Behind The Limelight 09: Music and Games

Ashton felt like he was hyper aware of every passing second. It seemed like time had slowed down just to torture him as he stared out the window, pretending as if the man he hated more than anything in the entire world wasn’t just a few feet away from him. Maybe he should’ve stuck to his guns and denied Ryker’s offer of driving him home, because being in the same car as him was definitely worse than waiting in his trailer for a couple of hours.

At least Ryker wasn’t trying to talk to him, something that he had feared, but then again it had only been five minutes and they still had around an hour left. Knowing Ryker, there was no way in hell that he was going to stay quiet for that long.

Ashton kept switching the radio stations, dissatisfied with the songs that all of them were playing. His constant tinkering must have annoyed Ryker, as he finally broke the silence.

“Can you stop messing with the goddamn radio?” Ryker spoke.

“I’m trying to find a decent station,” Ashton muttered. “Can I just connect my phone? I can’t listen to this bullshit anymore.”

“You want to connect your phone so that you can what? Make me listen to your early 2000’s emo rock for an hour?” Ryker scoffed. “No thanks. I’d rather listen to whatever is on the radio.”

“You used to love my music taste!” Ashton exclaimed, furrowing his brows.

“I tolerated it,” Ryker replied.

“But you used to come with me to all the concerts,” Ashton recalled with a confused frown.

“Yeah, because you loved them and I lo—” Ryker paused, “—and I was a good friend.”

“Yeah right,” Ashton snorted. “As if anyone would willingly learn all the lyrics to emo music and sing at the top of their lungs just because they want to be a good friend.”

“What can I say? I took the best friend title seriously,” Ryker retorted.

Ashton rolled his eyes but said nothing. He knew what he wanted to say would spark another fight between them, and he was too tired to argue with the other man. He wanted the hour to pass by as smoothly as possible, so he bit his tongue and kept his mouth shut.

“Fuck it, I’m just turning it off,” Ashton grumbled, shutting the radio altogether.

The pindrop silence was way worse than whatever crappy top 100 songs were playing on the radio, but Ashton wasn’t going to give in. If Ryker wouldn’t let him connect his phone and play his own music, then Ashton wasn’t going to listen to anything.

“Why do you have to be so stubborn all the time?” Ryker asked.

“I’m not stubborn!”

“You are,” Ryker said.

“I’m not,” Ashton retorted.

“You are,” Ryker repeated.

“Nope. Am not,” Ashton argued.

“Yes, Ash. You are.”

“No, Ryker, I’m not!”

“The fact that you’re arguing with me on this is just proving my point, you get that, right?” Ryker said with a smirk, making the fellow actor narrow his eyes at the dark haired man.

“Just because we’re stuck in this car doesn’t mean we have to talk, you know that, right?” Ashton retorted.

“You’re not letting me play any music so I at least need some other form of entertainment,” Ryker replied.

“Entertainment? You call annoying me entertainment?” Ashton questioned.

“Well,” Ryker shrugged lightly, his eyes on the road. “It is fun to annoy you.”

“No, it’s not.”

“It is.”

“It’s not!” Ashton exclaimed.

“It really is.”

“It’s really fucking not.”

“And you say you’re not stubborn?” Ryker said, glancing at Ashton for a split second just to see his frustrated face. He was already starting to turn red from anger.

“I’m not,” Ashton grumbled like a little kid, folding his arms in front of his chest.

“Cute,” Ryker whispered.

“What?” Ashton didn’t quite catch what the other man said.

“Nothing,” Ryker muttered.

“What did you say?” Ashton asked.

“I said nothing. You sure your ears are fine?” Ryker questioned back. “You did used to listen to pretty loud music. Studies show that it can cause damage to your hearing.”

“My hearing is fine,” Ashton retorted. “But I’m pretty sure my ears will start bleeding if I have to listen to your voice any longer. So will you please be a dear and shut up?”

“My car, my rules,” Ryker said. “I can talk if I want to.”

“Fine, be that way,” Ashton mumbled. “I’ll just stay quiet then.”

“Is that so?”

Ashton stayed true to his word as he shifted his body slightly to face the window, staring out of it to watch the passing trees. Ryker chuckled, which only pissed off Ashton more, but he said nothing.

“Giving me the silent treatment now, are you?” Ryker spoke up again.

Once again, Ashton stayed shut. If Ryker wanted to mess around with him, then he wasn’t going to let that happen. He wasn’t going to let Ryker bring out the worst of him again.

“Come on,” Ryker exhaled deeply. “This is getting childish now.”

