Gerard's POV:
We were all sitting around in the main living room, laughing at each other's jokes and just generally chatting. It was still weird being around someone who had been a hero of mine for years now, but he still managed to make it all seem really relaxed. Luke had long gone to bed and since then the beers had been out for a few hours. "Who wants another one?" Eve said, as she climbed wobbly up from the floor. The were calls of "me," from almost everyone, and she walked towards the kitchen door to grab them. "So, Ashlee, my littlest sister," Elliot started and she gave him a mock dirty look, "don't give me that," he replied to it. "You just can't handle that I beat you by three minutes," he said laughing. Se gave him a smirk and took a gulp out of her bottle. I saw Kayden look at Ash as he got ready to speak. "So how are you and Jack going?" My stomach turned as I noticed that she nearly choked on her drink.
"Oh, I thought you heard, we're not together anymore. Haven't been for about two months or so." I noticed that she was trying to keep her cool and not show her real feelings about Jack. I knew secretly she wanted to pound her brother for even mentioning then just sit in a corner and cry about everything he did to her. I didn't even know the half of it, but I knew it was bad. "I think I'm going to go to bed now," Ash said, as she got up, unsteady, and started to walk towards the kitchen door to put her empty beer bottle on one of the sides. I got up as well to meet her in the hallway to talk to her. I opened the door and shut it silently behind me, as I saw Ash starting to walk up the first few stairs. I was just going to try and talk to her quietly, but then I noticed what she had in her hand. "What the hell are you doing with that?" I asked, trying to keep my voice down. She took a gulp from the bottle of vodka. "Oh please, don't even try that whole 'I care' thing again. It's none of your business," her words were vicious, but I knew she was trying to keep the walls around her up and not let anyone in. She carried on climbing up the stairs and opened her bedroom door. I didn't care if she wanted me to follow her or not as I saw her kick off her dark blue converse and stretch her legs out on her bed. She took another swig and the just stared at me with those brilliant green eyes as I looked around her room. She was still living out of boxes and suitcases, almost as if she seemed prepare to leave any time. She took another gulp, her eyes seeming to challenge me to make her stop. "Why the hell are you suddenly beating yourself up?" I asked, my voice came out angrier than I expected, and I noticed that she flinched slightly. "You need to understand one thing. You have no idea what happened, and you never will," her voice was slurring more after every sip she took from the bottle. "I can decide to try and blur out all the fucking memories whenever I want, and it just so happens that now is one of those times," she said, thinking about the sentence as she went along to make sure it made sense. "Look, I get that he was a complete bastard to you, but you have to stop with all this," I said, walking towards her then kneeling in front of her, looking into her eyes, which were starting to tear up as I reminded her of all the memories. I slowly took hold of the bottle in her hand and took it from her. Se resisted a little at first, but then let it go, along with her composure. The tears sped down her cheeks, leaving grey tracks down her face. I placed the bottle on the floor beside me, before standing up and taking a seat on the bed next to her. I took hold of her hand, and looked at her face, wiping away the tears with my other hand. "I just want you to let me in. Even if it's only this once… I just want to try and help." I lowered my hand from her face and wrapped it around hers, as she opened her mouth to speak. "I…" she started. She quickly got up off the bed an walked to the other side of the room. "I can't do it…" she cried. I carried on sitting there, but turned my body so I could see her. "Just start at the beginning," I said calmly, trying to reassure her it would be okay. She stood and thought for a moment, wondering where the best place to start would be. "It all happened so quickly…" she muttered, turning to me. "After Lily I was a mess… I mean, I just wanted someone to stop me feeling worthless and pathetic. And then he came along. He joined our school after transferring in from New York, and just seemed really nice. We would sit around and talk about nothing for hours, and before I knew it I had fallen for him. Then after a couple of months we got together and everything seemed perfect, you know? But then after a few weeks he seemed to change, like we would have arguments about stupid things, and he would turn up late for things we arranged. Then all of a sudden he seemed to think that I was screwing around with almost every other guy I saw, and he started getting jealous. From there it just seemed to get worse," she said quietly, the tears still rolling down her cheeks as the memories all flooded back into plain view. "He would shout at me, and make me feel shit, an back then I thought I deserved every word. Then it just escalated and he would slap me when we were fighting, and try and throw things at me, like plates and stuff, an as time went on it became a normal thing for him to slap me round the face, or punch me, or do whatever the fuck he wanted. I would just stand there and take it, like every drop of blood or tear I shed would make him love me back. That's all I wanted, just someone to make me feel something." I sat there, trying to think of something I could say to calm her down, but by this point she was just standing there, not being able to make the tears stop, just looking at me for some kind of comfort.