"A little birdie told me someone's going on their first date tonight," Amanda said, entering my room.

"What are you talking about?"

Amanda laughed."Drop it Ashley, Aaron told me everything."

I gave her an incredulous look.

"Come on, stop worrying about this and start thinking about what you're going to wear tonight."

My eyes widened. "Oh, shit.What the hell am I going to wear?"

Of course, I'd thought about it. In fact I'd come to my room thinking about what I was going to wear but somehow I'd ended up sitting on my bed, thinking about Aaron. I internally slapped myself.

Amanda laughed making me shoot her a glare. Did she find my situation funny?

"C'mon I'll help you," she said walking over to my closet.

After an hour of rejecting almost every piece of clothing I owned, Amanda finally found something she liked.

It was a pretty green dress that my mom had gotten me this year. It was simple, yet elegant. Just perfect.

"I'm going to do your makeup and hair," she declared, running off to her room.

After an hour of roughly pulling at my hair, jerking my head violently and almost stabbing me in the eye with a makeup brush, Amanda finally allowed me to look in the mirror. My eyes went wide in surprise. She had done a great job.

"What do you think?" Amanda asked, looking at me expectantly.

I frowned, pretending not to like it."Hmm, I think...I LOVE YOU!" I exclaimed throwing my arms around her. "Thank you so much, Amanda."

"Oh shut up, you," she grinned."Now wait here, I have to go check on my brother," she winked.

When she left, I put my heels on and grabbed my phone from the table before walking over to the mirror to give myself one last look.

"Mandy don't do this, I'm really not read-"

I turned around to see Aaron wearing a blue button down shirt with black jeans. His hair looked tame and was brushed back neatly, making him look kind of different. Good different though. He looked gorgeous like always.

His eyes were wide open and I'm sure mine were too.

Someone cleared their throat and it was then that I realised that Amanda was standing behind Aaron.

"Get going you two, before me and Jo have to kick you out," she said, and I wasn't sure if she was joking or not.

Aaron glared at her but I was too mindblown to react to what she'd said.

"Go away," he hissed at her.

"Shut up, grumpy pants and take your girl," she shoved him into the room.

He shot her another scowl before looking at me. His scowl morphed into a smile as he looked at me.

He held out his hand."Shall we?" he asked, grinning cheekily.

"We shall," I grinned back, placing my hand in his.

Amanda rolled her eyes but she was smiling."Have fun,dorks."

"Where are we going?" I asked Aaron as soon as we were out of the house.

"You'll find out soon," he winked."Wait right here," he said.

Before I could protest, he was gone. I sighed, wondering curiously what he could possibly be upto.

"We're ready to go,"he grinned grabbing my hand."Get in," he said.

We both got into the car. He held my hand the whole time.

"You look beautiful, Ashy," he said, looking at me.

My eyes widened. "Er, thanks.You too."

He raised an eyebrow. "I do?"

"Huh?"

Aaron laughed, shaking his head."Never mind."

"Please tell me where we're going now?" I said, pouting.

"You really wanna know?" he asked.

I nodded eagerly."Yeah, of course."

"We're going to watch a movie and then go for dinner."

"Sounds nice," I replied with a smile.It wasn't surprising, it was what most people would do on their first dates.

"You think so?" he asked,furrowing his eyebrows together.

"Yes," I gave his hand a squeeze. He visibly relaxed.

Was he nervous about this?

I sat in silence,wondering what to say to make him stop worrying about this.

I decided to give him a hug. It was of course not an easy thing to do with the seat belt holding me back. I tried my best to get the seat belt to loosen around me as I wriggled around.

He chuckled. "What are you doing? "

"What does it look like I am doing?" I glared at him.

"Uh, trying to be a penguin?"

I smacked him upside the head. He stared at me in surprise before hitting me back.

My phone went off then. I looked away from Aaron to see who it was. Trent.

"Hello?" I spoke into the phone as I wriggled away from Aaron.

"Ashley? Can you come to the hospital?" Trent said in a shaken voice.

"The hospital?Why? Is everything okay?"

"Ashley just come please," he said in a panicked voice and hung up.

I stared at the phone in shock as I went through a hundred possibilities in my mind.

What if something had happened to Trent?No, he had to be okay because he was the one who called me. Maybe something had happened to his mom? Oh my God, what is something had happened to Cara? Or Cole?

