Turn Right: A journey on the road takes an unexpected Turn... (COMPLETED)

Chapter 11

Last night was such a surprise to me. I’ve barely slept after what I heard. It feels surreal. I’m sitting here at Starbucks, my mind almost empty except for last night’s conversation.  I was left speechless. All I did was nod and stare. I kept replaying it in my head. I must’ve misheard it? Maybe that wasn’t intended for me. But he kept saying my name, which makes it even more unbelievable.

I was checking my mail, trying to see if my partner sent his part of the essay when my Skype notification popped up, telling me I have an incoming video call. I was a bit annoyed because I didn’t need any distraction right now. I need to concentrate, but when I saw the username, my heart literally skipped a beat.

Half of me want to ignore the call, but half of me desperately want to talk to him. I want to sort things out, for the sake of everyone. I decided the latter.

My heart was pounding like crazy, then I hit the accept button. His now scruffy face and cropped hair shows up on my screen. I almost cried realizing how much I’ve missed him, I haven’t seen him for almost 3 months now. I managed to keep it in and smiled for his sake.

“Ashley! Hey!”

Hearing him utter my name sends shivers through me, plus his genuine and very rare grin does nothing but melt my heart.

“Hey Nick! How are you?! What’s up?” trying to give back the same enthusiasm except for the tears.

“WOW” he sighed.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, a bit puzzled with the wow.

“Nothing, it’s just that I need to tell you something. I so want to tell you this personally but I’m halfway round and it’ll be a couple of months before I can come back and I just couldn’t wait. I thought of checking if you’re on and decided I should really tell you this before it’s too late.”

Confusion must’ve been evident on my face. He sighed and continued.

“Since the day you told me about Jimmy, your brother, I’ve realized something. Something I haven’t felt for the last couple of years. And this is even stronger than the last time.”

He was looking straight into my eyes, occasionally searching my face for any reaction. But all I did was stare back and nod. I was literally holding my breath. I remembered to exhale when he uttered my name again.

“Ashley?!”

I still can’t seem to form a word. I just raised my brows to let him continue.

“I like you. No, this is more than like, and I’d be the biggest fool if I let this hang between us.  You make me do impulsive things, which I don’t do. Just the thought of you brings me out of my concentration on certain things, which annoys me, but I don’t mind. Because it’s the thought of you that makes me smile, just the mere thought of you makes my heart skip a beat. And no matter how I deny it to myself, no matter what I do not to let it get in between our growing friendship, I can’t ignore it anymore.”

And I couldn’t help it anymore, before I could even stop it, tears slowly streamed down my face.

“Ashley?! Are you alright?”

Nick sounds a little frantic, which made my heart, melt even more, if that’s even possible. I bobbed my head up and down to assure him I’m fine.

He smiled, his eyes soft, sighed.

“Ashley, I can’t believe I’m going to do this over Skype.” He chuckled, which made me smile.

“I know I like you. So much. And I know for certain that this is going somewhere more. This is not the usual me, as you might have notice. I never do anything I’m half sure of, or if I’m not fully confident. Not that I’m not sure of what I’m feeling. Believe me I am more than certain. I’m confusing you, I’m sorry. What I’m trying to say is, I want to spend much more time with you as soon as I’m back. Ashley, will you go out with me?”