"Hey, I can't see the TV, Mikey!"

"Then move your fat butt, Cal, that's a you problem."

"Rude!"

I looked over at Calum and Michael who were sitting on the floor beside the coffee table. We're all sitting in the living room, having just finished dinner. We've been laughing and joking the whole time, talking about what's been happening in everyone's life.

Calum broke up with his girlfriend, Michael bought a new guitar which apparently he's been playing nonstop, Luke and Sammi have gone on two dates and became official, and Sarah has been paying a lot of attention to Calum since she found out he was single now.

"Are you ready yet?" Luke asked Sarah. Sarah had decided to make a slideshow for us of all the pictures we took during our trip and wanted to show us.

"Maybe if you helped instead of sitting there like a giant oaf, then I could be ready."

Luke just rolled his eyes. Sammi rubbed his hand.

"You're not a giant oaf, babe, don't listen to her. She's just jealous."

"He is kind of clumsy." Michael commented.

"And a fucking giant." Calum added.

"And he's-"

"Hey, stop it!" Sammi scolded looking at Ashton, who was the next one trying to insult her boyfriend. "No one asked you."

The guys all sniggered while Sammi comforted a pouting Lukey.

"Do you need any help, Sarah?" I asked her.

"Nope, I got it. We're almost ready." She had her laptop hooked up to the HDMI cable and opened the power point. "Hit the lights?" She asked and Michael, who was closest, got up and turned them off.

Ashton and I were sitting in our favorite chair cuddling. He kept whispering comments to me when pictures of us would cross the screen.

It seemed like it was going to end, and we all clapped. Sarah shook her head and quieted us down as a new title screen popped up reading "Gross-ass Couple Photo Montage" and a picture of the back of me and Ashton walking in Central Park, holding hands.

Everyone cooed as cute pictures crossed the screen and "Kiss you" by the band One Direction played in the background.

There were a bunch of photos of Luke and Sammi, but most of them were me and Ashton. The ones that made us laugh most were the ones Calum made Michael take with him, like the one where they pretended they were Jack and Rose from Titanic on the boat at Ellis Island, or the one of Calum kissing Michael's cheek at the castle, and the photo that promptly followed was Michael making a stink face and pushing Calum away, and then a photo of Calum with his arms crossed, pouting.

I was most shocked when a photo of me and Ashton asleep, cuddled in bed ended the slideshow. It stayed on the screen a lot longer than I was comfortable with.

"Excuse me!" I sat up and glared at Sarah, who wasn't looking at me but was grinning widely as she turned sound off and let the entire slideshow run on repeat on the TV. "When did you do that? We, you just..."

Everyone was giggling at my flushed face.

"It was real early Tuesday morning. You didn't lock your door after we left that night. So I came back."  Monday was when we went to a swing dance thing and Sarah and Sammi came back to our room to hang out for a bit.

"You're creepy." I pouted and Ashton just rubbed my back comfortingly.

I saw Michael and Calum whispering to each other, but ignored them. Usually not a good idea, but I was preoccupied at the moment.

Sarah smirked and pulled out her phone.

"You don't want to know what other photos I have, then, if you don't like that."

I glared at her.

"Sarah McCabe, you show me what you have right now, or I'll--"

I started to get up so I could carry out the threat I hadn't yet made, but Michael stood up and cleared his throat. Calum tried to stop him, but wasn't quick enough.

"Cali made everyone Valentines!" he shouted and Calum slumped down on the floor, hiding his face in his hands.

We all stopped what we were doing and looked at Michael and Cal.

"What?" Ashton was the first to ask after moments of silence.

"It...it's almost May..." Sarah looked puzzled.

We all looked to Calum who wasn't looking at us.

"Cal, what's he talking about?"

Calum sighed and looked up, throwing the back of his head on the couch.

"I got drunk the other night and made you all cards."

Sammi, Sarah, and I looked at each other and squealed.

"That's fucking adorable!" Sarah cried.

"Shut up, it isn't." he muttered.

"Where are they?" Luke asked, eyes sparkling in mischief.

"I didn't bring them," Calum said at the same time Michael cried, "In my coat pocket."

Calum snapped his head towards Michael, giving the smirking boy a glare.

"Go get them!" Luke said, sliding off the couch and into Calum's lap so he couldn't get up and stop him. Michael ran to his coat and took the pink and red papers and looked inside the first flap.

