"Dani! Dani, I really need to talk to you!" Luke chased after me, struggling to follow me as I maneuvered my way down the crowded hallway.

"I need to catch the bus." I glanced behind me at Luke, who hadn't left me alone for almost the whole day.

"It's important!" Luke yelled.

"You always pick really inconvenient times to tell me things like this!" I groaned. It seemed like Luke always decided that we needed to talk right when I had somewhere to be, or someone else to talk to.

"I've been trying to talk to you about this for the longest time!" Luke huffed. When we reached the front of the school I stopped walking and turned around to face Luke, figuring that I had a few seconds to spare for him to tell me whatever it was that was so important.

"What is it?" I sighed.

"I can't tell you here." Luke shook his head, his eyes darting from person to person as they passed by us.

"Then why are you making such a big deal about talking to me about it?" I questioned, letting out another groan. "Can't you just call me later tonight or something?"

"No, I want to talk about it in person." Luke said, looking around again.

"Then I really don't know what to tell you." I sighed. I anxiously tapped my foot against the ground as I waited for Luke to just give up and leave. It was the last day of school before our winter break, and I was eager to get home and do nothing for the next two weeks.

"See, if you weren't so busy running of with Michael all the - " I cut Luke off, not believing what he had just said.

"Michael?"

"Yes, Michael. I've seen you sneaking around with him. You're lucky that Ashton hasn't, or he'd want to kill both of you." Luke scoffed. I backed away from him, not understanding how he would know this. The only times I've ever talked to Michael in public was when we were completely alone, I made sure of it.

"S-Sneaking around?" I stammered, shaking my head again.

"I saw him taking you into that janitors closest that one day, and whenever you walk with me to math class we pass by Michael and he winks at you." Luke explained. I mentally slapped myself in the face, of course my friendship with Michael wasn't just going to go unnoticed, someone was going to find out eventually.

"Well, we're kind of friends. He lives with Ashton, we've hung out a few times." I shrugged, trying to play it off. I didn't think it was going to work, Luke was way to smart to just brush something like this off. Luckily I had known Luke for a while, and I knew that he wasn't the type of person to go and tell Ashton about it.

"Are you cheating on Ashton with him?" Luke asked, "Are you and Michael secretly hooking up?"

"Didn't you have something you wanted to say?" I almost yelled, trying to ignore Luke's questions. I was not cheating on Ashton and I wasn't planning on secretly hooking up with Michael either, I would never do something like that to Ashton.

"Dammit Dani, I told you I can't do it here!" Luke yelled, stomping his foot on the ground.

"Then call me after Christmas!" I shouted, finally turning away from him and heading towards my bus. I was fed up with Luke accusing me like that, after bothering me for the longest time about having something important to say and then not saying it. I knew that it was going to be about Brooke anyway, it wasn't even a big deal.

Thankfully I made it to the bus before it left, and Ashton was saving me a seat. The bus was unusually crowded today, since we were all getting off for our break and everyone was taking it. I sighed as I sat down next to Ashton, still frustrated about the conversation I had with Luke just minutes before.

"What's wrong?" Ashton asked, noticing that I wasn't talking about my day like I normally did.

"Luke's being annoying." I said, just barely glancing at Ashton out of the corner of my eye.

"What did he say?" Ashton asked quickly, snapping his head up in my direction.

"Nothing, but he apparently has something really important to tell me." I rolled my eyes.

"He still hasn't told you what he called about last weekend?" Ashton asked. I gave him a confused look as he stared back at me, trying to remember when Luke had called me last weekend. Then I remembered that he didn't and it was Michael who called, but I said it was Luke to cover that up.

"Uh? No, he hasn't." I nodded.

"It must not be a very big deal, then, if he won't just tell you." Ashton said, letting out another nervous chuckle.

"I don't think it is. He would have told me what it was by now if it was something important." I shrugged. Ashton put an arm around my shoulders, scooting me closer to him.

"Now I'm mad at Luke." Ashton mumbled, his lips close to my ear.

"Why?" I asked, tilting my head back to look at him.

