Lingered To A Fling

Jesus, sorry for taking so long with this update. Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys and please review!

Lyrics: We are young, but we have heart. Born in this world as it falls apart.

Chapter Seven

The rage that ran through Max's veins was unbelievable. How could his best friend that he had known ever since he was a young kid betray him again by trying to take the girl that he had been falling for? Max had been through this many times before and he had simply forgiven and forgotten, but Ronnie had kept doing it. How had he been so stupid?

As soon as he got into the hotel room that he shared with the band, he began the search for the dick that he called his friend. He pushed open one of the bedroom doors only to see Monte and Robert listening to some music. They looked up and shot him a confused look as soon as they saw the rage in his eyes.

"Dude, what's wrong with you?" Monte asked. Max was still a little aggravated with what Monte had done with Ashley, but he had forgiven him. It was nothing compared to what Ronnie had done.

"Where the fuck is Ronnie?" Max asked.

"In the bathroom" Monte answered just as the door to the left of them opened and Ronnie walked out, oblivious to what was waiting for him. As soon as he had closed the door, Max was on him like a predator catching his prey.

"Max, what the hell are you doing?" Ronnie questioned, trying to push him off as quickly as possible. "Jesus, have you been drinking?"

"No!" Max shouted, pushing him up against the wall in one quick motion. "I've just been to see Ashley. She told me about how you went down a few days ago. She told me about what you told her."

"Oh, this should be good" Ronnie scoffed. "You're really going to believe a girl that you've known for a week over your best friend? You're an idiot, Max" Max couldn't believe what he was hearing. It really was exactly the same as it had always been.

"Shut up, Ronnie" Max snapped. "I'm sick to death of you. Every single time you do it, you tell me the same bullshit story and I ignore everything because I'm your friend."

"Hey, what's going on here?" Craig asked, coming into the room. "Max, let go of him. You won't sort anything out this way." Max knew that his words were correct, but no matter how hard he tried to loosen his grip on Ronnie, he couldn't do it.

"What sort of friend pins his best friend to the fucking wall?" Ronnie questioned. "Look at yourself. You're overreacting. Look, I did tell Ashley about what you do, but that's only because I care about her"

"See?" Max hissed. "You're a liar, Ronnie. You lied to me and you lied to Ashley. Why can't you just get it into your stupid head that she's not going to believe you once I actually get a chance to explain everything properly to her?"

"Why do you care so much about her?" Ronnie asked, a faint grunt coming from the brute force that Max was using against him. "God, you hated her the first time you met her. What changed?"

"I sat down and I talked to her properly" Max explained. "I took her out for food and we talked which is something that you two didn't do. Something tells me that her mouth was doing other things for you."

"Hey, that's your friend you're talking about" Ronnie sniggered. "Do you want me to tell her about what else you've been saying about her?" Max's anger boiled over as he applied more pressure to Ronnie.

"Shut up, Ronnie" Robert butted in. "You're only going to make it worse."

"No, this needs to be said" Ronnie assured, pressing on as he continued to insult. "I don't get you, Max. You said yourself that she had problems. Why are you so set on being with her now when you know how fucked up she really is."

"Because I can help her and it doesn't matter if she's screwed up because she's still an amazing girl" Max shouted. "And if you can't see that, you don't even deserve to be in the same room as her."

"Man, why don't you just go out and tell her than then?" Ronnie asked. "You're being a fool by wasting your time here shouting at me."

"What the hell are you even talking about now?" Max asked, loosening his grip as Ronnie's tone softened, almost willing himself to believe that Ronnie was returning to the personality he had when he had been Max's best friend.

"Look, I did try and do a horrible thing to you by trying to make Ashley realise that I was the better person out of us. I couldn't help it. She's just so hot and such a good kisser" Ronnie admitted. "Anyway, I didn't know that you were actually really interested in her. I know that I probably wouldn't stick at it with her. If you promise me that you're going to treat her right, I'll go straight over there now and I'll explain absolutely everything until she wants you back."

Max let go completely of Ronnie's shirt and took a step back to allow him a moment to get his breath back. As many times as this had happened with Ronnie, he had never said anything like this. Max could only hope that that meant that he was being serious and truthful when he said that he wanted Max and Ashley to work things out. If Ronnie went back on this, Max wouldn't know if he could ever forgive him.

"Of course I promise that I'll treat her right" Max finally sighed. "Just tell me that you won't fuck this up even more for me."

