#ASHTON MADE A STUPID DECISION ALL OF HIS OWN ACCORD | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

calpalirwin · 4 years

Text

According to Plan

A/N: Let’s see how that date goes!

And away, and away we go!

~~~

Chapter 4

Ashton

~~~

“Okay,” Calum said, exasperated as he paused the game after killing my character for the millionth time. “What is it now?”

“Huh?” I responded, shaking my head to clear it. The big date with Madison was soon. Our impending date had been at the forefront of my mind since I’d asked her. No regrets or second thoughts. Just raw nerves. I wanted her to enjoy herself, not push for anything she wasn’t comfortable with. But, it was going to be harder than any other date I’ve been on.

“Madison, stupid,” Riley retorted. “When we said to find a decent girl, we didn’t mean the next girl you see.”

“Crystal practically set us up and now you’re saying you guys don’t like her?”

“She didn’t say that,” Calum defended his girlfriend. “She’s saying don’t fuckin ruin it. Madison’s not like regular girls.”

“That’s what I like about her.”

“Dude. I’m serious. It sounds like she’s been through a lot.”

“Dude, I’m not an asshole. I actually really like her.”

“I know, and I’m just saying be careful.”

“I’m not making a mistake, am I? I mean, as far as girls go, Madison and Claire are on complete opposites.” I was starting to panic. Who asks out a girl they just met? Not just that, but a girl who had a clear communication barrier? I didn’t want to fuck this up, for either of us.

“Good job, Cal, he’s overthinking. You all are. It’s one date, you weirdos,” Sierra put in.

“She’s right,” Luke agreed. “It’s just a date to see how you guys like it. You both know that. Relax, you took Claire on plenty of dates.”

“Yeah, but this is… well…”

“Way fuckin different?” Crystal laughed.

“Yeah.” I looked at my watch. “Shit… I gotta start getting ready.”

An hour later I was pulling up in front of her house. I flipped down my visor and looked at myself in the little mirror one last time. My hair was unruly like it always was. My plaid shirt was unbuttoned, showing my dark blue shirt I had on underneath.

I shut my truck door with my hip, then bounded up to her porch. I took a deep breath to calm any last minute jitters before I knocked on the door.

Mike swung up open the door. “Hey, man. She’s just finishing up. Come on in,” he turned to me again, moving aside so I could step inside.

I followed Mike into the living room where the parents were. The mom looked up. “You must be Ashton,” she greeted, getting up to introduce herself. “I’m Karen, and this is my husband, Daryl.” She nudged her husband who just nodded.

“Nice to meet you, ma’am,” I said, shaking her hand. “Sir,” I turned to the husband to shake his hand as well.

“Mads will just be a minute,” Mrs. Clifford said, shooting a glance at Mike who took that as a cue to run upstairs real quick. “Please, have a seat.” She gestured to the couch and sat back down next to her husband.

“Thanks,” I mumbled, sitting down.

“Are they being weird?” Mike asked me as he came back down the stairs. “They don’t really know what to do. It’s been a while since Mads has had friends. They did the same thing when the girls came over yesterday.” He sighed as he sat down next to me.

“Sweet girls,” the mom commented. “I liked them. It was nice of them to offer to help Madison.” She paused for a moment. “So, Ashton?” she started.

“No,” Mr. Clifford finally spoke. “We told Mads we wouldn’t do that. She made her choice.”

“I’m sorry?” I asked, confused.

“They want to interrogate you. Mads made them promise not to. It’s part of what we do to… uh... normalize her... I guess. Let her make her own decisions about things,” Mike explained.

“Normalize? Really, Mike?” Mrs. Clifford scolded.

Mike rolled his eyes, “Yeah, cause you can explain it so much better…”

“Just be patient,” Mr. Clifford started to tell me. “It might take her a little time for her to read your lips. Do you know sign language?”

“A little, yeah.”

“That’s good. Any bit really helps,” Mrs. Clifford smiled.

