Crash {a.i}

O N E

Sophia showed up to Ashton's house that Monday before school. Ashton had thought he was going to be walking because the two of them didn't really talk over the weekend. So, he was a bit surprised to see Sophia's car and her sitting in his driveway as he walked out of his house, hair still damp from his shower and bag hanging half off his shoulder.

He frowned as he walked up and slowly got into the passenger seat. "Um, hey," he said, buckling up and turning to look at Sophia.

Sophia looked wary and nervous. "Hey," she said. "You alright?"

"Yeah," Ashton nodded. "Wasn't expecting you, that's all."

"I had to see you--plus, I always take you to school."

"True. What did you want to see me for?"

"Ashton, you haven't really spoken to me all weekend. Is this about Nick?"

Ashton shook his head. "No, I've just been feeling a bit shitty lately. Nothing to do with you." He was lying of course, but he really didn't want to tell Sophia about how he was feeling weird about her. Sophia had a boyfriend now and she probably wasn't feeling weird for Ashton, so it would be great if she didn't know. So what if Ashton had to lie?

"Why?" Sophia pressed. "What's going on?"

Ashton bit his lip and shrugged. "I miss Chloe." It was the only thing that made sense for him to say. Surprisingly Sophia seemed to buy it, although her response came a few seconds too late.

"Wow," she said. "Do you want to talk about it? Like, you seem to be doing alright. I just assumed."

"No," Ashton replied. "I think it's something I need to handle on my own. I wasn't angry with you or anyone. And after the game, Luke just offered to have me over and I said yes, hoping it'd clear my mind, you know?"

Sophia nodded with a smile. "Well, I'm glad. I've been dying to talk to you about Nick."

"What about him?" Ashton asked as Sophia pulled out of the driveway and towards school.

"I really like him," Sophia smiled. "At first I was extremely wary, but I don't know, Ashton. He's being extremely sweet. I don't even know how he got the reputation as a cheater and a player and an asshole because he really isn't."

"He cheated on Linda Burke with Maisie Donohue right before graduation," Ashton said to her. "It wasn't even a rumor, it was confirmed true."

"It's been so long since then," Sophia shrugged. "I think he's changed and he really likes me." And Sophia smiled so sweetly at Ashton that he really couldn't say anything else.

...

It only seemed to get worse from there.

Two days later as Sophia walked Ashton to his Lit class, she was nattering on about Nick again.

"He sent me a care box," she swooned. "Like, he knew I have a test this Friday and he sent me a box from college full of goodies and each of the things have little notes on them with cute little messages."

Ashton almost walked into the wrong classroom just to get away from this story.

...

"Did I tell you about the picnic under the stars that Nick organized for us?" Sophia beamed at Ashton while Ashton worked on Yearbook editing two weeks later.

"Yeah," Ashton said absentmindedly. "You told me three times already."

"Oops," Sophia giggled. "It was just so sweet and unforgettable, you know?"