"He made you upset." Ashton pouted, looking down at me.

"You're adorable." I quickly kissed him on the cheek before pushing him away from me slightly, since he was practically on top of me.

I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket so I took it out, careful to make sure Ashton wasn't looking over my shoulder as I read the new text message. He wasn't, thankfully, he had his own phone out and was scrolling though it.

There were texts from two different people this time, instead of the multiple texts I usually received from Michael. The first one was from Brooke, complaining about how much she hated living with her dad.

It's only been a week since Brooke moved in with her dad, and she was not enjoying it. She's always saying how strict he is, now that he knows the real reason why she moved in. I knew that things had been tense between Brooke and I lately, but we were trying to look past that. She had and still has a lot of things going on, and that's why she had been lashing out on everyone. But pretty soon she'll be back in town and things will return to normal, and hopefully in a much better mood.

The next text - or texts, since a few more came in seconds later - were obviously from Michael.

Are u and ash fucking tonight?? I need the house

like... I need it to be empty

just go to your house please

AND TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT FOR CHRISTMAS DAMMIT

I laughed quietly as I typed a reply back to Michael, telling him that I would make sure Ashton hung out at my house for a little while. That's what we were planning to do anyway. My parents were supposed to be on business trip all day today and tomorrow, but were going to be home for Christmas. Not like I really cared, because it wouldn't make a difference if they were here or not.

"What's so funny?" Ashton asked, startling me as he squeezed my side. I locked my phone just in time, so he didn't see who I was talking to.

"Just something Brooke texted me." I smiled back at Ashton.

I couldn't take this anymore, the next time I talked to Michael I was going to ask if I could tell Ashton that we were speaking. He might be mad at me, but I think that the longer I wait the more upset he's going to get. I hated lying to him and sneaking around like this, it shouldn't even be a very big deal. Honestly, Michael needed to get over himself, his little silent treatment was getting kind of old.

"Oh, alright." Ashton shrugged. "Do you want to come over tonight?"

Remembering what Michael had just texted me, I shook my head. "We should go to my house."

"Why? Won't your parents be there?" Ashton asked.

He was terrified of my parents now, even my dad. After the whole dinner situation last weekend I talked to my mom again, who decided that she would act civil around Ashton from now on. She also told me to pass her apology on to Ashton, though it wasn't very sincere that way. He accepted it, but that didn't mean that he was totally fine with being around all the time. It wasn't a totally perfect situation but for now it was going to work.

"They're out until tomorrow night." I bit my lip, knowing that Ashton was probably going to jump at the chance to be in an empty house with me.

"So... hypothetically, I could sleep over and they wouldn't even know." Ashton laughed, bringing the hypotheticals back.

"Yes, if we want to get hypothetical again." I rolled my eyes at him, letting out a small giggle.

"I love getting hypothetical with you." Ashton sighed deeply, standing up as the bus pulled up to our stop.

"I know you do." I held my hand out for Ashton to take as we made our way down the aisle of the bus, passing by the underclassmen that were still buzzing from excitement over the winter break.

"Murphy!" Ashton yelled as we got off of the bus, "Why don't you ever wear a coat?"

"It's not that cold!" I defended, shivering as the world left my mouth. It really wasn't as cold as Ashton always made it seem, the weather was still pretty nice here even though it was winter already. I didn't need a coat to walk half of a block back to my house.

"Your hands are freezing." Ashton said, taking both of my hands in one of his and bringing them up to his mouth. He blew gently on them, increasing the temperature just slightly.

"Maybe it's your hands that are freezing." I argued back, playfully pulling my hands away from Ashton. I ran away from him, heading down the block and towards my house.

"Murphy, baby, come back!" Ashton yelled, chasing after me.

I made it to the front door and quickly unlocked it, throwing my bag down on the floor as soon as I got inside. I tried to shut the door on Ashton, but he was too fast and already had half of his body through before I started to close it. Once he was fully inside, he dropped his things at his feet, before lunging towards me again.

