Take Me Home Tonight

"Maddie aren't you going to eat?" Ashley asked, looking over to me from across the table as I scooped a small piece of scrambled egg onto my fork and watched it fall limply back down onto the plate.
I sighed quietly, not wanting to have to deal with him trying to coax me into eating any more than I already had.
Once the two of us had ordered our food, Ashley had no problem digging in while I, on the other hand, simply did my best to choke down a few bites of omelette without overthinking it.
I knew that it had been my idea to come to breakfast, but it seemed that the second food was actually, physically set out in front of me, I seemed to have lost all the nerve I'd previously mustered up and could barely manage to stomach any of it.
"I ate!" I said, maybe a bit too defensively as I gestured to the few small bites I'd taken out from the side of my veggie omelette.
Ashley raised an eyebrow at me, probably confused as to why I was being so snappy about such a simple question. "Sorry," I mumbled, staring back down at the mess of food on my plate. "I'm just not feeling too hot right now," I said lamely, hoping that he'd buy the excuse without any further questions.
The truth was, lately I'd been doing my best to improve my eating habits. It sounded weird to say or think, but it was the truth. Throughout the past few weeks, I could really feel myself, my motivation and even my work steadily deteriorating because of how tired and fatigued I always was.
I wasn't eating nearly as much as I should've been, and I knew that. But since no one else seemed to notice, I decided it was best for me to do the same an simply not pay it much attention.
As of now, though, I didn't know how much longer I could keep ignoring the constant feelings of exhaustion that plagued me. Sure, a large part of me told me that I deserved to feel this run-down and useless all the time, but what little sanity I had left in the matter begged me to do something to stop all of the unnecessary suffering.
There was no doubt that I was at some sort of an internal crossroads. It was either, I started making changes now so I could eventually feel better or I'd dive back in head first to my own decline. Naturally, the first option sounded much more pleasant than the latter, but the second one was the easier choice.
"It's fine," Ashley said, quickly dismissing my apology and now shifting his concern to my sudden claim of illness. "What's wrong?" he asked, looking at me with slight worry in his eyes. "Migraine?" he asked, as I clutched my temple between my thumb and forefingers.
He was partially right with his assumption. I did have a pretty bad headache since I hadn't eaten anything this morning aside from coffee and yesterday my food intake had consisted solely of a Nature Valley bar, water and two cans of Coke-- diet, of course.
"I-"I started to say, before he suddenly began fishing through his jeans pocket, "Hold on," he said, before promptly pulling out a small travel-sized capsule of Excedrin tablets and handing them over to me.
I chuckled slightly. "Thanks," I said, taking the plastic tube of painkillers from him, "but can I ask why the hell you just so happen to have these with you?" I questioned with a hint of laughter playing in my voice.
It was so unlike Ashley to be overly prepared. He was actually the kind of person who would forget important items at home on a regular basis-- definitely not the type to plan ahead under any circumstances.
Looking slightly embarrassed, he gave me a small smile before launching into explanation. "Okay, so do you remember that time like, maybe a few weeks after we met, when you were over at my place drawing up tattoos?" he asked, looking over at me as I stared back at him blankly. When Ash and I had first met, if he wasn't on tour, with the guys or fucking Kina, he was hanging out with me when I was doing sketches for clients.
"That's not especially specific," I pointed out before twisting open the plastic container and popping four Excedrin into my mouth at once. Not bothering to take a sip of water along with it, I downed them all dry while Ashley picked at his already chipping black nail polish.
"It was the time you had that really bad migraine and I kept trying to get you to lay down, but you were bing stubborn, as always," he went on describing the time to me as I did my best to try and recall the event he was referencing.
"Oh shit," I whispered in a low voice, locking eyes with him as he nodded at me, now understanding that I had realized what he was talking about.
"Oh god, Ash," I laughed at him, "Do you mean the time when you gave me Aleve for my migraine and I had an allergic reaction?" I asked with a small smile playing on my lips. I had thought that the whole ordeal was comical mainly because of how freaked out Ashley had been.
