach dropped. I felt nervous.

"Wait..." Michael laughed patronisingly. "You're dating earphones?" There was silence before three of them burst out laughing, clearly enjoying the news. I eyed them carefully, making sure they weren't out of line.

"Go with it." She whispered in my ear as I made eye contact with Ashton, the only one not laughing. The guy who had just told me he had feelings for me. I nodded.

"So? Is there a problem with that?" I voiced, stopping their dumb laughs. Luke shook his head.

"Nothing we care about. Maya, when you get fed up, we'll be waiting." He winked before they nudged each other to shut up as the film began.

*

I felt uncomfortable under Ashton's eye throughout the film, barely able to concentrate on that as well as Maya's straying hands. She wanted them to believe it, I got that, but everything seemed more difficult with Ashton's gaze upon me. He barely watched the film either, his eyes on Maya and I. I felt bad for him, despite what had happened, because once again he was finding out information that was not in his favour. This probably felt to him how Lina's display had felt to me. Despite trying to help, he'd ended up feeling how I'd tried to avoid him feeling.
As we left the cinema, I couldn't help but look back at the group wondering if they'd ever know what was wrong with Ash. I was the only one who knew and I'd just screwed it up worse for him. I felt awful. No wonder he acted out. I can't really fault him for it now.

"Hey, what's the long face for?" Maya asked, her hand round my waist just in case the gang were watching. "Thanks for going with it in there, I didn't want them to hate me."

"Hate you?" I questioned, stupidly letting my emotions get the better of me. "Oh no, you diverted all the hate to me. Ashton was glaring at us throughout the movie, Calum now hates me because I'm apparently dating you and the others just want another reason to hate me other than upsetting Ashton." Her hand retracted from my waist and straight back to her side like the cord of a vacuum when the button is pressed.

"Yikes, who shit on your breakfast?" She retorted. "I thought we were having a nice night." I sighed inwardly, trying to get rid of the anger inside me.

"No, you're right. I'm sorry. It's just all been a mess for a while now. It's just easier to think the worst." I looked down at the floor. It was a mess in my head right now; I was thinking about Ashton, his texts, how he must have felt hearing that I was already dating someone, Maya, how I was attracted to her like I was the girl in my class, Lina and how she ruined that for me and made me lose my confidence...

"It's cool, don't worry. I'm here for you through the mood swings and the drama." Maya laughed, pulling me into a hug as we walked. "I know a good person when I see one and you're not gonna get rid of me that easily. She smirked as we headed back, arriving at her house first.

"You have a nice house." I smiled, admiring the old Victorian building with large bay windows. We stopped at the bottom of the driveway.

"Thank you." She smiled. "Well, I had a nice night despite the drama." She nervously tucked her hair behind her ear, clearly hesitant in saying what she wanted to say.

"Yeah, me too." I began to feel nervous for her, awaiting the words she was deliberating on.

"Look, I'm just going to say it before I go in or I'll regret it. I don't know what you like and I'm sorry if today made you uncomfortable. I..." she took a deep breath. "I like you. As more than a friend, I think. I know it's only been like two days but I know the feeling, I've been here before a few times. I'm not going to wait around and hope it falls into place. I've always been one to grab life and run with it." This was it. The conversation. The one to confuse me even more than I already was. What did I want to do? I did like her, but did I like Ashton too? Well, surely that was out of the window now. He hated me. Why should I let this pass for something that may never be?

"I'm bisexual." I blurted out, catching both of us off guard. "And I like you too."