I giggled and turned away, running into the kitchen. Ashton followed close behind me, trying to grab at my waist as I ran around in circles around the kitchen. I picked up a banana that was lying out on the counter and chucked it at Ashton, hoping that it would distract him enough and allow me to find a new place to try and run to. We were acting like children, but neither of us seemed to care at the moment.

"Was that a banana?" Ashton laughed, barely glancing at it as the piece of fruit hit the floor.

"No." I said innocently. I stopped running and stayed behind one side of the island, while Ashton stayed at the other.

"I think it was." Ashton countered, slowing inching towards me.

"It wasn't." I laughed, taking another step in Ashton's direction.

"Yes it was."

"No it wasn't."

"Yes."

"No."

"I know a banana when I see one, Murphy." Ashton smirked, still making his way towards me.

I shrugged, then took one more step closer to Ashton, who was a lot closer to me now that it had been. "Then maybe it was."

"Are we really arguing about a banana?" Ashton breathed out, trying to catch his breath from all of the circles he just ran trying to catch me. He reached out and grabbed me by my hips, dragging me closer to him.

"I think we are, Irwin." I bit my lip. Ashton turned me around so I was leaning against the island for a second before he lifted me up, sitting me down on top of it.

"Let's do something else, Murphy." Ashton let out a low laugh before forcefully pressing his lips to mine, closing the gap that had once separated us.

I brought my hands up to the nape of his neck, tugging at the ends of Ashton's hair as I wrapped my legs around his torso and pulled him closer to me. He kept one hand at my face, cupping my cheek, while the other traveled down my side and found a place under the hem of my shirt. I felt his tongue swipe over my bottom lip and I gave him access to my mouth, which only heated up the kiss even more. Ashton moaned softly as I continued to play with his hair, and he brought the hand that was once on my cheek down to my other side, where he then worked on trying to snake both of hands as far up my shirt as possible.

"Why is there a - Oh!"

Ashton and I pulled away the second we heard my dad's voice, both of us silently praying that he didn't see much of what had been going on. I wasn't looking forward to my dad chasing Ashton out of the house again.

"Dad!" I yelped, pushing Ashton farther away from me. "I thought you were on a business trip!"

My dad looked between Ashton and I for a moment with a harsh look on his face, but it softened less than a second later. "Dani, get off of the island before your mother comes down."

Ashton held out a hand for me and helped me as I jumped off of the island, steadying myself by grabbing on to Ashton's shoulder. My dad bent down and picked up the banana off of the floor. He tossed it to Ashton, who caught it with his one free hand.

"I didn't think either of you were going to be home." I continued, feeling my face get hot due to the embarrassment.

"There was a change in plans, we're leaving tonight and staying a few extra days." My dad said slowly, nodding. He turned around at the sound of someone - my mother, obviously - coming down the stairs.

"Charles, who are you - Oh, Danielle, you're home already." My mom sighed, entered the kitchen. She looked at Ashton, then glanced down the banana in his hands. "Why do you have a banana?"

"Just a healthy after-school snack, ma'am." Ashton smiled at her as he began to peal the banana, his face just as red as mine.

"A few extra days?" I asked my dad, my mind still on what he had said before. "How many extra days?"

"Oh, three, maybe four. Or five, even." My mom sighed, walking over to a drawer in the kitchen counter. She pulled out a big white envelope and handed it to me. "Just use this money while we're gone if you need anything."

"You won't be home for Christmas?" I asked, suddenly feeling a lump grow in my throat. I know that I said earlier that I couldn't care less if my family was with me on Christmas, because I assumed that they were going to be there anyway. But it was different now, now I was actually going to have to be all alone.

"Probably not, I'm sorry." My dad said, glancing at Ashton again.

"We've already added your Christmas present to your bank account, so you can start using it a few days early." My mom shrugged, like she didn't even care that we wouldn't be spending Christmas together. Even though we didn't usually get along, it would still be so strange to just spend Christmas without her and my dad. I wasn't sure if I really wanted that.

