As I stood, my food getting cold on the floor as Ashton had entered my house and shoved me against the wall, for some reason my brain thought it was a good idea to backchat him. He had now threatened me but strangely this only seemed to spur me on.

"An enemy? Aren't you that to me already? You and your friends?" I began, confidence growing with each word I spat to him. "I tried to help you guys and I got sworn at and shoved about. I literally just stood here and said I commended you for being an adult and taking the initiative to get a job and save money so why did you need to threaten me?" Ashton screwed up his face in anger as if he were about to scream in my face and beat me to a pulp but, for some reason, he paused and after a second, stepped back from me. He let out a long sigh as he smoothed the sides of his slicked back hair with his hands.

"You're something else..." he said without any emotion or tone obvious. I couldn't quite work out if that meant something good or bad, but either way I didn't feel like I could ask. We both stood in silence once more, just looking up at each other with unreadable expressions. "Anyway, enjoy your dinner." He turned back to the door and began to leave.

"Yeah, makes a change from my normal microwave meals for one." I laughed, feeling sorry for myself. Ashton stopped once again, turning back to me as if he were to say something but he seemed to rethink it, hesitate and turn back. "You're not like the others." I added quickly before he left, knowing the only chance I'd get to say it was now. "I know it's a facade. You started off like them but something has changed. You have a conscience now." Seeming to ignore my comments, Ashton shut the door behind him and jumped on his delivery bike, speeding off down the road without so much as a glance back at my house. Well, that was interesting...

I headed to the microwave with my food in hand. Somehow, I managed to order fast food and then still needed to heat it up. I sighed as my gyozas now looked floppy and less than appetising in comparison to what they would have been had I eaten them when they'd arrived. Don't get me wrong, they still tasted amazing but it wasn't quite what I had in mind in the end. I then heated my curry and wolfed that down as I finally realised quite how hungry I was. My phone chimed as soon as I finished, but I left it on the counter as I washed up my plate and cutlery.

"Who's college?" My dads booming voice caught me off guard and I dropped the fork back into the sink as I jumped. I spun round to see him standing where I had been sitting, leaning down over my phone as it chimed again. "Have you finally made a friend?" I scoffed as I tried to hide the sudden blush that crept over my cheeks.

"No, just someone I have to do coursework with hence why they're called college and not an actual name in my phone." I said as I turned back and cleaned my fork again, hoping I'd sold it enough to my dad. I heard him let out a disappointed sigh. "Dad, I already told you I'm not there to make friends! I'm so close to hitting the results I need to get into university I'm not ruining that just to have friends that distract me from what I want to do in life. I'll make friends when I can afford to." Another sigh escaped his lips as he headed over to me and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Having a goal in life is great but being alone just to achieve it is a little extreme. You can still have friends whilst you study, you just need to ensure time for both." He patted my shoulder before removing his hand, moving to the fridge in order to find some dinner. I rolled my eyes, although making sure he couldn't see it, before I responded.

"Coming from the guy who has no friends at work." I said smarmily. He shut the fridge with a smirk on his face.

"In my job it is best not to, then people can't take advantage of you." He said as he sat down with a sandwich from the fridge. "Which reminds me, I need your help." My head shot towards him as I raised an eyebrow. My 'help' was always work related and involved me befriending people or selling my dads company to help him get a deal. I wonder what idiot i would have to face now...

"Yeah?" I pushed, waiting for the backstory.

"There's a guy, real family man who loves speedway racing. I'm so close to closing this deal, biggest one of my career, but I don't think he believes I'm genuine. I think he thinks I'm another company robot. He's got us a box this weekend to watch the speedway, he's bringing his son and I may have said I'd bring you because you love it and we spend a lot of free time together..." I let out a dry laugh at the last sentence. Spending free time together? Yeah like once a year... I could see the desperation in his eyes and couldn't bare to turn him down - after all he is my dad and we did used to do a lot together. It was my turn to clap my hand on his shoulder.

"Fine, but you owe me a hotdog." I smirked as his face lit up.

"Ah thank you so much sweetheart! If this sale goes through I'll buy you more than a hotdog!" He let out a laugh as he wrapped me in a tight, thankful hug. I managed to wriggle free just before he squeezed all the air out of my lungs.

"Yeah, I'm holding you to that!" I smiled but suddenly, the silence hit again. The one that always happened once the important stuff had been discussed... the one where neither of us really knew what to say to each other. We both began to do our own things in silence before I thought it was better to lie and excuse myself from the kitchen because I 'needed to do homework'. Of course, this had all been completed the minute I got home, but anything was better than staying in silence with my dad. After all, we were going to have to pretend to be super close on the weekend so there was no point in trying now.