Nobodies [ a. irwin ]

thirteen

It felt kinda strange to act like I used to before again.

The day after my small breakdown, I walked trough the school's corridors with my head hung low, careful not to get in anyone's way or to attract any attention to myself.

It all felt strangely familiar to me, the way I walked around people almost like a ghost. And if I didn't know better, or if there wasn't a big pain in my chest to remind me every second of the day, maybe I could've thought that everything that happened with Ashton had only been a very vivid dream.

But I knew that wasn't the case.

I went to my locker, picked up everything I needed from it and headed to my English classroom.

Only when I sat down and the bell rang I remembered that I still had no idea what Ashton and I were doing our essay about. Great.

I finally looked up from my desk and let my eyes wander around the room, looking for a specific set of dirty blonde hair. I almost instantly found him and unknowingly relaxed. He was sitting on his usual seat, tapping his pen rhythmically on the desk like he always did, as if his mind was a radio turned on nonstop.

I wondered what song he was thinking about. I shook my head, giving myself a mental slap on the head. He's acting weird, and you don't care. I repeated mentally again and again, as if that way it'd somehow become true.

I completely zoned out the whole lecture, not having it in me to bring myself to care about grammar and all that stuff at the moment.

The bell rang eventually and I started packing my things to leave when a voice I knew all too well hesitantly called my name out. ''Em?''

I quickly snapped my head up at the sound of Ashton's voice. Now that he was closer, I realized his hair was curlier than usual and his glasses were right on the tip of his nose, like usual, as if they were always about to fall down his face at any moment.

Just as that thought went trough my head, he pushed his glasses up his nose. ''Hi, Ashton.'' I replied quietly, forcing a smile on my face.

He smiled shyly and looked down at his fidgeting hands before looking back up at me and finally facing me with his bright hazel eyes hidden behind his thickly black-framed glasses. He opened his mouth to say something but the teacher's voice interrupted him. ''You two better get going or you won't make it to your next class.''

I looked over Ashton's shoulder to Mr. Hendisburg, whose last name had always been really weird to me honestly, and saw him watching us with his eyebrows raised in a suspicious manner. I rolled my eyes and tugged Ashton by his sweater's sleeve out the door and into the empty hallway.

When we were there, I stopped and turned towards the boy, expectantly. Honestly, at this point I am pretty sure he could've said anything to me and I'd be okay with it.

''Em-'' He started, before he was interrupted again. Only this time it wasn't by Mr. Hendisburg. It was by Michael fucking Clifford.

''Look who's here, missing class.'' He tsked in fake disappointment and shook his head, completely ignoring Ashton's presence.

I ignored Michael, but it was obvious that Ashton wouldn't tell me whatever it was that he was about to say only a minute ago now. He had closed his mouth and lowered his head.

''I should get going.'' He announced, looking back up at me for barely a second.

I frowned and went to stop him but he was already scurrying away down the hall.