Are you interrogating him? Madison signed as she made her descent.

“Just making sure you have a good time on your date, Mads,” her dad said, sounding a little choked up.

Her brow furrowed and then she shrugged. She turned to me, You’re early.

“Were you expecting me to be late?” I asked, getting up off the couch.

I wasn’t expecting anything.

“Oh… You ready to go?”

Yes.

“Okay, well, it was nice meeting you all,” I told her family.

“Nice meeting you, Ashton,” the mom replied.

“Be safe,” her dad said.

“Good luck,” Mike grinned.

I’ll be back later, Madison told them.

“Okay, Mads. Just enjoy yourself, sweetie,” her mom told her.

As we walked out to my truck, I took in how amazing she looked. The dress that cut off at her knees looked great on her small frame. Her hair was down, the blonde locks blowing in the summer wind. “You look beautiful,” I told her as I opened the door for her.

Thanks, she said, then after a pause, Your shirt is nice. I like dark colors.

“Me too,” I answered, before closing her door. “All set?” I asked as I got in on the driver’s side.

She clicked her seatbelt, then nodded.

I turned on the ignition and my radio blasted music through the speakers. She pressed her hand against the speaker, smiling. “You like it?” I asked.

Yes. I like the way it feels. Is it loud?

“My parents think so. I think it’s just as loud as it needs to be.”

She nodded, taking in my words. How loud do like it?

“Loud enough to make me forget about the rest of the world. Helps me process while acting like a barrier. If my music’s loud enough, then it’s just me and the music. No other sounds required.”

She didn’t sign anything in response, but instead turned to look out the window, her hand resting on the speaker as I drove to my house.

Your house is big, she signed when we walked up my drive.

“A little, I guess.” I paused before the front door. “Ready?”

Yes.

I opened the door and led her into the living room where my little brother was on the floor watching television. I tapped him on the shoulder.

He turned and grinned at me. “Hey, Ash! Wanna play a game with me?”

“Later, okay? I got company.”

“Ooo!” he teased. “Mom! Ash and his girlfriend are here!” he hollered.

My cheeks flushed red, just as my sister’s voice called out behind me, “Ew, get a life, Harry. Hey, Ash. Who’s this?”

“Lauren, Harry, this is Madison. Madison, these are my younger siblings.”

Madison smiled and offered a small wave.

“Come on, I’ll introduce you to everyone else,” I told her, holding out my hand for her to take.

She took my hand for a second before pulling away to sign. Who is everyone else?

“Just my mom and my dad. Well, stepdad really. My biological father… well Jeff’s been around since I was 4, so he’s Dad.”

Oh, I’m so sorry…

“It’s fine,” I said, shaking my head. “My actual father’s a jerk, to put it mildly. The perfect example of what I don’t want to be.”

She squeezed my hand, lightly.

“Ready to meet Mom and Dad?” I asked, pushing thoughts of my biological father as far away as possible. It had been years since I brought him up and to think of him left me sick to my stomach. Him and Jeff were the perfect example of what a father was and what a dad was. And I wanted to be a dad someday.

She smiled. Let’s go.

“Okay, come on.” I led her through the hallway to the kitchen. “Hey, Mom,” I greeted.

“Ash, whatever it is, it’ll have to wait. I’m a lit-” my mom stopped mid-rambling to stare at Madison.

“Mom, this is Madison. Madison, this is my mom.”

My mom smiled at her, “It’s nice to meet you, Madison. I’m Anne. Did Ashton offer you anything to eat or drink?”

“Mom…”

“What? Ashton, you need to be a good host. Madison, dear, are you hungry or thirsty? Can I get you anything?”

Madison looked at me, uncertain.

“Mom, Madison’s deaf. You gotta slow down so she can read your lips.”

“Oh, sorry dear. Did you want anything to eat or drink?” she asked, enunciating her words carefully.

I’m okay, Madison told her, thank you.

“Dad in the office?” I asked Mom.

