Begin Again - A.I

twenty eight.

The next time I see Ashton is at school the next morning, in the halls on my way to English. I'm not at all in the mood to talk to him, so I try and ignore him for as long as I can. Typically, Ashton doesn't give up until he gets what he wants.

"El!" I decide to stop walking after the fifth call of my name. Well, his name for me.

"What?" I give him the coldest look I can muster.

He comes crashing to a stop, as if he wasn't actually expecting me to stop, and rubs the back of his neck awkwardly with his hand. "Uh, where did you go last night?"

I just lower my eyes at him. "Are you meaning before or after you kicked me out?" 

He sighs. "El, look. You know I didn't mean it like that," he whines. "I was just trying to cool Luke down, and I figured you needed the air. I didn't want you to completely disappear."

I just roll my eyes. Pathetic. I turn back around and start walking again.

"Hey!" Above everybody else's, I hear his footsteps. "Wait up!"

I spin back around. "What do you want from me, Ashton?" I cry. 

He looks confused, his expression twisting. "I .... you left your stuff by Michael's swing. I was, uh, I was really worried about you."

"Oh, save it," I choke. "You really expect me to believe you give a shit about me? You never have, Ashton. Don't start acting like it now."

He looks genuinely hurt, his eyes darkening into a colour I have never seen on him before. "Is that really what you think?"

"You tell me."

"I'm ... sorry."

"Yeah, well, sorry is getting a little old with you."

"Look, don't worry about Luke," he says, as if that's the answer I need to hear. "He has his moments, but he'll come around. The guys all really like you and-"

"I don't care about Luke!" I cry. "It's you, Ashton. It's always you!"

"Okay, now you're not making sense-"

"Just .... just forget it." I shake my head. "It doesn't matter anymore."

"You didn't come home last night." His voice is small.

"I was staying at Chelsea's," I reply meekly. "She took me to school."

"Chelsea? Who the fuck is Chelsea?" He then hesitates. "Wait, Chelsea Browning?"

"What does it matter?"

"So you're going to start hanging out with Chelsea and her minions now?" He says snarkily. 

"It's a hell of a lot better than hanging with you and yours," I snap back. 

"El .... El, come on-"

"I'm not going to tell you again," I hiss. "That's not my name." And before he can say another word to try and save his sorry ass, I'm disappearing into the crowd.

-----

The last thing I want to do is see Luke's face, but of course the universe has a way of fucking me over because in English he's who I'm partnered with.

"The task is simple," our teacher says as she paces around the room. "If you can't handle it, you're all idiots."

"Are you allowed to say that?" Some kid yells.

She ignores him. "I'd like you and your partner to look at the poem given to you and make any necessary notes about it. You'll have until the end of the lesson, and then we'll share. Got it? Good. Get started."