The story went something like him not knowing that I was allergic to Naproxen and giving me a handful of tiny blue painkillers that, to me, looked like a generic version of Ibuprofen, which would've been okay for me to take. Honestly, at the time my head was pounding so hard, I was ready to just down all of them to make it stop. So naturally, I did.
Needless to say, after a few minutes my face had started feeling incredibly weird and judging from the look on Ashley's face at the time, I was beginning to have quite the visible allergic reaction to it-- puffy skin, puffy lips, hives, the whole deal.
"Maddie I'm so sorry about that, I didn't even think to tell you it was Aleve," he said, looking embarrassed again as I let out a small chuckle in response. "Ash it's fine. You didn't know that I was allergic," I said, as he grimaced at the memory.
"I'm not even going to lie," he said, taking a sip of coffee as he stared across the table at me with soft eyes, "I was so fucking scared. Your reaction was killer," he remarked as I felt a light blush creeping onto my cheeks. It was actually kind of cute to see Ashley care about something, or someone, for once.
"So that's why you're carrying Excedrin?" I asked with a laugh as he nodded in response. "I mean, it does the same thing as Aleve, it just doesn't have that Naproxen stuff in it," he explained causing me to grin at how lame he was being about this.
"I usually just carry it on me in case I see you," he went on, "I know you get migraines a lot, but I figured it'd be beneficial for the both of us if you take painkillers that won't literally kill you," he said, grinning sheepishly at me.
"Well, thanks for that Ash, I appreciate it" I said, reaching across the table and gingerly resting my hand on top of his, causing his smile to widen slightly. Sometimes he was just such a dork.
"So," he said, suddenly changing the subject on me, "I heard that C.C. invited you to the show tonight," he said, looking up at me with a glint of excitement in his eyes. "Are you coming?"
I shifted somewhat uncomfortably in my seat. I really didn't want to have to deal with running into my cousin. I knew that she and Ashley weren't official or anything, but it never stopped her from hanging all over him in her skimpy little showgirl outfits and making me extremely annoyed, not to mention maybe a little bit jealous as well.
"Maddie, please come tonight" he said, locking eyes with me before enveloping my hand, which was still resting atop his into his grip and giving it a light squeeze. Instantly, I felt butterfly wings tickling the inside of my otherwise empty stomach and a scarlet blush spreading like wildfire across my cheeks.
"Is that a blush I see?" he asked, shooting me one of his signature Ashley smirks before leaning in slightly across the table and using his free hand to brush my burning cheek with his fingertips. "W-what?" I stammered, now more embarrassed than I'd been around Ash in awhile, "I-I'm not blushing" I said, lamely and causing his smirk to deepen.
"Oh right," he said, looking over at me smugly. "It must just be because I'm so hot," he said, causing me to cock an eyebrow at him in confusion. "Your face must've gotten sunburned from looking at me for too long," he joked, suddenly breaking out into a full on smile as I blushed harder in response. God damn my skin for being so fucking pale.
"I hope you know that I'm taking your blushing silence as a 'yes' to coming to the show tonight," he said, dropping his hand from my cheek and letting it fall back down onto the table. I rolled my eyes at him. "Fine, Ashley," I sighed in defeat, "I'll come see you at the show tonight," I said, causing his chocolate brown eyes to gleam with excitement.
"Really?" he asked, beaming at me now as I shot back a small grin in response, "Well, were you really going to let me say no?" I asked rhetorically as he gave me a dumbfounded look. "Um, have you met me?" he snorted, causing me to laugh.
"Hi, I'm Ashley and I'm going to insist that you come see myself and the rest of Black Veil Brides perform tonight" he said jokingly as if we'd never met before. I rolled my eyes. "Hi, I'm Maddie and I'm going to give into your persistent request because I know that I'll never hear the end of it if I don't," I responded back curtly, as he chuckled before offering me his hand.
"Pleased to meet your acquaintance, Maddie," he winked, as I played along and placed my hand into his. Shaking it gently, he looked up at me for a moment before leaning down and planting a soft kiss on the back of my hand.
I felt a small shiver run up my spine at the feeling of having his lips pressed against my skin. Well, fuck. Leave it to Ashley to fluster me just enough so that I'd agree to go to the damn the concert. How typical.

Notes