s k i n n y ➳ cth

➳ t h r e e

Ashleigh giggled to herself as she went up to her bedroom. She'd be lying if she said that she didn't find Calum attractive. And she wouldn't be exaggerating a bit if she said that Calum was drop-dead gorgeous. So Ashleigh had decided that a bit of playful flirting wouldn't be harmful. It wasn't something that she had done in the past, but her mother didn't let cute buys into their house in the past. Ashleigh took of her lip gloss, and replaced it with a pale pink colored lipstick. She then put lip gloss above it to make her lips colored and glossy. As Ashleigh checked her appearance in the mirror, she decided to take her wavy hair out of its ponytail. Finally satisfied, Ashleigh went back downstairs.

"Hey Calum. Did you enjoy your pizza?" Ashleigh took one of the kitchen barstools and moved it closer to Calum before she hopped up onto it.

"Yeah. Thanks for warming it up," Calum said

"Not a problem." Ashleigh told him. She adjusted the way her hair fell over her shoulders and tried to make it look prettier, but in a more natural kind of way.

"So tell me about you," Calum said. He knew that his question was vague, but that meant that there would be a wide variety of answers that he could get.

"There isn't much to say, so I'll just tell you some boring things I guess. My name's Ashleigh, as I told you before. My mom told me that nicknames are informal and unnecessary. Like honestly, if you name your child Alexander, but always call them Ale, why didn't you just name them Alex in the first place? Also, my mom insists that I make good impressions, and always present myself well, most especially when I'm meeting new people. She says that first impressions are everything. So, yeah, my mom pretty much influences my whole life."

"So that's everything about Ashleigh? I can write a book on how much your mom shaped you into the person you are today, but I still don't know anything about you." Calum chuckled. "Now tell me about yourself."

Ashleigh shrugged. People never usually asked her questions like this. They usually just asked her about school, and what she planned to do as an adult. "I'm a fifteen year old girl, ,and I go to Central Sydney High. I hate wearing white, and people that wear white annoy me a lot. I'm an only child, and have one cousin, named Ashton, who is a bit older than me."

Calum laughed again and smiled. "You seem so tense and uncomfortable. You don't have to act all prissy and proper around me. I pinkie promise I won't tell your mom."

"Thank's Calum," a smile creeped its way onto Ashleigh's face. "I'll try and be a stereotypical teenage girl just for you. I'll make sure to complain about boys and nails and diets."

Calum grinned cornily, and smile lines appeared at the corners of his mouth.

"Do you do any interesting things, Calum?" Ashleigh continued to play with her hair as she lead Calum to the balcony off of her bedroom. She sat down on the balcony floor and put her legs through the balcony bar gaps. Marianne would be furious if she found out that her daughter were acting in such a manner with people that she weren't well acquainted with. But since her mother wasn't there, Ashleigh took it as an opportunity to be more comfortable around Calum. He sat down next to Ashleigh, and stuck his legs through the balcony bars. His vans-clad feet dangled next to Ashleigh's knee-socked feet. About an inch of space was in between the two, and it took Calum a good bit of willpower not to grab Ashleigh and kiss the breath out of her.

"Me and my mates are in a band, actually," Calum said proudly. Being in a band was an easy, and classic way to get girls.

Ashleigh looked down at her legs and rolled her eyes. "That's cool."

"Yeah, my mates, Luke and Michael, they both play guitar, and I can play guitar too, but for the sake of the band I play bass. And we don't really have a consistent drummer. Whenever people think about it, and like try out, the boys and I just don't think they're the right one, you know? So as of now, all that we really do are guitar covers of songs, and Luke has a YouTube channel, so we upload everything there. We can't, like, tag the artists when we do their covers, but we hope that one day we can get big. Michael even has a couple lyrics written, and Luke and I both agree that we should record it on GarageBand or something, and then burn it onto CD's, and hand out copies. Then we'll be a real band." Calum's eyes sparkled with excitement as he talked about the band. He used several hand motions to help himself explain what he was saying.

"That's really great, Calum. It's really cool, in my opinion. I hope that you guys do well. I think that you'll get famous one day. Honestly, I bet that you're amazing." Ashleigh felt her face heat up as she complimented Calum. She ducked her head, and used her hair to curtain her blushing face from him.

"You know, Ashleigh," Calum licked his lips, then looked down at Ashleigh. He pushed some of her hair behind her ear, and exposed a rosy cheek. "You can call me Cal if you'd like. It's the nickname my friends came up with for me.

"Nicknames are stupid. If your mom wanted you to be called Cal, she would have named you Cal. There's a solid reason why she named you Calum. So that you could be called Calum, and also probably because of what your name means."

"Please," Calum whined. "I'm practically begging that you call me by a nickname. I'll even come up with a cute nickname for you. Please, Ashleigh?"

"Nah," Ashleigh laughed. "You will be forever known as Calum."

"If I let you come to one of our band practices, will you call me Cal?" Calum pouted, then seductively brought his lip between his teeth.

"Fine, I'll call you by your stupid nickname." Ashleigh rolled her eyes and smiled, as Calum got up and did a victory dance on her balcony.

//

1051 words

how sneaky of me,
throwing ash into the story ;-)))))))))))))))))))
vote and comment hoes
pls I'm thirsty