Ashton's POV

I check my phone every thirty seconds, hoping for a reply from Emmie but unfortunately, I'm met with nothing but a blank screen. I hope she's having fun right now, or at least getting along with Natalie. I don't expect a new friendship to develop between them, but I don't want to come back to the hotel to find that they got into a catfight. Although that would be a funny story to hear.

"Did you see that?" Calum asks, tapping my arm with the beer bottle in his hand.

I lift my gaze away from the glowing screen to find him slack-jawed, watching the football game on the flat screen TV. "See what?"

He turns to me and then looks down to my phone. "Dude," he starts, "You're supposed to be having fun, not staring at your phone all night. It's not like you won't see her later tonight."

He has a point. I've been using Emmie's text messages as a distraction from the bachelor party that I should be partaking in. It isn't because I'm not enjoying myself; I am. It's hard not to especially here in Jack's man cave. The dim lighting, muted cobalt blue walls and the dark-stained wood flooring gives the illusion that we're in an actual bar and not an ordinary suburban house. I wouldn't mind a man cave like this for myself one day.

Cheers from football fans observing the game blare from the TV. The clashing of billiard balls is barely drowned out as Michael and Nathan play at the pool table, while Nathan's friend, Cyrus, watches from the side. While Luke and Jack are scrounging through the personal bar for drinks, Calum and I (mostly Calum) have been sitting here watching the game.

The entire scene reminds me of the old days. Nathan and I met in our Economics class during my first semester at college. We weren't as close as I am with the other guys, but he was still a friend. He would join us when we would go to bars practically every other weekend, and we'd play a few games of pool. I have yet to win a game against him. Natalie and her friend, Colleen, would join us every so often and I would teach Natalie how to play pool. She played against Nathan once and I could tell by his poor shots that he let her win. Now I understand why he did.

It hasn't been as awkward as I had anticipated, but that's mainly because Nathan and I haven't conversed much since we've been here. He and I have practically stayed on opposite sides of the room for the sake of avoiding any means of confrontation. I'm not particularly proud of my cowardice, but I'd rather not start something that needs to be laid to rest.

"Give me your phone," Calum says, snatching the device from my hand and shoving it into his pocket. He opens his mouth to speak, but he's cut off by the ringing of his phone. He quickly answers the call without greeting the person on the line. He waits and listens until the other person is finished talking before he gives a curt "No" and hangs up. He turns to me. "No more phone for tonight."

"That seems a little unfair," I say. "Give me yours to hold, then."

"Fine by me," he says, dropping the device in my lap, which nearly hits a sensitive area. "I shouldn't need it anymore now that I told Julia that she can't withdrawal any more money to gamble with."

"Is that who called you?"

"She's going to be working overtime starting next week to make up for the days she took off for this trip. I don't want her to blow off all her money and have to work even more."

As sincere as I know he's being, I know him well enough to know that he's guilty of something. "You took her wallet, didn't you?"

He brings the beer bottle in his hand to his mouth in attempt to conceal the growing smile on his face. "I didn't take her wallet. Just her debit and credit cards. I'm doing her a favor. You have no idea how terrible she is when it comes to money and budgeting."

"Well it's a good thing she has you to keep her spending habits under control," I say, chuckling.

The open seat next to me on the couch is suddenly taken when Jack leaps over the backrest and plops down, careful not to spill the glass of Rum and Coke in his hand. Jack has been spending most of his time catching up with me since we arrived to make up for lost time during our trip. We're leaving in three days, so he's taking the extra effort to get in as much time as he can with me and the guys.

"So I heard you got to babysit my niece the other night," Jack says. "Hopefully you did a better job than when Luke watched her."

"Shut up," Luke says to his brother, as he returns from the bar with two beers. He hands one to me and then sits on the armrest of the couch. I've already had one beer and I'm barely buzzed. The beer is great, but the alcohol content is seriously weak.

I flick my thumb against the bottle label until it starts to tear. "Reina's something else," I say. "She definitely has personality and she's cute as hell. She wasn't that hard to take care of, surprisingly. Or maybe I'm biased because I helped raised my siblings since they were her age."

"She's never given me or Myra any trouble," Jack says, repositioning himself on the couch so that his arm dangles over the back and his body is turned more towards me. "I'd like to think she gets her good behavior from her parents. Reina's got her mother's free spirit but she's got her father's tender heartedness and patience." He sends a nod in my direction before taking a drink from his glass and hissing as the alcohol burns his throat.

