I met him in a Haunted House

Chapter 2

   I noticed his eyes were a little wide as he looked down quickly, biting his lip.

   Well this was embarrassing. Ashton wasn’t in any of my classes, but I had seen him around school and also at some school events. I didn’t know what it was but there was just something about him that made my heart flutter and my cheeks heat up. I had always wanted to talk to him and get to know him, but I just couldn’t get up the nerve to talk to him. I always wished that one day he would talk to me, but I knew that wouldn’t happen as he seemed very shy around everyone, apart from around his friends that I had often seen him with, smiling and joking.

   But here I was, standing at the Halloween carnival with him, blushing full of nerves, still holding his hands.

   “Hi,” I said a little nervously. Maybe this chance had been given to me to finally talk to him. “I’m ___.”

   “I know who you are,” he said quietly. This surprised me a little as I wasn’t even sure that he noticed me. Then he looked up at me, seeing my surprised expression. “I’m Ashton.”

   “I know who you are too,” I smiled gently.

   “You do?” he asked, a tone of happiness in his voice.

   “Of course I do,” I nodded.

   “Oh, uhm, well it looks like we know each other,” he smiled.

   We stood there for a minute or two and then I realized that I was still holding onto his hand and that he most likely didn’t want to waste his time standing here with me.

   “I should probably go then, I’m sure you have things that you want to do without me interfering,” I smiled up at him, letting go of his hand. “Thank you,” I said as I turned around to leave.

   Before I could take my third step, I felt someone grab my hand and I turned around to realise that it was Ashton. His sudden boldness seemed to fade as he dropped his hand back to his side and began to talk, “I-I...Uh...Maybe we could hang out for a while?” There seemed to be a look of hope in his eyes and if I’m honest, I wanted nothing more than to spend time with him. After all, I had been wishing to do just that for just over two years now, this was finally my chance.

   “I’d like that,” I smiled as his face broke out into a wide grin at my answer.

   “So, what do you want to do?”

   “Anything as long as it isn’t scary.”

   “I second that. How about the carousel?” he suggested and I nodded, before we both headed in that direction, smiling and making small talk as we went.

   Honestly I don’t know why I was so scared to talk to him all of these years. Everything seemed to come so naturally, talking to him, joking with him, smiling, just generally having a great time. We had been on the carousel twice, the waltzer, the twister and on some of the stands.

   We had just got on the carousel when I remembered something. “I never asked, how come you were in that haunted house if you didn’t want to be?”

   “I...uhm, Jason made me,” he said talking about the boy at school who often liked to pick on people just for the fun of it. I had noticed him push Ashton a few times in the corridor and once he also got his friends to pour Fanta on him. That day was probably the only day that I had come close to talking to him as I grabbed him some napkins before he ran off to the toilets to clean himself up.

   “Ugh, he’s so mean, I can’t stand him,” I said. “I can’t believe he did that to you.”

   “Well somehow he found out that I really didn’t like scary things, and thought it would be the funniest thing ever. I’m such a wuss.”