Michael knocked on Ari's door, his breath hitching in his throat when he heard footsteps on the other side.
He had gotten directions to Ari's from Suzanne, who, surprisingly, didn't ask why he wanted such information. He supposed she must have felt bad for him. He had stormed, upset, up to his bedroom earlier that day, after all.
The door opened, and Michael nervously stepped back, but the person that stood there was not Ari, but her cousin Ashton.
"Hey, Michael." Ashton flashed a friendly smile, his dimples popping.
"Hi," Michael swallowed, feeling bad for not being able to return a smile. "Is Ari there?"
Ashton's smile faltered slightly. "Um...actually, I sort of thought she was with you."
"She's not here?" Michael blinked.
"No..." Ashton licked his lips. "But she'll be back. She's probably just with Wolfgang or one of her other friends."
Michael nodded, clearing his throat nervously.
"Want to come in for a while?" Ashton offered, moving to the side of the door frame.
"Sure." Michael forced a weak smile and stepped inside, shutting the door behind him.
Michael followed Ashton down a hallway into a large kitchen. A woman stood in the corner chopping something with a large knife. When she heard the boys enter, she turned and smiled.
"Mom," Ashton said to the woman presumably his mother. "This is Michael."
Ashton's mother gave a wide smile to Michael, one that was so contagious that, despite his inability to do so before, couldn't help but smile back.
"I'm Anne," She smiled again. "Michael, I've heard so much about you!"
Michael looked at Ashton questioningly, and Ashton shrugged.
"Ari talks about you all the time." Anne explained.
"She...she does?" Michael asked, trying to keep his jaw from dropping in surprise.
Anne nodded, smiling.
"So Michael," Ashton interjected quickly. "would you like to come up to my room?"
As an answer, Michael stood up and, with a quick goodbye to Anne, followed Ashton out of the room.
Ashton's room turned out to be the entire basement, a bed in one corner and a large drum set in the other.
"I didn't know you played the drums." Michael remarked, running a finger along one of the symbols as Ashton took a seat on his bed.
"I don't, really," Ashton shrugged. "That was my dad's."
Michael sensed tension, and decided not to linger on the subject. He took a seat on the floor and splayed out on his back, staring up at the dark ceiling, pipes twisting in every direction like a spider web.
"You can sit on the bed if you want." Ashton offered, laughing a little.
"Ashton, can I tell you something?" Michael questioned, ignoring Ashton's offer.
"Um...yeah, sure." Ashton said. Michael couldn't see his face, but he imagined it laced with a mixture of concern and confusion.
"Um..." Michael swallowed, about to make a confession. "I kind of...tried to kiss Ari."
Ashton was silent.
"Well, we did kiss, actually," Michael continued. "At the cabin in the woods, and before then, at that cliff. The first time didn't really count, and I'm not sure if the second time did either, but then..." Michael took a deep breath. "She was at my house, and I was upset, and I tried to kiss her, but she pushed me away, and she said 'I can't do this with you Michael', and then she left, and I'm worried I might have upset her or hurt her feelings..."
He trailed off, and the room was suddenly painfully silent.
After a moment of this, Michael whispered, "are you mad?" He turned his head towards Ashton, who was still sitting on his bed, staring at the wall.
"That you and Ari kissed?" Ashton shrugged. "No. Honestly, I was kind of expecting it."
Michael raised his eyebrow but kept silent.
"But Ari..." Ashton but his lip for a moment in thought. "She's kind of...sensitive, you know? She's never actually gotten serious with anyone, ever. I think she's worried she'll get hurt again. She doesn't want to lose anyone she loves again, and that means not loving anyone else."
Michael sighed, his heart sinking. So there was no chance it would work out between him and Ari.
Suddenly, there was a tiny muffled cough from beneath Ashton's bed, and Ashton rolled his eyes.
He dropped to his knees and reached his hand under the bed. There was an eruption of giggles as a gleeful Marigold was tugged out onto the cold basement floor next to Michael and attacked with vicious tickles from Ashton, her black Fox SnapBack slipping off of her head.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry!" Marigold cried.
"Pardon? I didn't quite hear you." Ashton smiled, continuing to tickle Marigold's neck.
"I'm sorry, My Lord!" Marigold could barely get the words out between giggles.
"Okay, you can go free." Ashton let go of Marigolds arms and she scuttled away, hiding behind Michael who was still laying on the ground, staring up at the ceiling.
"Michael?" She asked, poking his side tentatively.
"Yeah?" He turned towards her.
"If you and my sister want to date, that's okay with me." Marigold smiled reassuringly.
"That's nice," Michael swallowed. "But I don't think that's going to happen."
Marigold's eyebrows furrowed. "Why not?"
"Because she doesn't like me."
"Sure she does."
"No, she doesn't" Michael argued, glancing at Ashton with a look that said: "help me!". Ashton just looked back at him with a smile.
"Well, I'm sure she does," Marigold crossed her arms stubbornly. "She talks about you all the time. Sometimes at night, she talks to me when she thinks I'm asleep. She goes on and on about the way you see life and how confused she is and blah blah blah."
Michael sat up.
There was a call from upstairs, Anne asking for Marigold.
Marigold stood up, grabbing her black SnapBack from the floor next to Ashton and placing it on her head. She was almost at the stairs when she turned and faced Michael again, saying, as an afterthought, "She likes daisies."
That chapter was boring, but the book is turning out okay, right?
Loser_Luke
