he'll never be the one (a.i)

"god, this is enthralling"

• C H A P T E R • F O U R •

Ashton (Irwin)
Wednesday, October 5

What are you doing this
Saturday?

To Noa's surprise, she receives a text from Ashton as she's sitting at the dining room table in her apartment. She laughs quietly to herself at his question before answering.

I haven't planned that far
ahead yet

Wanna be my plus one to a
wedding? ;)

What's in it for me?

Hmm... I can think of a couple
things

But maybe I should leave the
deciding up to you

I'm a slave for you 🫡

"What are you giggling at?" Alice asks as she stares over at her roommate who is shamelessly smitten as she looks down at her phone. Noa's head shoots up and her cheeks crimson as she feels she's been caught.

"It's that guy I was telling you about," Noa says as she sets her phone face down on the table. She returns her focus to the paper she's supposed to be cutting before continuing: "He's trying to talk me into going to a wedding with him."

"Ashton?" Hannah asks in a sing-song voice.

"Yes, Ashton," Noa confirms as her eyes roll.

"You never told me the full story!" Alice suddenly exclaims, clearly hoping to be filled in on all the details. Though Alice had been on a step-ladder hanging up Halloween decorations, she let the garland hang from its one wall-attached end as she hurried to get down.

"How do you even tell such a story, Noa? Let's see if I can do it any justice..." Hannah begins to speak and Noa fights back an amused smile. She doesn't want to be made fun of by her friend, but Hannah always manages to do so in a way that only makes Noa love her more. "Once upon a time, Miss Noa Peters came across the angsty and crude Ashton Irwin in a dirty, dank fraternity house. Story goes that he saved her from ruin in a rather romantic way and, like any racy romance novel, he swept her up in his arms before taking her to his sex dungeon. And then he laid her down—you know, on some mattress that was probably in need of a strip and clean—and then they fucked. And then they fucked some more. And the rest is history. The end."

"Thanks for that," Noa says as she provides a few slow claps for her friend's story. Hannah bows dramatically and all three of the girls laugh. "I met him freshman year. He was really good friends with my friend Calum—we've told you plenty about Calum."

"The mystery man of my dreams," Alice jokes.

"Anyway, we met at some party freshman year and nothing happened between us initially, but we would always bump into each other on weekends and flirt a little. It was all harmless. But then sometime during our sophomore year, we started hooking up. And then I didn't see him for nearly a year—"

"And then senior year, they were each other's love leeches," Hannah coos seconds before turning her head to the side and fake gagging.

"We hooked up a lot senior year," Noa verifies, wanting Alice to know that Hannah wasn't completely exaggerating this time around.

"They were together more than any romantic couple I knew," comments Hannah. "They went to every party together, spent nearly every night in a bed together, yet they say they never had feelings for each other. But my favorite part about it all is that they'd practically pretend to not know one another when in an academic or professional setting. They never sat together in classes, they never dared to study for big exams together. They were only acquaintances on a social level, of course."