Ronnie took a moment to look away from Max's eyes, weighing out what mattered more to him. He could either have a few weeks of golden time with Ashley or help out his best friend to stop him from losing him forever.

"Of course I won't." Ronnie finally sighed, once deciding that it was his friend that mattered more to him.

"Honestly, I swear that you guys get weirder every day" Monte said.

Ashley lay on her bed, a bottle of vodka in her hand as she contemplated whether or not she should open it.

"Just do it, you bitch" She said to herself, screwing off the top and taking a swig of it. "See? I don't need Max or Ronnie. I have you. Great, I'm talking to myself again." She set the bottle down, so she could get her cigarette out of her drawers. "Oh my god, fuck my life. Where are my cigarettes."

"I took them the last time I was here" A voice said in the general direction of the door. Ashley whirled around to see who it was, her vision blurring from the consumption of alcohol. She could only see a tall body with black hair. Everything else was a blur until her eyes began to focus and she managed to make out the sloppy grin that was all too familiar to her drunken eyes.

"Give me them back, Ronnie" She ordered, holding her hand out adamantly as she tried to stop herself from launching at him.

"No, I'm not going to give you them back if you're just going to light up and become even more unhealthy" Ronnie sighed. "Look, I've got quite a lot of talking to do, so you better sober up long enough to listen to me."

"Ronnie, the last thing I want to do is listen to a dick like you talk" She grumbled. She could only just hear his laugh over the thoughts swimming around in her head.

"God, you are so stubborn" He laughed, taking a seat next to her on the bed, making sure that the cigarettes and the vodka stayed out of her reach. "It's one of the things I like the most about you, you know?"

"Great. Thanks for sharing. Can you go now?" Ashley asked, wanting just a moment of peace to shift the headache.

"God, I'd be a lot quicker if you'd just shut up with the attitude and let me finish" Ronnie sighed in both annoyance and humour.

"No, you'd be a lot quicker if you'd stop trying to make small talk with me and actually get to the point" Ashley argued, crossing her arms over her chest in a childish way of showing that she was getting more and more aggravated as the moments wore on.

"Would you stop looking like such an idiot and listen to me for once in your life?" Ronnie asked, exasperated at the way she was acting. It took Ashley a few moments to realise that it would be easier for her to just listen to him.

"Fine" She grumbled, uncrossing her arms and actually acknowledging him for the first time. He looked almost guilty and aggravated that he was about to tell her whatever it is that he was going to.

"Well, I know that I told you all of that stuff about Max and his past and how he was just going to do the same to you." Ronnie began, but Ashley had already heard enough from Ronnie. It didn't take a genius to work out what he was getting at from the opening line.

"Ronnie, I think you should just stop talking now" She muttered, her voice deadly calm, unusual for a girl like her.

"I can't stop" He sighed. "I promised Max that I would do this for him and you will never understand if you don't hear it." Ashley couldn't believe what she was hearing. Ronnie had been lying to her after everything he said about caring about her. That's not love. That's hate.

"No, I understand all too well, Ronnie" She whispered. "You absolute dick. I'd understand if you were only aiming it at me. After all, you barely know me. It would probably be quite a funny joke to play on someone, but Max. Why would you do that to your best friend? Do you have no self-control at all."

"Put it this way" Ronnie laughed. "I've got as much self-control as you do when you're around alcohol" His joke made Ashley calm down. She managed to sum up the strength to smile at him and rest her head on his shoulder.

"Really, though" She mumbled. "Why would you do that to Max?" It took Ronnie a moment to answer. He didn't seem as though he knew why he done it in the first place.

"It's a lot to explain" Ronnie finally answered, going slowly with each word to make sure he explained this correctly. "Just know that I'm a twat for doing it and that you shouldn't blame Max for it because he really didn't do half of those things that I said he did"

"I'm not going to blame Max for what you said" Ashley assured. "And you are a twat" The grin that was presented on her face showed that she didn't mean it in a nasty way. She was simply trying to make the situation less awkward for the both of them.

"Wait, so are you going to give Max another chance?" Ronnie asked, looking a little sad at the prospect, but also glad.

"Yes, I am" Ashley sighed. "Tell him to come round tomorrow." With that, Ronnie stood up and left the house with only a very acute wave to Ashley. As soon as the door was closed, Ashley took the bottle of vodka and went straight to the sink before tipping it out. "I don't need you. I have Max."

Finally, a happy ending to one of these chapters! It's been so long since the last. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy and please leave a review.