"Sammi," he handed her a card and she immediately opened it. We all waited in anticipation for Michael to give us our cards. "Ashton," we ignored Calum's pleas to stop as he writhed around the ground with Luke's giant form crushing him and keeping him in place. Michael distributed the cards, handing Luke his last so he could get up off of Calum.

Calum huffed when he got up, taking deep breaths.

"You were suffocating me, you fucking giant!" he punched Luke in the arm who just grinned and ruffled his hair.

"Cal, this is so cute!" Sammi cooed. She grinned at him, and I opened my card and read it.

"Viiiiiiiii, you're an amazing person and I appreciate everything you do and I think you and Ashton are the cutest and should get married and have like 6 kids and so many dogs that you'd let me puppy-sit for. I love you, Calpal." And there was a stick figure drawing of a man and a woman with a bunch of kids and puppies.

"Calum, this is so sweet," I stood up and gave him a hug. He was sitting on the floor with his arms around his knees and sighed when I wrapped my arms around him.

"It's stupid." he muttered loud enough for only me to hear.

"It's really not, I haven't gotten a Valentine in years. It was a sweet surprise."

"I broke up with my girlfriend the night I made these. I was sad that she was gone, she never liked cute romantic shit, and that's one of the reasons we didn't work out."

I rubbed his back as he deflated a bit, feeling sad as he remembered their break up.

"Well, you can be yourself around us. If you want to do cute romance shit, you have a bunch of friends who will gladly be the recipients of your affection until you find someone worthy of all the love you have to give." He looked at me and smiled.

"You really do always know what to say to make people feel better, Ashton was right."

I blushed and shook my head.

"Cal, how do you spell valentine?" Luke asked. He and Sarah were leaning over her card and looked up at him suspiciously.

"V-A-L-E-N-T-I-N-E." He spelled out.

"Are you sure?"

"What are you talking about?" Sarah, smiling, showed everyone her card. The front of it read "HAPPY VALNTYNES DAY".

"Hm, that was kinda close, bud..." Luke teased.

"I was drunk, you twats." he scoffed, pushing Luke away from him. "Just appreciate my love and lets move on."

Everyone thanked Calum for the cards, and his face stayed red for about 20 minutes, even though we'd stopped talking about them. Eventually he forgot about it and we continued on with the night.

We played a couple of board games and ate some snacks. Luke really wanted bread sticks, so he and Michael went to get pizza around midnight.

"I'm not sharing, you all made fun of me for wanting these." Luke opened the box and held one up, taking a huge bite.

"You know, Lukey," Ashton said slyly. "You kind of look like that bread stick."

Luke's eyes widened.

"God damn it." he sighed.

"He hates that!" Calum laughed, patting Ashton on the arm. "It finally went away!" There must be some inside joke between the boys about this name.

"It's going to resurface." Luke stated, shaking his head slowly.

"My little bread stick, my little bread stick!" Ashton sang a happy little tune while Michael and Calum cracked up and Luke just looked resigned to the fact.

"You guys are all stupid." Luke rolled his eyes. Calum couldn't keep his laughter under control and slid off the couch, clutching his stomach. "Whatever, Column. Your nickname is just as dumb."

Calum sobered up when Luke called him that and it was Luke's turn to laugh with the rest of us.

"No fair, Ashley said it." Cal pouted. Luke happily munched on his bread sticks and Ashton scoffed and pushed Calum off the couch. I was surprised Michael wasn't involved in this, but when I turned to look at him, he was halfway done with his pizza. That boy is obsessed with pizza, it's crazy.

Around 3 am, Calum, Michael, and Luke left the apartment. The slideshow was still on in the background and Sammi and Sarah started getting ready for bed. It was just me and Ashton lying on the couch in each others arms, the soft glow from the TV illuminating the room. He bent down and kissed my forehead.

"I love you,"

"I love you too."

I took his hand and played with his fingers while he ran his other hand through my hair. I looked at the slideshow, super content with my life right now. Everything was going great, and I never wanted it to change.

One photo caught my attention. It was a group selfie of everyone at one of the ten pizza places we visited. In the background was a man in all black, hood over his face so it wasn't visible to anyone.

I've seen something like that before, months ago. It felt like my entire body had been doused in ice water.

I looked at more pictures, and in a couple of them, that same figure appeared. Sometimes they wore a hat to cover their face, but what was always the same was dark attire and their face was never shown in any of the pictures. Not this again...