"Oh, okay." I nodded slowly, taking Ashton's hand again. "Have a good trip and everything, I'll see you in a few days."

I pulled Ashton after me as I left the room, wanting to get upstairs and away from my parents as soon as I could. I slammed my bedroom door behind Ashton and I and began pacing back and forth, not understanding exactly why I was feeling this way.

"Are you upset again?" Ashton asked, taking a seat on my bed.

"Just a little." I said, still pacing in front of him. I didn't want to be upset about this, but I was. I know that my family never does anything big for Christmas anyway, but now it was like the day didn't even exist. It was just any other normal day. I just never expected to actually have to spend the holiday completely alone.

"I'm sorry, Murph. I'm sorry that you always have a sucky Christmas." Ashton sighed, running his fingers through his hair.

"It's not your fault." I sighed as well and sat down next to Ashton, who was already holding his arms out for me. I crawled onto Ashton's lap and he wrapped his arms around me, leaning his head on my shoulder like he always did when we were in a position like this.

"I wish I could do something." Ashton said quietly, pressing a kiss to my neck.

"What are you doing for Christmas?" I asked. If Ashton wasn't going to be doing anything big, maybe I could just spend some of the day with him, then I wouldn't be so lonely.

"Michael and I are spending the day at my mom's house." He replied, his lips still attached to my skin.

"Could I - " I stared to say, but stopped myself. I didn't want to invite myself over to Ashton's mom's house for Christmas, I wouldn't want to impose on whatever they had planned. It might be awkward, anyway, I've never even met Ashton's mom before.

"Yeah, I don't think that's a very good idea." Ashton mumbled.

I tried to stay silent and not bother Ashton about why that wasn't a good idea, but I couldn't help myself. "Why not?"

"I don't know, Murphy, I just don't think we're...ready." Ashton hesitated before speaking, like he was putting a lot of thought into his words. He was probably trying his best not to upset me and start a fight, because those never ended very well.

"Ready?" I questioned. "I'm not asking to move in, I'm - " I stopped myself again, not wanting to turn this into a big deal. I climbed off of Ashton's lap and sat down in front of him, crossing my legs over themselves.

"Dani," Ashton started, and I knew that this wasn't going to be good. "I like you, a lot, I'm just scared that my mom won't. She's kinda crazy about all this girlfriend stuff, and it took her almost two years to warm up to Kenzie."

Ashton swallowed hard at the mention of Kenzie and he looked down at his lap, tearing his gaze away from mine. "I just don't know what she would think, if I brought you over to meet my entire family when we haven't even been dating that long."

"I just don't know...if we're at that level yet." Ashton finished.

Sure, it hurt a little that Ashton didn't think we were "at that level" where he would introduce me to his whole family, but I knew that he had a reason to feel that way. One of the most important parts of our relationship had always been making sure that Ashton was comfortable with all of it, and that's what I had agreed to. I understand what he's been through and I never want to try and force him to do something he doesn't want to. Sometimes it was hard, but I really liked Ashton, and I was willing to wait on these things.

"So... Your mom would freak out if you brought me home because we haven't been dating for long?" I asked, clarifying for myself. I wasn't upset, just a little confused. Ashton had no problem introducing me to his dad, I didn't really think that he would have a problem introducing me to his mom when the time came.

"She's kind of crazy sometimes, yeah." Ashton said, giving me a small smile.

"Is she as crazy as my mom?" I laughed.

"No one is crazier than your mom." Ashton shook his head, leaning in and bringing his lips to mine in one swift movement.

"Ashton, I - " I tried to move away for a second to say something, but Ashton pulled me back.

"Shh." He mumbled, grabbing my waist and pulling me into his lap again, this time with different intentions.

"Ash - " I tried to speak again when Ashton's lips moved down to my neck, but it was really no use.

"Stop it." Ashton giggled against my neck, his lips sending small vibrations across my skin. I brought my hands back up to his hair, letting my fingers tangle in it as Ashton's hands traveled all over my body.