“Yes. More business as usual. Tell him to remember it’s the weekend for me, please.”

“Sure thing,” I sighed. “Come on, Madison. I’ll take you to meet my dad.”

Did you sigh? Are you okay? Madison asked as we walked towards the office.

“Yeah, I’m fine. My mom doesn’t like my dad working on weekends. She thinks that if he won’t listen to her, he might listen to me. Doesn’t always work out, though.”

I could hear my dad’s voice through the office door. I opened it and walked in, Madison following me. He continued his phone conversation, not noticing us. Madison looked at me and I shrugged. I cleared my throat loudly to get his attention.

His head snapped up towards us. “James, I’m gonna need to call you back,” he said, hanging up the phone. “Hi, I’m Jeff, Ash’s dad.”

She nodded politely and shook his hand.

“Nice to meet you. Madison, right?” he asked.

Madison just continued to smile politely.

“Woman of few words, huh?” he joked.

“She’s completely deaf, Dad. But yeah, this is Madison,” I told him.

“Shit, sorry,” my dad said. “Ash told us he was bringing a girl over, but failed to mention... Sorry.”

Madison waved her hand dismissively, accepting his apology.

“She can read lips pretty well,” I explained.

He nodded, an embarrassed smile still on his lips. “Uh, Ash, tell your mom I’ll be another minute,” my dad told me. “James and I were going over the schedule for next week.”

“Oh, well if you need someone, I’m free.”

Ashton, we’ve been over this. Until you finish college, you only work part-time,” my dad said firmly.

I balled my hands into fists, turning to Madison. “Come on, we can go watch the movie, now.” I quickly led her out of the office and upstairs to my room. I needed to get away from him. His emphasis on my getting an education was always a sore spot for me. In my opinion, since I had the skills to work on cars, I should do that rather than waste time in college. I wasn’t going to let it ruin my day though. “Uh, I didn’t think to ask what movies you like. Sorry. I have a lot though, so just go ahead and pick. I’ll go get us some popcorn and drinks.”

Your dad said that you needed to focus on an education, Madison said, putting down her purse, her eyes scanning the DVDs. But you said that you wanted to play soccer and work on cars.

“Yeah. I do. I’m good at school, but it’s not my thing. My dad thinks it should be, though.”

I don’t understand.

“I don’t really want to explain it,” I said.

Did I upset you? I can’t understand tone, sorry.

“It’s not you. My dad just frustrates me sometimes. We don’t always see eye to eye.”

Oh. Did you want to listen to your music?

“It’s fine. I can listen later. Did you find a movie?”

Music makes you feel better, right? I want you to feel better.

I sat down on my bed and stared at her. “You really want to listen to music with me?”

She just looked at me.

“Right,” I muttered. Then, “Are you sure?”

She nodded.

I plugged my phone into my stereo, cranked the volume up, then turned on a music app. “Thanks,” I told her. Claire never wanted to listen to music with me. We always had to do something. It was nice that Madison was more content with staying still.

She nodded and sat down next to me on the bed. She pointed at my stereo. Can you bring it closer so I can touch the speakers? I like the vibrations.

“Sure,” I smiled, setting it next to her. Damn, I thought to myself, I was really starting to like this girl.

I like this date, she signed, laying back on the bed.

“Good, I do too.” I laid back with her. I reached out to grab her hand that wasn’t resting against the speaker.

We stayed like that for so long, my music app stopped, silence crashing down around us. Is this what boyfriends and girlfriends normally do? she signed after a few moments, sitting up.

I sat up to look at her so she could see my lips while I signed. “I haven’t, but I imagine there are couples who do. Why?”

Is this what you would want to do if we were a couple?

“It would be one of the things. I’d also take you places, and we’d do things you like to do. There would be a lot more hand-holding. Kissing, too.”

I like doing this. I don’t think I’m ready for kissing, though. But, I do like the hand-holding. With you, anyway. I’m not sure about other people.

