I almost ignored Tom as I walked out of his car, only sending a polite smile his way. Ashton needed the car for something, which led me to taking the taxi to go to work. I was planning to take one again to get home, but Tom 'kindly' offered to take me there; I came to the conclusion that his high-school-phase never ended.

"See you tomorrow at work, yeah?" He smiled, giving me a bright smile.

"Sure," I pressed my lips in a tight line and smiled too, slamming the door shut before he could say something else. I pretended to rummage through my purse as I walked to my building, and sighed in relief when I heard an engine roaring, indicating that he was leaving, finally. My relief soon ended, as I started climbing the stairs up to my apartment.

I was surprised that I didn't trip over my own feet as I thought; work was my main problem, of course. Not Tom, or my parents, Ashton, not even a certain colleague that left me beyond confused after a fight three weeks ago, could compare to how moody I was because of my students; I was beginning to understand why Maria was flipping out when her whole class failed a test.

I unlocked the door and walked in, all the while mumbling profanities under my breath. The thought of having to mark the other half of the tests was almost making it sick; one B. There was only one B in the first half, and the rest were all either D's and F's. I don't understand, do those kids not know English? Is it me? Am I a bad teacher? Was I too-

"Babe? Babe!" I nearly fell over while getting my shoes off, becoming even more pissed off when I heard Ashton's voice. He picked the absolute perfect timing to scare the shit out of me.

"What?" I snapped back, walking over to the opened bedroom door, where he was stood, changing his shirt.

"Aw, did you have a bad day?" He raised his eyebrows at me, soon followed by a wide smile, the same one Tom gave me. I shook my head as he walked toward me; why the hell was Tom on my mind?

I was quite surprised when Ashton wrapped his arms around me; I was also surprised when I didn't feel like pushing him away. Our relationship has always been a little rocky, and that only increased after my parents' visit and my fight with Louis. Apart from being all snuggly at night, it's like we weren't close at all anymore, so him holding me when we were both fully conscious... I liked it.

I took a deep breath and hugged him back, wrapping my ams around his torso. "Yeah," I mumbled into his chest, answering his previous question. "The kids had a test the other day and... well, they did really bad, and now I'm just..."

I didn't finish my sentence; he knew what I was thinking. "It'll be fine," He mumbled in my hair, rubbing my back as he slowly pulled his arms from around me. "Besides, I have some amazing news."

Before I could register his words, he'd completely let go of me, and had started walking to the living room. I stared at the wall in front of me for a few seconds, before turning around and following him.

"What happened?" I quickly asked as I walked into the living room, to see Ashton flipping through some papers. "What's going on? Why are you home and not at work?" I kept asking, suddenly aware that it was 4 in the afternoon and he should have been at the tattoo parlor two hours before.

"I quit my job," He said simply, with a happy smile on his face. I widened my eyes for a second, and felt my heart rate increase at his words.

"What do you mean, you quit your job?" I knew I was angry at him for doing it and not telling me anything about it, but I was too anxious to focus on that in the moment.

"Well..." He started slowly, trying to suppress another wide smile, "I remembered what your dad told me about wanting to be an actor, how it's silly and all... so today, I went out and..."

He suddenly raised several stapled papers, "I got a part in a TV show! Can you believe that?!"

My eyes got even wider as I walked around the table, to once again wrap my arms around him. "That's amazing, love!" I said excitedly, my words muffled by his shirt, before I pulled away a little to look at him. "What's it about?"

"Well, it's a teen comedy-drama that's been going on for like two years, and now I'm in the main cast!" He almost exclaimed, his eyes all shiny. "Anyways, this good-looking guy from England- that's me, just got a degree in English and is going to become a professor in an American high school. I haven't read all of it yet, but I'm so excited to spend my whole day on this!"

Ashton waved the papers in my face, causing me to laugh. "That really is amazing. I'm so proud of you." I stood on my tiptoes to peck his lips, and when I pulled away, his smile was even wider.

"Well then... start packing!" He said with a shrug of his shoulders, as he walked past me again.

"Woah, woah, woah," I said after getting over my second confusion, and turned around. "What do you mean, start packing?" I asked, a breathy laugh leaving my lips.

"Well... I mean, I did mention it's an American school where my character is teaching, right?" He said, obviously confused by my reaction as well.

"Yeah, but... I thought it was a British show," I explained, not realizing how stupid I sounded until after I said it.

Ashton laughed at that, of course. "Babe, why would- you know what, nevermind. I get that you're shocked, so was I. I didn't think I'd be any good at the audition, but look where that's getting us. California!"

"Woah!" I shouted again as he continued walking down the hallway. Luckily he stopped, and sighed as he turned around to face me again.

"What?" He said softly, and I could tell I was getting on his nerves, but it just wasn't something that I could carelessly respond to. It required an actual conversation.

"Ashton, you can't just... you can't just come home and tell me we're moving to California," I said, sighing at the end. He did the same as he walked over to me, a tired-of-your-shit kind of look already on his face.

"What is there to talk about? Lori, it's California. It's Los Angeles. Everything I've dreamed about my whole life."

"Yeah, you have dreamed about," I said defensively, crossing my arms over my chest. "What about me? What about my job, my friends, family?"

Ashton blinked at me twice, "You can be an English teacher in Los Angeles too. They speak English there as well."