My mouth parts and my nail tears the label in half. I glance up to Luke to catch his reaction, but he's too consumed in the game Calum continues to shout at. I shouldn't be so surprised by Jack's statement. On the day I met Reina, he looked at me with eyes full of apology and sympathy before he took her into the house. He didn't need to be told; he's always known the truth. I can only wonder how many other people know.

"Dammit," Michael groans, and we all turn around towards the pool table. He drops the cue stick onto the table and scratches his head. "How the hell do you always win?" he asks Nathan.

"Two years and you still suck," Nathan says, laughing.

"Don't let it get to you, Mike," Jack says over his shoulder. "He comes over practically every week to play, so he's got an advantage over you."

"Even so, it really shouldn't be that hard," I say, chuckling. "You're just terrible at the game."

"You play against him then," Michael says, grabbing the cue stick again and extending it out in front of me.

I glance over his shoulder towards Nathan.

Nathan shrugs and asks, "For old time's sake?"

I sigh and wrap my hand around the stick. "What the hell," I mumble to myself. I stand from the couch and amble to the pool table. Instead of watching our game, Michael and Cyrus join the others on the couch, and I mentally curse them for not sticking around.

"Have you played since the last time we went against each other?" Nathan asks, racking up the billiard balls.

"Not once," I say, rubbing the blue chalk cube over the tip of the cue stick.

"Think you're a little rusty?"

I let out a breathy chuckle. "Not at all."

Nathan lines up the cue ball and encourages me to break the rack. The multi-colored balls bounce against the rails and each other and both a solid and striped ball sink into a pocket. I call stripes and shoot again, but nothing falls in.

Nathan takes his shot and knocks a solid into the pocket. "How have the States been treating you?" he asks, holding the cue stick at his side like a staff after he misses his next shot.

Well, I dropped a career path that would have made me closer to graduation but now I'm a year or so behind. Your fiancée sent me an invitation to your wedding which sent me into a downward spiral that resulted in alcohol abuse. My girlfriend was assaulted twice by a psycho. I was attacked by said psycho and sprained my wrist in the process. My dad and I still aren't that close.

"Pretty good," I say instead. I set my beer along the ledge of the table and line up my shot. The cue ball knocks one of the solid balls against a striped one; however, nothing sinks into the pocket again. "I have an opportunity to paint a mural at a children's hospital. I haven't decided if I'm going to take the job or not, though."

Nathan leans down close to the table. "Why wouldn't you? I know artists have a tough time finding jobs these days, so why not jump at the chance?" He briefly peeks at me out of the corner of his eye. "Unless you have a reason not to stay in the States."

I pick up my beer and take a sip. "I'm not leaving anytime soon. There are too many important things up there that I won't chance losing."

"Your girlfriend one of them?"

My lips curve up. "She's at the top of the list."

He looks back down to the cue ball. "My opinion may not matter or be of any benefit to you, but you should take the job," he says before striking the cue ball and sinking the red solid ball into the bottom-left corner pocket. He moves to the opposite side of the table. "You're good at what you do. The painting in our living room speaks for it. Whoever offered you the job probably thinks the same."

"It was my dad."

Nathan's hand slips and he scratches the cue ball, sending it spiraling to the side. "Well shit."

"I thought the same. He was asking for his significant other's sister but it's all the same."

"You two getting along now?" he asks, and I immediately reply with a scoff.

"Some people just don't change," I say. Although it goes without saying that my dad has been somewhat kinder than before. I won't say he's a changed man because he's far from it, but he's tolerable now.

I take my turn and sink three striped balls but in the process, I knock a solid ball into a pocket.

It's not so awkward playing pool with Nathan. The high level of concentration of our game and the exuberant chatter from our friends who are watching Michael play a game on the Xbox distracts us enough to avoid any troubling conversations.

Nathan reapplies chalk to the tip of the cue stick and leans down. "I know it's long overdue but I'm sorry for sleeping with Nat while you were still with her," Nathan says.

I nearly choke on my beer. "Well that's one way to bring it up."

"I never intended for things to go as far as they did," he says. "One day turned into another and things just happened."

I lean back against the table. "You and I both know that things don't just 'happen.'"

"Ash, you were my friend—"

"Good use of the past tense," I say and chug the rest of my beer, finally feeling a light effect from it.

He sighs. "Look, I'm trying to reconcile here."

"And I admire your efforts. But put yourself in my shoes and tell me if it's easy to forgive after your friendship, relationship, and almost-marriage was ruined by someone who you thought was your friend."

