Jet Black Heart - A.I. (UNDER EDITING)

Flashback Five

*Thursday, 26th of September , 2013*

*Diana's POV*

The aroma of freshly made, home-cooked food filled my nostrils as I made my way to the Irwin household's kitchen. 

"Mmm, the food smells so good!" I said as I plopped down onto one of the seats. 

"My specialty," Ashton's mother winked at me. We both giggled. 

Ashton walked in with Harry trailing behind him. 

"Where's Lauren?" I asked, slightly confused. In that moment, a heavy silence hung in the air. Anne Marie's face slightly distorted and no one said anything.

"She's over at her friend's house for the day," Ash said quickly. Too quickly. But I didn't question it. It wasn't my place to. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Harry's eyebrows draw together as he stared at Ashton. Their mother breathed a sigh of relief.

"Lunch'll be ready soon," Anne Marie smiled warily. She saw Ashton try to subtly signal to her that he wanted to leave and nodded, her smile relaxing. I held in a giggle.

Ashton tugged on the sleeve of my jumper, signalling for me to follow him, and I did. We went up to his room and sat down on his bed. This was the norm, but I obviously cared to pay attention to the details more than Ash did. 

I saw pictures of his family that were placed all around the house. It just occurred to me how happy they were without a father. I couldn't say the same, but we were better off without him.

Sighing, I fell back onto the bed. Ash lay next to me. We stared at the ceiling in silence. It wasn't awkward silence. It was comfortable silence. The type of silence where we both had a mutual understanding that our minds and possibly hearts were racing, but we let it be and stayed where we were.

"What are you thinking about?" Ash asked after a while, looking over at me. I turned my head to look at him and I realised that we were actually pretty close, at least 10 centimetres apart. It took me all of my self-control to stop myself from looking at his lips. 

"Dunno, actually. Just everything, I guess," I shrugged with a half-smile, "What about you? What are you thinking about?"

"You," he said almost instantaneously. For a second, I couldn't breathe. My heart skipped a beat. My mind was racing a million thoughts per second and I didn't know how to respond. I was struck completely mute.

My mouth went dry and the pounding in my ears became extremely loud. Unsure of how to respond, I laughed nervously. He did, too.

"Uh, what about me are you thinking about?" I asked, hoping to sound playful. He looked at me skeptically, as if to say 'Do you not know how to phrase your sentences?' but my mind wasn't working properly, so this time, I was allowed.