I sighed, a bit frustrated, "I'm serious, Ashton. I just... don't want to make a decision so quickly. I really think we should talk about it."

He stared at me for a few seconds, and I was a little surprised when he clenched his jaw at my request. "Alright," He sighed, his mood obviously going down by millions. "What is keeping you so tied to England?"

I frowned, "Everything! My whole life is here! Everyone and everything I love is in south England and I don't want to give it up just like that, for a place I've never been to!"

Ashton breathed out through his nose, his lips pressed in a tight line. "Why do you want to leave England so badly?" I asked back, ignoring his facial expression.

"Because this is what I've wanted to do my whole entire life, Lorena! You finished university, you have a job that you love, don't you think it's my turn?" He gave me a bit of a desperate smile, but I was taking none of it.

"Of course I do, I love you and I do. But I'm your future wife. We're going to have a child together and you're just making all these crazy decisions without me. Just... slow down a little. For us."

The smile on his face faded away entirely, and was replaced by a completely blank expression. It wasn't the first time he'd given me that sort of look, but I became a bit anxious when he kept looking at me like that for a minute straight, and in the end just chuckled and shook his head. What in the world..?

"You know," He started as he rubbed his hands together, "I knew this would happen."

"What?" I shook my head, almost worried.

"You, shitting all over my dreams." Okay, now I definitely was worried.

"Excuse me?"

"I knew you would make it about yourself and ruin the whole thing for me."

I hated how monotone his voice was. It's like he didn't care at all anymore. "I'm not making it about myself, for crying out loud, I'm thinking about both of us! Our life together, the kid we're supposed to have, I'm thinking about all of it! Did you even stop for a second to think abo-"

"Yes!" Ashton yelled at the top of his lungs, literally scaring the living shit out of me. "Yes, I always think about it, don't you dare tell me otherwise! I always think about us, always, and today was no exception. On my way home, I thought about how I'd finally make a career and do something that I love. I thought about what a cute house on the beach we would live in. I thought about how I'd take you out to an expensive restaurant because I finally have enough money on me. I thought about how you would handle spoiled Californian kids from rich families at work. I thought about raising our kid in a warm, sunny place, but not letting them forget where they come from. I thought about how everyone would find him or her interesting because of his or her weird, British accent."

He stopped for a moment to take a breath, "I think about all of this, all the time, I really do. And you, you just..."

Oh, shit, here it comes; I'd been holding my breath during his entire speech, but I don't think it'll be anything like this.

"You're a completely different story." He continued, "Whenever I'd do something, you would always get yourself involved, and I would never, ever make a problem about it, because it's you, and I love you."

Ashton took a few steps closer, and I could feel it coming. "But God fucking forbid that I try to be a part of something you do! It's like, when I'm doing something, it's us, but when you're doing something, it's you and only you! It's always about you, it's never about me or even us. Everything is just brought down to you."

"How..." I decided to interrupt him, while I still wasn't crying and could talk properly. "How can you say something like that? I love you, I love you so much, do you even know how much I've put into this relationship?"

"Yes, I know exactly," He said quickly and firmly, with a slight smile of disbelief on his face. Saying that his reaction surprised me would be an understatement.

"I realized in the very beginning that you're a really independent girl, and I loved that about you. But... when we started dating... I tried doing something for us, and you, but every time I pulled my wallet out, you'd jump in with your scholarship, your apartment, car, not to mention the rich parents and all of your other shit."

I almost wanted to tell him my parents weren't rich and use that as an argument. "You don't act like an independent woman, you act like you're my mother and I'm someone who needs to be taken care of, and then you wonder why everyone hates me."

He leaned himself on the table, "It's because of you. You make me seem worthless."

I don't think I've ever stared at someone for as long as I stared at Ashton, processing all of what he'd just told me. A minute passed before I finally walked backwards a little and slumped down onto a chair at the table.

"I'm... sorry," I said stupidly, looking at my fidgeting hands. "I didn't realize I was like that."

When he'd first started talking, I wanted to fight back so badly and tell him that none of it is true, that I'm not like that. But... as he kept throwing everything he'd probably been keeping bottled up for months at me, I realized, he'd just about nailed it. He got everything right, every single little detail, he was right about it. And as shocked at I was because of all of it happening so suddenly, I was embarrassed and ashamed more than anything.

"Yeah," I heard Ashton's voice, cold and without any emotion in it. "You are."

I squeezed my eyes shut tightly at his two little words; they hurt more than anything. The confirmation that I wasn't the caring girlfriend that I thought I was, but a controlling, manipulative monster. Yep. That definitely stung the most.

"You know..." I heard him start again, and glanced up; he was standing by the table, still, calm even. I was upset, and he was just standing there like I was the last thing on his mind; that definitely said a lot.

"For months, a year maybe, I tried... and I mean really, really tried convincing myself that coming up to you that night at that bar wasn't one of the biggest mistakes I made in my life. But now..."

I started shaking my head, more frantically with each passing second as I stood up; I could definitely listen to him talk about us and me that way, but enough is enough. And if he said the words that I thought he was going to say, I would probably hate myself forever.

"No," I whispered desperately, on the edge of tears as I took tiny steps toward him. "No, please, don't-"

"I'm almost completely sure it was."

Dammit. He said it.

*******

~A/N~

I think you can predict the importance of the next chapter.. c: vote and comment? ily x