#ashben

“Well, so far it looks like going with your ideas doesn’t work!” Tyler threw his arms at the air, stepping forward towards Ashlyn who flinched slightly at both the sudden movement and raise in volume. 

“Please,” Taylor put a hand on Tyler's shoulder, “Let’s calm down—” “—Calm down?! NO!” Tyler pushed her away with gritted teeth. “I CAN’T DEAL WITH THIS RIGHT NOW!” He grunted as he whipped his head back to Ashlyn.

“Hey!” Aiden stepped in front of Ashlyn. “Lower your voice, have some respect for her…” Aiden glanced at Ashlyn before looking back at Tyler with a strained smile. “Shut it, psycho! You of all people should NOT BE TELLING ME TO HAVE RESPECT FOR PEOPLE!” Tyler shouted back, stepping forward. Aiden’s eye twitched and as he was about to say something, he was interrupted by Taylor.

“Stop fighting!” She balled her hands into fists. “If we all just calm down and talk like civilized people, we can do this without shouting,” She tried to reason but the heat of the situation has grown too far. “I’m done with civilizied!” Tyler pushed Aiden away and jabbed his finger on Ashlyn. “You are taking this situation far too lightly!” He furrowed his brows as a vein began bulging on his neck. 

“I am not!” Ashlyn found it in her to shout back, stepping forward. “I am being calm about it, big difference,” She remarked with a slight tease in her tone which Tyler seemed to catch and grow even more aggravated. “You being calm isn’t getting us anywhere!” He pushed her back which caused her to stumble against Logan. 

“Tyler!” Taylor pulled him away.

“Ashlyn, you okay?” Logan helped Ashlyn find her footing as the twins continued to argue.

“Hey, watch where you put your hands, half-wit!” Aiden shouted at Tyler which began to cause a fight between the two.

“Ashlyn?” Logan reached for her but she stepped away. 

“They’re too loud!”  She thought as she slapped her hands over her ears and ran away from the scene. She gasped as she found herself inside a bus, running to a seat near the middle. She could still hear their shouting and she didn’t even know how far she was from them at that point but she had her hands over her ears as she sat down, her knees to her chest.

She let out shaky breaths as she tried to regain her composure and as she did, she lowered her hands and shut her eyes. “Breathe, Ashlyn…” She told herself before she felt the bus rock as someone got on. Then she snapped her eyes open as a loud crash was heard only to see Ben panting heavily at the entrance of the bus, chest rising and dropping repeatedly. His face was dark as a vein bulged on the side of his chin, his brows were furrowed in a way Ashlyn hadn’t seen before.

It…scared her.

Then she found out where the loud crash was from, his phone was on the floor with the screen cracked but her attention was diverted as Ben kicked the driver’s seat and took the headrest off before throwing it at the window.

Ashlyn flinched and clasped her hands over her ears as a little gasp left her lips, her eyes shut as she felt herself tremble.

Never had Ben scared her like that and now she wished she was in a different bus as she opened her eyes to see Ben picking up his phone and lifting it in the air, ready to throw it again before he spotted Ashlyn and the scary look in his eyes disappeared.

He dropped the phone and stepped away, his eyes widened and the corner of his brows knitted upwards. Then he quickly approached her, hands reaching out to her before he pulled them away, biting on his lips as his eyes darted around Ashlyn.

“B-Ben, I’m okay…” She lowered her hands, the trembling in her voice and body far too obvious for Ashlyn to hide. 

And it was far too obvious to convince Ben her words were true.

He backed away and rushed out of the bus and she watched as it rocked with his leave. She looked at the broken window before looking down at her hand, her fingers twitching slightly as the memory of the crash was so loud in her ears—they were still ringing.

Then the bus rocked again as Ben came back, his sketchbook and pencil in hand along with something else she couldn’t figure out until he was close to her. Her noise canceling headphones.

He put the pencil and sketchbook down which revealed it had an apology written on it as he offered her the headphones. “Thank you…” She took the headphones and removed her earbuds, the shouting from the middle of the graveyard suddenly coming back and making her ears ring. 

“Gah—” She dropped the buds and put her hands over her ears, eyes shutting and knees closing in as she tried to silence the shouts. Then she felt Ben’s hand over hers and she opened her eyes to see he was in front of her. He had worry painted all over his face and guilt in his eyes.

Now she was beginning to feel guilty.

She watched as he let go of her hands and put the headphones on her head and she let go of her ears, letting the noise canceling headphones do their job. Ben’s chest dropped as he puffed air out his nose. He picked up the sketchbook and pencil and began writing something before turning it to Ashlyn.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were also on the bus and I was being reckless. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Ashlyn felt her heart melt at the apology and she looked back at Ben. “It’s okay,” Her voice wasn’t as shaky as it was before since she’s finally got ahold of herself. She watched as he looked away with his eyes dropping slightly.

She could only guess what he was thinking, something that wasn’t written in his updated apology.

“Ben, are you upset because I saw you like that?” She asked and his eyes snapped to her. “It’s okay, we all have our moments,” She assured him but he shook his head and faced the sketchbook toward him as he flipped the page and began writing something.

“You were already overwhelmed with the shouting and I only added more to that. And I could’ve gone rogue on you, people have their moments but mine are dangerous, I could’ve hurt you even more.”

Ashlyn felt her heartstrings get tugged at as she read the message and she looked back at Ben to see his eyes beginning to well. “But you didn’t…” She patted the spot beside her, offering for him to sit with her but he hesitated at first before sitting down.

“I’m okay, Ben, you didn’t hurt me,” She turned her head to him and felt even more disappointed as he shook his head, frowning as he continued to write.

“I should’ve stopped Tyler from pushing you, even Aiden was able to fight back but I couldn’t do anything to help you. You do so much for us and I can’t do enough because of my mistakes that I could’ve repeated. I let anger take over me.”

“You do a lot for us too,” She told him with a soft voice. “You heal our wounds and you already helped me by bringing me my headphones, don’t look down on yourself,” She turned to him and felt happier now that his face has lightened. He nodded slowly but his gaze was still averted.

“I forgive you, Ben. And I’m sure you would never hurt me.”

Ben finally looked back at her with soft eyes as a small smile grew on his face. 

And she felt herself do the same.