Ashton smirked, still not facing Ryker or giving him any sort of reaction. Two can play at a game, whatever the fuck that game may be. From the frustrated sigh, Ashton could tell that Ryker was starting to get annoyed too. Serves him right, thought Ashton.

“Fine. If you won’t speak then I’ll just keep talking,” Ryker said. “Did you know I spent like three months in India? It was a lot of fun, though fuck it was really bloody hot. I met some really cool people. There was this one guy I met in—”

Ryker continued, he told Ashton about his time in India, the places he visited and the people he met. At first, Ashton was annoyed by how much Ryker was talking, but then he slowly got immersed in the stories he was telling. Ashton had always wanted to travel, and he had been around the globe, but only for work.

He had never traveled just for the sake of exploring and having fun, not unless you count a couple of trips to Bali. Whenever he went in public, he would get stormed by fans or paparazzi. He was fascinated to hear how Ryker managed to keep his identity a secret and travel like any every day individual. Ashton had never even been on a public bus in comparison.

Ryker stopped talking all of a sudden, making Ashton frown as he turned towards Ryker instinctively, expecting him to keep going.

“What happened then? Were you able to finish the trek?” Ashton questioned.

Ryker glanced at the other man, a sly smirk on his face that was screaming ‘got you‘. Ashton flushed pink as he realized that he just broke his resolve, that too accidently. Ryker tricked him, and Ashton fell for it like the stupid fool that he was.

“Shut up,” Ashton muttered. “Don’t say anything about it.”

“I wasn’t going to.” Ryker seemed amused.

“Sure you weren’t,” Ashton said.

“I really wasn’t going to but you keep pushing it,” Ryker replied.

“‘Cause you keep pushing my patience,” Ashton retorted.

“What did I even do?” Ryker asked.

“You…” Ashton trailed off. “You… You just…”

“Cat got your tongue?”

“Shut up,” Ashton rolled his eyes. “You’re intolerable.”

“You tolerated me just fine for thirteen years,” Ryker retorted.

“Yeah, because I was dumb and thought that you were actually my friend,” Ashton said.

“I was.”

“Right,” Ashton’s tone was sarcastic, making Ryker press his lips in a straight line as he sighed tiredly once again. “You’re such a good friend. A great one! Only an amazing friend would go after the girl their friend is interested in, right?”

“Come on,” Ryker added. “Are you still pissed about the whole Eve thing?”

“You’re talking as if it was no big deal,” Ashton replied.

“Was it?”

“What do you think?” Ashton scoffed. “You knew she and I were hitting it off and that we were going to head back to my place. For fuck’s sake you were watching us like a bloody owl the entire night, and I turn my back for a single second you’re swapping saliva with her! Am I supposed to cheer you for it? Hand you some condoms while I’m at it, too?”

“It was… it was a misunderstanding,” Ryker muttered weakly.

“A misunderstanding?” Ashton let out a bitter chuckle. “Seriously? Is that the best you got?”

“Ash…”

“And this wasn’t even the first time you’ve pulled crap like this. Are you forgetting about Priyanka? Or Maria?” Ashton continued. “I was with Maria for two fucking years and I loved her more than you’ve probably ever loved anyone in your entire life. And what did you do the second we broke up? You slid in like the fucking snake that you are.”

“You think I’ve never loved anyone?” Ryker was gritting his teeth as he spoke.

“Clearly not, otherwise you would know how much it fucking hurts to see the girl you love be with another guy,” Ashton argued.

“Trust me, I know exactly how it feels to see the person you love be with someone else,” Ryker muttered.

“Yeah, right,” Ashton wasn’t buying it. “If you did then you wouldn’t go behind my back like that.”

“I never meant to do that.”

“Doesn’t matter what your intentions were when your actions were clearly messed up,” Ashton said.

Ashton had a point, and Ryker knew it. There was no way that he could defend himself, so the dark haired man stayed quiet. Ashton’s breath was heavy, as his heartbeat started to rise. He closed his eyes shut, counting down from hundred to calm himself down. Of course, the two couldn’t even go thirty minutes without arguing with one another.

“I know Eve is gorgeous,” Ashton spoke up again, his voice a bit levelled this time. “But the next time you want to go for a girl that I’m into, then come to me like a fucking decent human and tell me. I’ll back off. I don’t fucking care, I’ll just back off and you can have her. You can have anyone that you want. Just don’t…just don’t rub it in my face that everyone would choose you over me.”

“Is that what you think?” Ryker frowned. “That I want to rub it to you that I think I’m…better than you or something?”

“Isn’t that what this is?” Ashton questioned. “Some fucked up form of power play?”

“Ash…” Ryker sighed. “I don’t even know how to begin to explain to you how fucking wrong you are about everything.”

***