Ashton's POV

We all stood at the front of college smoking, chatting about what we had got up to the night before. Of course, it was the usual stuff for the guys but for me, I had to lie through my teeth. How could I tell them I'd been delivering food to Earphones and ended up having a chat with her? Exactly, i couldn't.

"So then he squares up to me like 'why you tryna flirt with my girl?'. I laughed at him as I said 'trying to? Nah, I succeeded.' and waved her number in his face. It was hilarious!" Michael said as he puffed out a large amount of smoke. Calum shook his head.

"So you're going to leave out the bit where he bruised your cheekbone?" He said, pointing at the obvious yellowing bruise on his face. Michael huffed as he rolled his eyes.

"Alright fine, he punched me after that but I got him back worse and then his girlfriend came home with me." The gang burst into laughter, clapping and commending Mike on his story. For some reason, it didn't seem to affect me the way it normally would. Normally I'd clap him on the back for a job well done on how he could steal a girl away from her man in front of him, however it just bought back painful memories of my breakup with Amber and how she'd found someone else whilst I was still there. How, apparently, this had all been because I acted like a fool with these guys and laughed about things that were awful - just like we were doing now. Her words went round in my head again, each syllable knocking me down just a little more like a hammer to a nail.

Once again, I came back to reality to find the three of them staring at me. I sighed as I took a puff of the cigarette and hoped my lying would get me through this one like it had the last few times. They were getting suspicious, thinking I had gone soft or that something was up but I couldn't tell them the real reason, they'd laugh at me for years!

"Whats up with you lately?" Calum snapped, his brows furrowed and eyes narrowed at me. I shrugged simply at him.

"What do you mean? I'm fine!" I snapped back, making sure I sounded like my normal hard self.

"Yeah Alright then! If fine means staring off in the distance, not listening to conversations, not getting into fights you'd normally get into and just generally being quiet then yeah." Calum folded his arms and rolled his eyes. He exchanged looks with the others who responded with the same shrug they normally did when they didn't want to get involved. Calum sighed heavily.

"Look, it's just tough cos I've got the race tomorrow. I'm nervous. This is the first time I'm going to race against Sirgani since he cheated and wrecked my bike." It was true, but it wasn't the reason I was quiet right here and now. I'd always loved motorbike racing and got into it young, when I first started my rebellious stage. My fear was next to none, I did stunts and dangerous manoeuvres that got me first position no matter what. I honestly didn't care. Then Sirgani came along. We had a heated exchange in the racing lounge and nearly got into a fight. We were separated and didn't see each other again until the race. I was first, half a lap from winning when he rocked up beside me and kicked my front tyre - at the speed I was going it caused me to lose control and me and my bike skidded off the track, my bike rolling away and breaking into pieces. I could still hear his laugh to this damned day when he got his trophy and gave me an evil look. I took a hiatus, it was too much for me to handle. Recently I'd started up again, training harder than ever especially when I couldn't sleep. The race was tomorrow and I was going to kick his ass one way or another.

"Fuck, yeah I forgot about him." Calum said in a quietened tone. Of course all the boys had been there to support me, it had taken all the power I had to convince them not to go after him and beat the crap out of him. I said one way or another I was going to do it. "You sure you're up for it?" I nodded strongly.

"Yeah. You guys coming?" I said quickly. All three nodded and once again I smiled to myself at getting away with trying to explain my feelings to them. There were too many things going round in my head, Hell I didn't even understand them all or why they were there. Why was I thinking about my encounter with earphones? Why was it nice when she complimented my work ethic? How comes she spoke to me when she never speaks to anyone at college? What did she mean when she had said ordering that food was better than her microwave meals for one? Was she alone a lot? Does she have family? Did I really care? Why did I keep thinking about her? She was a no one. We'd hardly said two words to each other yet somehow she was on my mind.

"Can't wait for you to show Sirgani who is boss. He's an asshole." Luke huffed, eyes narrowing as he thought about the previous race. I waved a hand to dismiss his angry thoughts.

"I got this man. He's gonna lose on and off the track. Trust me. I've been planning this for a long time." I said with a devious smirk.

"I've got your back no matter what. You know that." Mike smiled as he flicked his cigarette butt in the road. "Just make sure the police don't catch us." He let out a laugh and soon we were all joining in. That guy was going to have a bad day tomorrow, and hopefully this would be enough to get Earphones out of my mind for a while before I started driving myself crazy...