"Let's talk about music." I said, not really in the mood to make out anymore. It wasn't that I wasn't enjoying myself, because I really was, I just didn't like the way that kissing was all Ashton and I seemed to do anymore. I was beginning to miss how it used to be, when we would discuss our favorite songs and Ashton and I would share cigarettes.

"What kind of music?" Ashton muttered, his lips trailing over my neck and up to my lips again. He kissed the corner of my mouth, still allowing me to speak.

"Any kind." I said, finally pulling myself off of Ashton and laying down on the bed beside him. "What's your favorite song at the moment?"

Ashton just crawled on top of me again, using both hands to hold himself above me. He leaned down and kissed my neck, his lips slowly making their way down to my collarbones and the parts of my chest that my shirt wasn't covering at the moment.

"I've been listening to Under The Gun by The Killers a lot." He answered half heartedly, leaning down farther and bringing a hand to my hip, his fingers finding themselves under the hem of my shirt again. "What's your favorite right now?"

"I can't pick." I sighed, a little angry that Ashton was still focusing on kissing me rather than actually having a conversation.

"Too many to choose from?" Ashton chuckled, moving my shirt farther up my stomach and exposing more of me.

"Maybe." I shrugged, bringing my hands up to Ashton's face and making his eyes meet mine.

"What's wrong?" He asked, finally realizing that I hadn't been acting completely like myself.

"Nothing." I lied, shaking my head. Ashton crawled off of me and sat up on the bed, now looking down at me. He gave me a small half smile as he waited for me to say something else.

"You seem a little...distant." He finally said.

"I'm not trying to be." I said as I sat up, crossing my legs over one another once again.

"Did I do something wrong?" Ashton asked, cocking his head to the side.

"No, no, of course you didn't." I shook my head, lying once again.

"Is it what I said about my mom?" Ashton's head shot up, like he just discovered something important. He brought a hand up and rubbed the back of his neck, nervously biting a his bottom lip.

"No, Ashton, it wasn't that." I sighed.

"Is it about your parents? Are you still upset that they won't be here for Christmas?" Ashton suggested, determined to figure out exactly why I was acting like this. I doubted that he ever would find out, it wasn't something that was going to be completely obvious.

"No, not really." I mumbled, letting my eyes travel back down to my lap.

"Baby, just tell me what's up." Ashton sighed, taking my hands in his. I felt butterflies in my stomach at the use of his little nickname, but as I discovered earlier, I really wasn't in the mood for any of this right now. I was stressed out about more than a few things at the moment, and I didn't mean to take it all out on Ashton, but I did and as bad as I felt I wished he would just leave me alone for a second.

"Nothing's wrong." I snapped, making Ashton flinch.

"Do you want me to go home?" He asked, dropping my hands again. He backed away from me and crawled off of the bed, still watching me as he started to head for the door.

"No." I finally spoke, just as Ashton was about to reach for the doorknob.

He walked back over to my bed and climbed on again, slowly crawling over to me with a big smile on his face. He pulled me down with him as he fell back, our heads landing in the mess of pillows by the headboard. I turned over and buried my face into Ashton's chest letting his arms wrap around me as we silently laid together.

"I'm sorry, Dani," Ashton whispered, "For whatever I did. I'm sorry."

It wasn't Ashton's fault that I was acting like this, and I felt awful that he thought that he did. It was my fault for falling in love with him when all I originally wanted was to become friends with him. And now that I knew that I loved him, I couldn't tell him, because Ashton wasn't ready to hear that. It sucked, that the person I loved wasn't exactly letting me tell them how I felt, but I couldn't control it. I didn't get to control how Ashton acted, even though sometimes I wish I could have.

I wanted to tell Ashton that I loved him, but I was too scared to hear his response. I didn't want him to be too scared to love me back.

-

WELL IT GOT KINDA DEEP THERE DIDNT IT

THIS WAS ACTUALLY AN EXTREMELY IMPORTANT CHAPTER AND I HOPE YOU ALL LIKED IT GOODNIGHT

AND GO LISTEN TO THE SONG ASHTON MENTIONED CUZ THATS IMPORTANT TOO