Ashton wrapped an arm around me, bringing me back to the present. He shifted so he was engulfed in the crack of the cushions and rested his head against the arm of the couch. I let him relax a minute before slowly moving and getting up, replacing my body with one of the  pillows that had been on the floor. He hugged it to himself and rolled over. I chuckled and went into my room. Sammi was in the shower, so it was empty.

Even so, I closed the door and quickly went to my secret spot and withdrew my journal.

I like to write down my feelings and thoughts as well as things that happen in my life, this way when I'm old I can go back and remember the good times I had. It was also the only place I ever expressed myself and processed through my feelings.

I flipped towards the end of the leather bound journal. It was almost to the end. I'd have to get another one soon, or else I'd have to use a regular notebook. Something about writing in a cool leather notebook made me happy, so I usually tried to get a new one when the old one filled up.

I wrote the date on the top of the page and thought about what to say.

I wrote about waking up with Ashton, making breakfast and going to the store quickly, glossing over the afternoon where we did homework.

Today was strange. I got into a fight with Ashton. I cut my finger on a knife when I was cooking and he like totally freaked out. He yelled at me when I wouldn't let him help me and it reminded me of Ryder and all the shit he used to do to me.

He says he's going to work on being okay with my independence and wants me to work on letting him in.

I can't do that though. I've learned my lesson about that. Even Ryder was nice to me...at first. There just must be something bad about me and once people learn about it, they realize that I'm not worthy and need to be punished.

Ashton learned a bit about that this afternoon. I don't know how long it'll be, but everyone in my life whom I've ever loved has left me. Since I'm the only common factor, it has to be my fault.

I love Ashton, I do. I hate to be that person who's just waiting for the clock to strike and everything to be over, but it's inevitable right? Love isn't real, things don't last, the people you love can turn on you in an instant and betray you.

I can't stop seeing Ashton's angry face. But I don't want him to be angry at me. We're having such a good time right now.

Enough of this, though. That's not the real reason I'm concerned right now.

I think someone is following me. I keep seeing a figure in dark clothing in the backs of photos taken in public. This, (the pictures Sarah showed from break) isn't the first time I've seen them. I've seen them other times too, like when Ash and I went on a date to the arboretum.

I don't know what to do about it. I don't want to tell anyone, because what are the odds that's true? I'm not important, no one would want to follow me around. They'd think I was crazy and paranoid.

But what if it's true? I guess I'll have to wait and see....

I hear someone at the door and quickly shove my book under my pillow.

"Oh, Vi, I didn't know you were in here." Sammi says, walking inside with a towel wrapped around her head.

"Yeah, I was grabbing my clothes, but then I'm going to wake Ashton and we'll probably go back to his place." I get off the bed and grab a backpack that I shove a fresh set of pajamas in, as well as something to wear tomorrow.

"Ohh," Sammi smirks. "Wink wink."

"Ugh, Sammi. You're mean." I pout and she laughs.

"Just be safe! I don't need any Vashton babies running around quite yet. I'm not ready to be an aunt."

"I'm ignoring you!" I whisper as I shut the door on her laughter.

Ashton twitches on the couch as I walk into the room.

"Hello, Mr sleepyhead." I crouch down next to him and ruffle his hair as he slowly opens his eyes.

"Did I fall asleep on the couch again?" He asks. I nod. He does this often.

He yawns, sitting up.  "Okay, let's go to bed." But he just sits there with his eyes closed, not making any move to stand.

"Do I need to carry you?" I ask in a sing-song voice. His eyes snap open.

"As if you could carry this muscular frame," he stands up and I follow him, rolling my eyes. Insulting the male ego is probably the best way to get things to happen.

We walk outside and into his apartment.

"Want me to drive to campus tomorrow?" He asks once we sneak into his room, trying to be quiet because his roommates are actually home and asleep in the living room.

"Yeah, that's fine." I start changing into my pajamas when I feel a pair of hands on my waist. The hands flip me around so I'm face to face with Ashton. He presses his lips to mine. "I thought you were tired," I tease, biting his lip.

"Not anymore..." He leads me to his bed and we don't go right to sleep...

***

I'm like super in love with that poster of the guys, if I could I'd hang it in my room. I'd take down any photo or piece of artwork to have a poster of them. 

Do any of you have any posters/stuff of the guys? 

~ashtonfortherwin