(Day 4)
The next morning was a bit chilly. The previous day, I had left school without saying bye to Ashton. I left him there in the halls alone. Leaving someone who claims to be just like you hurts. It hurts because if he really was just like me then, I knew how he must have felt when I fled without a word to reassure his baffled thoughts.
I took the bus, like I did every morning, and ended up organizing my backpack. As I was going through my papers, I found a Post-it note stuck onto the inside of my binder. On it was written:
I want to apologize for what I did to Calum. I know that you’re mad or annoyed at me, so can I explain it to you? I can’t stand seeing you in the halls and seeing you give me nothing more that an empty glance. Meet me in the library thirty minutes before school starts.
-Ash
Oddly enough, I had woken up early this morning and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I had taken the early bus. I would arrive at school with time to go to my locker before I made the trip to the library.
I silently slipped through the door to our table. The librarian was playing solitaire on her computer.
“Solitaire!” I heard her screech as if she had won the lottery. I looked around the library as I was waiting for Ashton and had a moment of realization of how big this place really is. Every empty space of wall had a shelf propped up against it. There must’ve been thousands of books in here. I heard wet foot steps skidding against the hard-wood floor. A hand touched my shoulder, and I turned around and saw Ash smiling down at me.
“I’m so happy you came. I thought you wouldn’t have...” He trailed off with his statement and took a seat next to me. I felt his eyes on me; they seemed to be picking me apart. I felt so transparent, as if he was figuring me out like a puzzle.
“You don’t need to apologize,” I spoke without thinking. It was too early in the morning to think; my brain must have still been asleep.
“And why is that?” Ashton replied.
“Because I didn’t need you to save me in the first place. Why didn’t you leave me there to be beat up?” I added, “I don’t need your pity; I can handle myself. This is why we can’t be friends!” I felt like the weight of the world had just been lifted off my shoulders.
“I did that because I wasn’t just going to stand back and watch him beat you like a punching bag!” Ash exclaimed, “By the way, I don’t know why we can’t be friends. Nothing went horribly wrong.”
“It did go wrong! You punched your best friend straight in the kisser and nearly knocked him out cold. How could you say that wasn’t horribly wrong?” My response came out bitter. “You need to get this straight. First of all, Calum is not my friend, second of all, I honestly only have you. That’s why I can’t lose you, okay Maddie? If I didn’t have you then I would resort to getting picked on by the populars or joining them.” It took me a little while to digest Ash’s answer.
“To be honest, I would go back to my old self if I were to leave you,” I stated, “but I don’t wanna go back.” A smile appeared on his face, his cheeks turning a shade of red, and I swear his smile was so large that his face must have been hurting. Ashton’s eyes turned a deeper shade of blue as seriousness replaced his giddiness.
“Maddie, one thing you need to learn about life is that who cares what others think about you? As long as you are doing what you love to do, then who cares? You shouldn’t.”
“I know I shouldn’t, but I don’t know how to not care. I get that it’s simple, but not in my situation.” I answered as a pang of sadness sunk into my head.
“It is easy, Mads! All you have to do is brush the opinions of other people off your shoulder. You just can’t let them get under your skin, and you’ll do fine.” I thought about the words that have just come out of his mouth. It must be easy, I just can’t over think the situation. I need to stop worrying, that will help with that.
“Do you want to go to second period now?”
“Second period?” I responded.
“Yea, we kind of skipped first. I guess we were talking for a while.” Ash chuckled to himself.
“Okay then, race you there!” I screamed.
“That’s not fair! You got a head start!” I heard Ashton yell as I ran to math. I saw him slowly jogging behind. He’s letting me win!
And that was the beginning and the almost-ending of a true, solid friendship between two people from different worlds. Who weren’t so different after all.
**I decided to publish the entire story because this was a school assignment so yea. I do have ideas for a REAL story so please read it and follow to see my next couple of stories. Thank you as always <3**