"Ashley?Is everything okay?" Aaron's worried v voice interrupted my thoughts.

"We need to go to the hospital," I said.

He didn't ask me anything. He simply instructed the driver to do as I had told.

"It's going to be alright, Ashley," he whispered as he wrapped an arm around my shoulder and held me close to him.

"I hope so," I whispered , barely audible to my own ears.

After what felt like ages, we finally got to the hospital

I started running as soon as the far stopped with Aaron just a few steps behind me. Soon he caught up to me and held my hand.

I called Trent up since I didn't know who to ask for at the reception.

He didn't answer his phone.

"He isn't answering the phone, Aaron."

I was hyperventilating.

"Relax," he said,trying to comfort me, although the worrry was clear on his face as well.

"Let's check the first floor, yeah?" he suggested.

It was no point standing there, waiting for Trent to magically turn up.

I nodded my head. I just kept praying everything would be okay.

We both got into the lift and Aaron pressed the buttons.

"Aaron," I said his name but I didn't know what to ask first. There were so many questions in my mind.

What was going to happen?

"It'll be alright,"he said softly and kissed my forehead.

The doors opened then and we both rushed out.

I saw a familiar figure looming nearby.

"Trent!" I yelled as soon as I spotted him.

He turned around.

I gasped when I saw him. He had blood all over his green t-shirt. His head was bandaged and there were bruises all over his face and arms.

"Trent! What the hell happened?" I exclaimed, horrified as I pulled him into a hug.

"Ashley," he breathed as he hugged me back.

"What happened?" Aaron asked as I pulled away from Trent.

"There was an attack."

"Attack?"

He sighed running a hand through his hair, and wincing when his hand accidentally touched his bandage where his wound was.

"Ever since that... incident with Kayla I've been occasionally going outside her house."

I inhaled, strangely not surprised at this piece of information and waited for him to continue.

"Today, I was there too and she was getting out of a car, drunk. She was dropped about five minutes away from her house and I was just on my way back when I saw her. Two guys camd out of nowhere and..." he gritted his teeth,"they..they tried to ..."he let out a ragged breath."They were drunk as hell and they started hitting her," he flinched.

It was clear he still loved and cared for her. So did I, no doubt.

"By then, I had reached her and there was a fight. They started hitting me too but ran away when a car came that way. One of the guys pushed her to the road and she was knocked unconscious," he took a deep breath, "she hurt her head and I just rushed her here," he finished, rubbing his face with his fingers.

"Its okay," Aaron whispered and squeezed my hand reassuringly.

It was then that I realised there were tears rolling down my cheeks. I looked at him, grateful I had him by my side.

"How is she now?" I asked,turning back to Trent.

"I don't know. The doctors haven't told me anything yet , they're still examing her."

I nodded. "What about you?Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

A doctor came upto us then."Are you-"

"We're Kayla's friends," Aaron finished for him.

He nodded."She has a concussion and some bruises here and there. Nothing serious, although she needs to put a cast on her arm for a few weeks. She seems to have twisted it. We'll have to keep her in the hospital for the night."

"Thank you, doctor," I replied politely.

Thank God it's nothing too bad.

"Can we see her?" Trent asked hesitantly who probably, like me was wondering if it'd be too awkward to see her after all that had happened.

"I'm afraid not . There's only one person allowed at a time and her mother, I believe is in there with her."

"Okay doctor.Thank you," I spoke and the doctor left.

"So I think it's best if we go home,"I suggested.

"See you guys, then," Trent answered, slumping down onto a bench.

"No, I mean all of us.Come on," I urged him.

"What?I'm not going anywhere, Ashley."

"Trent please."

"Listen, man, I know it's hard for you but you need some rest. It's best if you go home, get some rest and come back in the morning. You won't be useful if you're not well, you know," Aaron intervened, helping me out.

Trent took in a deep breath."Fine."

"I guess we should get going then," Aaron said and we all agreed,taking the elevator downstairs.

We got inside the car and the entire ride back home was silent. Once we were outside Trent's house, I asked if he wanted me to tell his mom what had happened. I knew she'd shower him with questions.

"I'll handle it .Thanks though," he gave me a tight smile.

"Call me if you need anything," I said as he got out.

"Will do."

And once we saw him go inside, we drove off.

I let out a deep breath.

"Relax, Ashley. Everything will be fine," Aaron said reassuringly.

I nodded, hoping he was right.