I've never really been angry with Nathan. Most of my anger was directed towards Natalie because she was the one who betrayed me the most. She was my world back then, and to watch my world be violated and stolen from me was infuriating. Not much thought went into Nathan's motives or reasoning. I didn't care about him. He didn't haunt my mind like Natalie did. But now that I'm here talking with him, it's taking an effort to conceal my irritation.

"Take your shot," I say.

Nathan's lips fall into a thin line and he focuses on hitting the cue ball at an angle. He manages to graze the edge of the yellow solid ball just enough to sink it. "Are you okay with this?" he asks, hitting only the railing during his second shot. "Me marrying Nat?"

I line up my shot and draw the cue stick back. "I'm here aren't I?"

"That doesn't tell me if you're okay with it or not," he says. "You and Nat were pretty serious, so I figured there'd be some apprehension. I'd rather know now if you're cool with it or if you're going to pop out of your seat when the officiant says, 'speak now or forever hold your peace.'"

"You do know that they don't say that during ceremonies these days, right?" I say, pocketing two and leaving one striped ball left.

"You're avoiding the question."

"I have no reason to object. Sure, it pisses me off that you two are getting married after everything that happened, but I've been out of Nat's life for two years."

"You were going to marry her though."

"I know. But then you fucked her," I say bluntly, and then shoot the last striped ball into the top left corner.

After five years in a relationship with Natalie and another fifteen of friendship, I should have known her well enough to pick up on her odd behavior. I should have seen the signs. But I didn't. And I wouldn't have. Because I was so damn in love with her. Young, dumb and vulnerable.

"I'm not looking to get back with her again," I say, loosening my grip around the cue stick. "It's not something I would even consider, to be honest. Like I said, it pisses me off and it sure as hell isn't easy. Just like when it pissed me off and hurt to catch you two in the act. Whether or not I decided to come here, you're still going to marry her. She's yours, Nathan. She has been for a while now."

Nathan's shoulders drop and he looks down to the table, his eyes trailing the remaining solid-colored balls. His gaze lingers on the 8-ball before looking up at me. "I'm sorry."

I don't respond. Instead, I line up my shot and knock the 8-ball into a pocket. For the first time I finally get to say, "I win." I lay the cue stick on the table, while Nathan racks up the balls again.

He grabs my empty beer bottle sitting on the ledge of the table, and he gestures for me to follow him to the bar. Along the way, we stop by the other guys and Michael is in disbelief that I beat Nathan and demands a rematch before the night is over. Nathan agrees and we continue to the bar.

I sit on one of the swivel stools, while he recycles the bottle and rummages through the refrigerator to find the last beer. He pops the cap off before handing it to me.

"I want to thank you again for watching over Reina," he says, sitting in the stool next to me. "She wouldn't stop talking about you and Emilia last night."

"Really?" I ask, masking my excitement with soft-spoken surprise.

"She's infatuated with you," he says.

I smile to myself and imagine what she looked or sounded like when she spoke about me and Emmie. Was she smiling from ear-to-ear? Did she get overly excited and fumble over her words as she spoke? Did she make excessive hand gestures out of sheer happiness? I bet she did.

He reaches into his back pocket and pulls a pack of cigarettes and a lighter out. He draws one from the pack and lights it.

"I thought you quit," I say, raising an eyebrow. He stopped smoking a few months after we became friends. Natalie didn't condemn people who smoked, but she did dislike it and would openly say that whenever Nathan smoked around her. It didn't take long before he decided to quit. I hate that I'm just now realizing the signs of his attraction towards her.

"I did," he says. "It's rare I have one. Only when I'm stressed or need to relax. I figured tonight would be a special occasion." He places the cigarette between his lips, only to take it out without inhaling. "I don't smoke around Reina," he adds.

His defensive tone puts me at ease. I'm glad he doesn't smoke around her; I'd rather my daughter not be a victim of secondhand smoking. But I don't understand why he feels the need to tell me so.

"I didn't think I'd be a dad this young," he says, puffing out a hazy cloud. "I know you didn't either."

My eyes widen and my head whips towards him. "What?"

He looks forward at our friends, inhaling slowly before exhaling a thin stream of smoke. "I know she's yours."

"Natalie told you?" I ask in disbelief.

He shakes his head. "I've always known Reina was yours. It wasn't hard to figure out. As she gets older she looks more and more like you. Last night was a dead giveaway, though."

"Why haven't you said anything?"

"Probably for the same reason why you haven't said anything. I have to think of what's best for her. Both my parents and in-laws believe that Reina is mine and Natalie's kid. Reina loves them. How am I supposed to tell them that their granddaughter isn't mine? They're going to figure it out sooner or later, especially Elijah and Trish. But until then, I'm going to raise her as my own because she's my daughter too."