“Well, that’s the cool part of being a couple. You only date each other.”

You’re really nice to me.

“Well, yeah. I like you.”

Would you be nice if you didn’t like me?

“I would be nice to you regardless of how I felt. Nobody deserves to be treated badly. But, yeah, I do actually like you.

Why?

“Some of it has to do with the fact that I find you attractive. But, more of it has to do with the fact that I just genuinely like you. You’re also a nice person. You were willing to do something that made me feel better, even though you didn’t have to.”

She took a moment to respond, no doubt thinking over my words. Processing them slowly. Okay, she finally signed. I like dating you. I would like to continue dating you. But, you have to promise to be honest with me. And patient because it takes me a while to process what you say. My lack of response doesn’t mean I wasn’t paying attention. I just need more time than hearing people. Also, I don’t know how to be anyone’s girlfriend, so I’ll probably be bad at it. But, I’m a fast learner.

I laughed and cupped both her hands in mine. “I can be honest as long as you’re honest back. And it takes just as much time for me to process your sign language as it takes for you to process reading my lips, so be patient with me too, okay? And I don’t know how to be your boyfriend anymore than you know how to be my girlfriend. We can learn together, okay?”

Yeah, I can do that.

“Okay. Then it’s official.”

Do we kiss now?

I laughed again. “Do you want to?”

Yes. Do you?

“A lot, actually,” I admitted. “I just don’t want to make you uncomfortable.” I licked my lips and looked at hers. Kissing her had been pretty much the only thing on my mind for the past few days.

I’m not uncomfortable.

“You’re absolutely sure you want to kiss me?”

I would like to know what it’s like. But I’m probably not a good kisser.

“It’s easy, watch.” I took a deep breath and leaned in. My lips brushed softly against hers, briefly, before I pulled away. “Well?” I asked, my lips tingling. It felt nice to kiss a girl again. It felt even better knowing that it was Madison I was kissing. All I wanted was to kiss her again. If I only kissed her for the rest of my life, I would be more than content.

She brought a finger to her lips, gingerly touching were my lips had just been. Her cheeks were flushed and her green eyes were shining. I liked that.

“Me, too.”

Is the date over?

“It doesn’t have to be. Are you not having fun anymore?”

This is the most fun I had ever. But don’t dates end after the kiss? They do in the movies.

“It doesn’t have to be over. We can keep hanging out.”

Is there a difference between a date and hanging out?

“Uh… well anyone can hang out. It’s more casual. A date would be more like if we actually did something. Like if we went to see a movie or out to eat.”

I like to eat.

I laughed. “I like to eat, too. Are you hungry? We can go somewhere and eat. Actually have our date.”

Can we go get ice cream?

I laughed again. “Ice cream sounds perfect.” I rolled off the bed and grabbed my keys off my nightstand. I put my radio back on my nightstand, unhooking my phone and slipping it into my pocket. “Ready?”

She nodded.

I held my hand out for her, and when she grabbed it, I gave her hand a small, firm squeeze. We bounded down the stairs and I shouted a “Be back later,” to no one in particular as we headed out the door.

#according to plan #chapter 4 #ashton irwin #did i break your heart with the dad issues bit?#yeah broke my own a little #but they kissed!#galcal irwin

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calpalirwin · 4 years

Text

According to Plan

A/N: Will Mads say yes to the date with Ash? Also, I realized that the first few chapters as things get going are hella short. Whoops?

And away and away we go!

~~~

Chapter 3

Madison

~~~

My eyes grew wide. People weren’t interested in me. People certainly didn’t ask me on dates. People avoided me. And I was fine with that. And yet, here was this boy, this boy I had just met, asking me on a date. At least, I think he was.

What? I finally signed, completely stunned.

“I mean… hypothetically… if I were to ask you on a date… would you want to?” Ashton asked. He passed a hand through his hair.

