try hard ↬ ashton irwin

5

Ashton Irwin was jittery.

His knee bounced up and down under his desk, and he lightly drummed with his pencil on this calculus homework.

He was anxious, considering the girl with the bright blue hair was sitting just right next to him.

She was quiet. Quieter than usual, and that freaked Ashton out, in some odd way.

He noticed that she held her head up with her hand, placing her lightly puffy cheek just delicately on it. When she took her hand away, Ashton noticed a faint purple mark that gently outlined her cheek.

He bit his lip and looked down. He felt so, so guilty about yesterday. He believed that he was intruding on something that he shouldn't have saw, and now that he actually did, it complicated things much more.

He wasn't sure what things meant for sure. Maybe his make-believe friendship in his head with the fascinating girl.

Running a hand through his curly hair, he questioned if he should tell some authority, or even his own mother. He then quickly shook the thought out of his head, considering that Madeline herself didn't enjoy authority, and he was sure that she wouldn't appreciate a scrawny little kid telling somebody, either.

Ashton noticed her stretching from the corner of his eye as the teacher rambled on and on about polynomials. She knocked her pencil off her desk, making a gentle thud on the ground.

She looked down at it and frowned. Ashton did the same, and out of politeness, he bent down to pick it up for her.

Unfortunately, she was already making the same move. She didn't need somebody to pick up her damn pencil for her, let alone it be the boy that witnessed her father hitting her at his mother's party.

Ashtons hand gently brushed against hers. His eyes widened as she looked up at him, a mixture of a frown and a scowl on her face.

She snatched her pencil back, slouching back over her textbook as she stared straight ahead.

Ashton felt frozen. He felt like he couldn't move. One thing he could do, though, was talk.

"Are you okay?" He whispered to her. For a moment he cringed, wondering if she could even hear him over the booming sound of the professors voice.

Madeline did, though. She did hear him, and she turned her head sideways to look at him.

She shifted uncomfortably before scoffing. "I'm fine."

"I-I'm sorry," he quickly stammered out to her. He wasn't sure why he was apologizing, it just felt necessary in the moment. "I didn't mean to intrude yesterday, I didn't mean to see what I saw, and I just wanted to make sure-"

"I'm fine." She repeated, snapping her head to glare at him. "Leave it."

Ashton just blinked, in shock of her behavior. He was snapped out of his thoughts, though, when the teachers voice rang through the room.

"Madeline." He began, clearing his throat. "Step out into the hall, please. I don't appreciate you interrupting my lesson."

"What?" She laughed slightly, narrowing her eyes. "I wasn't even the one that-"

"Out." He demanded, pointing to the door.

Madi scowled, jaw clutched in annoyance. She grabbed her backpack and swung it over her shoulder as she walked out, but not before giving Ashton a piercing glare that made him shrink back into his seat.