I stay quiet and drink my beer. Nathan has been a part of Reina's life from the very beginning. He was there for all the doctor appointments. He was there for the sonograms. He was there for the birth. And he's always going to be there because I'll never share the same connection he has with Reina. He's more of a father than I am, and unfortunately, it will always be that way.

"I'm trying to do the best I can to be a good dad," he continues. "I like to think that I'm doing a good job. Reina always seems to wake up with a smile, so I assume that's a good thing. Except on Wednesdays. For some reason she hates Wednesdays. But she's so good to me and Nat. She makes me want to change every aspect about myself so that I can be what she needs. And I know that's what you would've done if you had the chance." He stands from the stool and extinguishes the cigarette in the ash tray on the bar. "I don't know how you're handling this revelation of Reina and I don't know what's going to happen when the time comes to tell her the truth, but just know that she's in good hands, Ash."

Our friends groan at the TV screen after Michael's character is killed in the game, which lessens the small tension between me and Nathan. I never thought I'd be casually discussing the two people who are forever a part of my life with him. This is definitely not how I thought this conversation would go, but I just can't be angry with him anymore; I'm tired of it.

I wipe some of the condensation on the bottle in my hand with my thumb and stand up. Under my breath, I mumble, "I think she is too."

Jack twists his body to look behind the couch. "If you two are done can we get on to the fun stuff?" he asks. "I've got best man duties to fulfill and I'm never going to get it done if you two keep jibber jabbing."

"Wasn't your fun planning tonight?" Nathan asks, and we move into the lounge area. "What other 'fun' do you have planned?"

"I got you a gift," Jack says, wiggling his eyebrows. He snickers and leaps across the room to a small closet. He pulls out a life-size blow-up doll and presents it nonchalantly to Nathan. "Meet Moana," he says with a childish grin.

I fall into a fit of laughter along with my friends as we enjoy Nathan's stupefied expression unfold into utter repulsion. Thank God this isn't my bachelor party, because knowing Jack he would have pulled this shit on me.

"Why the fuck would I need a blow-up doll?" Nathan demands, eyeing Moana with disgust.

"Why the fuck wouldn't you need a blow-up doll is the bigger question," Jack says over my continuing laughter.

"Oh, I can think of one reason: I'm going to have a wife starting tomorrow."

"You take the fun out of everything," Jack whines, dropping the inflatable doll on the floor.

"Hell, if he's not going to do anything with it..." Michael mumbles, reaching out and grabbing the doll by its stump of a hand. The body drags along the floor as he scrounges the room until he finds a black marker. He pops the cap off and begins drawing phallic images around Moana's face.

Cyrus joins him, followed by Luke and Calum, and for the hell of it I draw a picture or two on its body. Jacks sits back and laughs with his entire body at our artistic work, and he gives instructions for what else we can draw, while Nathan shakes his head with amusement.

While they continue to defile Moana's face, I move to sit on the couch, where my phone lies facedown of the cushion. It probably fell out from Calum's pocket after he and the others jumped at the gun to draw on Moana. There's only one text notification and I laugh to myself when I see Emmie's typo. She's probably so hammered right now. My fingers type quickly as I respond:

"Surprisingly, so am I."

_____

A/N: Hola. It took a month but I finally finished this chapter. And it'll probably be another month until I update again (maybe, you never know with me) because I'm nearing the end of the semester and my professors just like to drop everything on me during this time, and I'm so sad because this will probably be the semester my 4.0 GPA drops. But I am determined to finish this story during the summer. I'll still be writing in whatever free time I have, so just know that I'm always working on this story.

Also, I've been thinking of giving you guys my snapchat because why not? But then I got to thinking about it and I never use it lol There's really nothing special going on in my life. I literally sit at a desk for 14 hours studying and play with my cats lol. But I'd probably show little teasers of whatever I'm writing and stuff like that, so let me know if you guys would want it and if you do I'll add it to my profile. [Update: just to save y'all some time, it's the same as my wattpad user] 

Thank you all for sticking around! So much is going to be coming up in these next several chapters and I'm just as excited as you to see what happens. 

I love you all! –Rebecca  xoxoxoxoxoxo

P.S. Can we talk about how cute 5sos has been since the SLFL tour began? I think I've annoyed my friends to the max with pictures of them and my fangirling over them.

Oh, and if you didn't know, I do update the Ashlia playlist a lot so there may be new songs on spotify.