I was confused, so I slowly processed his words over in my head. Something about Ashton felt familiar. He didn’t make me feel nervous the way most people did. He had gone out of his way to make me feel welcome. And he knew sign language, which meant that I could go without speaking. But did I like him enough to go on a date? Yes, I decided. He was nice. And the way he looked made my stomach do flips, especially when that smile was fully focused on me.

“Mads?” Mike asked, waving his hand in front of me to bring me back into focus. I must have been in my head for a while, because all of their eyes were on me, waiting for an answer.

I decided I needed him to answer some questions before I agreed to a date. Will there be kissing required?

“Only if you want to kiss me.”

What will we do on this date?

“I don’t know… Mov- no that’s stupid, sorry.”

Movies? I love movies. I liked watching because it was nice to have the visual representation to go along with the captions.

“You do? Cool, I have a bunch at my house so we can watch whatever.”

Great! When?

“Does Saturday work for you?”

Yes.

“Okay. I’ll pick you up at 1, and we’ll have our date.”

Okay, I agreed. I’ll go on a date with you, then.

The girls looked excited. “Oh, I’ll take you shopping for your date!” Sierra told me.

Why?

“For clothes. Date clothes,” Riley clarified. “I’ll come to. Crystal?”

“Duh.”

I raised my eyebrows. Why couldn’t I wear something I already owned? He didn’t know what kinds of clothes I had. Why? I signed again. This was all really confusing.

“It’s just something girls do sometimes. If a girl goes on a date a guy for the first time, they’ll buy a new outfit for the occasion. But we can look through the clothes you have first,” Crystal explained.

Oh. And you’ll help me?

“Of course we will! That’s what friends do,” Sierra said, smiling. “Oh! Mike, we should set you up with someone, too!”

“I think I know someone who might be interested,” Crystal said, smiling softly.

“Yeah, that’d be great, thanks,” he said, already just as interested in her as she was in him. “Are we ready for a quick game?” he asked the boys.

I watched as they started their game, my mind drifting. It had been a strange afternoon, yet I felt at peace, comfortable even. My new friends seemed really nice. They didn’t make me feel weird like most people did. It was actually nice to not be on my own anymore.

I watched the boys play a small game of two-on-two. I studied the way they got along effortlessly, laughing like they had been friends for years. I looked over at the girls, who were flipping through a magazine. They smiled at me, then went back to the magazine. It had been a long time since I had friends and I hadn’t realized how much I had missed it.

I looked back over at Ashton. My stomach started to churn as I thought about our date. I started thinking what it would be like to kiss him and what it would be like to be his girlfriend. The thoughts frightened me. I wasn’t sure if I was ready for this. Was it rude to decline a date after I’d already agreed to it? As these thoughts rushed around in my head Ashton looked over at me and smiled. A wave of calm washed over me. I could do this, I told myself. Something about Ashton made me feel brave. I wanted this experience, and I wanted it with him.

“Hey, did you guys have a fun time?” our mother asked us when we came home an hour later.

“Yeah, it was cool,” Mike told her, vaguely. “Meet some kids that go there.”

“Oh?” Mom asked, raising an eyebrow.

Ashton is taking me on a date. And the girls are taking me shopping for it, I told them.

“Oh?” Dad put in, looking at Mike.

“It’s fine,” Mike answered them both. “They’re cool.”

“Okay,” Mom said slowly. “So, who are these friends?”

“Just some guys on the soccer team and their girlfriends, Mom. You can stop freaking out.”

“And Ashton is the one Mads has a date with?” Dad asked.

I can see what you’re saying, I said, getting angry. I hated it when our parents would talk about me with Mike as if I wasn’t in the room.

“Sorry. Mads, Ashton is the one you have a date with?” Dad redirected his question my way.

Yes.

“And that’s what you want?” Mom asked me.

Yes.

“Okay, as long as it’s your decision” Dad said, gripping my shoulder. And that was the end of the discussion.

#according to plan #chapter 3 #ashton irwin #5sos #galcal irwin

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