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● 4 ●

I walked back from school to the lake. I walked through the tree surrounded path and saw the two-day-familiar figure of Ashton, kneeling on the floor, stroking his hands gently over some flowers, his back facing me.

I smiled and swung my bag onto the ground quietly. I walked over to him, kneeling down next to him. "They're pretty, aren't they?"

Ashton turned to look at me, realising that I was here. He smiled. "Yeah, they're beautiful."

I picked up a daisy and started piercing a hole in its stem.

"Oi," he said, "what are you doing?"

"I'm making a daisy chain." I replied, as if it was obvious.

Ashton's eyebrows knitted a questioning look. "What's that?"

"It's like, a chain of daisies, hence the name. You make a hole in the stem and take another one, putting the stem in the hole." I explained.

Ashton nodded as he learned. "Can you teach me?" He said, reaching out for a daisy.

"Sure." I said. He smiled widely, showing off his dimples. His smile and dimples made my heart soften. A smile automatically threaded across my face.

"So use your nail," I said, "and make a hole in the stem, like this." I demonstrated.

I managed to effortlessly poke a hole in the stem. However Ashton was having trouble with his short nails.

"How do you do that?" He said.

"Here." I said, taking the daisy and easily piercing a hole in it. "And then you do this." I said, putting another daisy in the hole. "And then you poke a hole through this stem, and continue the process."

"But I can't poke holes!" He said.

I giggled. "Okay, let's work together. I'll poke the holes, you put in the next daisy."

Ashton's face lit up. "Okay!"

I smiled at his reaction, poked another hole, and handed it to him. He picked a daisy out off the grass and put that through. He then handed the chain to me, to put a hole in.

We continued doing this together without talking much. Just listened to the passing birds and the flowing lake.

"How long are we going to make the chain?" Ashton asked after a while.

"Hang on..." I said, taking the chain and seeing if it was long enough. I wanted to make it a little flower crown on his head. it seemed long enough. "Yeah that's long enough."

"Long enough for what?"

"You'll see."

I pierced another hole and joined the ends together. "Close your eyes." I said teasingly.

I probably shouldn't have said that. Like, we're barely even friends. Would this make it awkward between us? Would he not like me anymore. I didn't mean it in a wrong way, but Ashton would probably take it like that.

Ashton furrowed his eyebrows in slight suspicion, with a small smile. He decided to trust me, and so closed his eyes.

At least he didn't take it a wrong way.

I took another quick look at the chain, just to make sure it was perfect. It looked about fine.

I gently placed it on his head on top of his light curls.

"You can open your eyes now." I said awkwardly, kind of wishing I hadn't got him to close his eyes in the first place.

Ashton opened his eyes and looked ahead at the river so he could see his reflection.

"Aww thanks Grace. It's really cute." He said, smiling.

I blushed and tried to hide my red cheeks from him. Failing, he saw my tomato-coloured face and laughed a little, showing off his dimples again.

We sat in silence for a few minutes as we sat on the cool grass and looked out at the river.

I looked around at other things. Birds, flowers, trees and all. Then a bee caught my eye. It sat on a flower.

The way it came and sat on the flower thinking the flower would be okay with it, reminded me of how dad's friend came over me thinking I would be okay with it. Or not even care if I was okay with it or not.

I was reminded about the way I was being forced, but managed to escape by hurting his ankle and hitting his head with a baseball bat.

And when afterwards when dad slapped me, punishing me for saving myself.

"Are you alright?"

I snapped back to reality. Why did Ashton just ask me if I was okay? Was I thinking out loud?

That's when I realised that a tear was rolling down my face.

I quickly wiped it off. "Yeah I'm good." I said.

"That's a lie." He confidentally replied, and he was definitely right. "Did anything happen?"

The words were at the edge of my lips, ready to roll out and fill Ashton's ears with events. But could I trust him? I'd broken my trust so many times previously because I trusted the wrong people.

But something told me I could trust Ashton.

How could I be sure? Wasn't I sure before to other people? Didn't they break my trust?

But Ashton seemed different.

But it's to early.

What do I say?

I swallowed my words.

"I hope you don't mind," I finally said, "but I have trust issues. Please don't take this personally, but other people have broken my trust-"

"It's okay," Ashton interrupted,"I get exactly what you mean. I have trust issues too, and I can see exactly why you wouldn't trust me; we've known each other for just two days. That's okay. I'm just letting you know that you can trust me, but you don't have to."

A wave of guilt washed over me. I swallowed hard, thinking about how he would be feeling right now. Definitely negative emotions.

"I'm sorry." I said with my head dropped down in slight guilt.

"I'm not offended, honestly. Please don't think I am." He said.

No matter how much I tried to see it, I couldn't find the slightest hint of sarcasm in his voice.

He actually meant what he said.

I was so grateful for that.

I already knew that the boy next to me was going to become a huge part of my life. One day I will be able to trust him.

One day.