underneath the lights || hsmtmts

mon coeur est à toi | ashlyn x antoine

{author's note: this is another request from ao3, and tbh i hope you also read antoine's parts in andrew's lovely french accent because i loved hearing that voice in my head as i wrote his dialogue... i adore abf so much i'm ngl. please enjoy!!!}

ashlyn caswell had honestly only just gotten used to being cared for by someone like this. her romance with big red was far from expected, but he seemed to really and genuinely like her unlike so many of her prior crushes. he said so many sweet things about her even when she was in doubt of her own self worth. besides, there was something rather sweet about the two gingers in the east high theatre department getting together.

ashlyn supposed she should thank ricky for joining the show in the fall, since if he hadn't tried to go after nini that way big red likely would have never run tech on it. high school musical was something red was definitely far more invested in than he was ever willing to admit. at least to people like his best friend ricky anyway... but despite his love for the movies, he more than likely wouldn't have dared step foot in drama club without the skater's blessing, and even if ricky didn't quite realize this effect he had on big red, ashlyn definitely saw it.

so to say she wasn't really looking for any type of changes in her love life at the moment was probably an understatement. she found herself happy, and sure, big red was her absolute first relationship, so maybe to say that she was happier than ever wasn't exactly fair to her own potential experiences to come, but that didn't mean she wasn't entirely pleased with where she'd found herself come valentines day. 

big red definitely was freaking her out a bit with his overdone gestures, and excessive amounts of what nini had wound up explaining was a cologne called 'throb'. (which, weird but okay...) they'd talked things out, and she found that he was scared too, which helped, even if he definitely didn't get why she'd be afraid. things were going well for a little while, until they weren't. 

maybe it was her endless list of extracurriculars and his job at the pizza place, maybe it was simply that just being jewish and having red hair wasn't enough to be in love, chemistry doesn't mean a good relationship, it just means a good connection. but things were getting a little shaky these days, even if neither would admit it to their friends. the theatre group was definitely a bit quick to judge when things went wrong, or even when they didn't, and ashlyn doesn't want anyone making these choices for her. she wants to make this relationship work, she wants to be over the moon happy again.

when she met antoine, the beautiful french foreign exchange student at north high, she's struck by his accent and his charm, no one could blame her for observing these relative facts. besides, no part of ashlyn was looking to have anything more than a quick and friendly conversation with the boy who had walked into the pizza shop one night when ashlyn was sitting alone. she was busy putting together the latest agenda for the poetry club. (big red was back in the kitchen with howie and kourtney from what she'd last heard, and she had work to do anyhow). 

the young frenchman had walked in and seen her sitting alone at a table, and after shooting her a winning smile, he makes his way over to where she's seated herself, clearly not afraid to shoot his shot. 

"pardon me mademoiselle, but what is such a pretty lady doing alone on a saturday night?"  

"wow um... thank you." ashlyn curses her fair skin as she's unable to stop herself from blushing at his words, especially in that voice. "i'm doing school stuff actually. but uh- i'm not completely alone. my boyfriend's around somewhere..." 

antoine chuckles. "ah- a boyfriend, i see. well maybe things are different here in america, but in france i would doubt no young man should leave his lady alone when he's supposed to be on a date." he quirks his head sideways to examine her reactions.