Manual of The Forbidden ➡ Irwin

Chapter 3.

"Dawn!!!" yelled a female voice, that belonged to my best friend.

She ran to me, kneeled and hugged me.

She wrapped her arms around me and I did it back, it has been so long since we separated, I really missed her, and to be honest those phone calls didn't fulfil the emptiness in my heart.

"You've changed so much."

"No I haven't."

"Oh please, look at your hair, it's different," she said taking a strand of hair in her hand.

"What?, the crossed wires that hang from my head, yeah right, it is as messy as you left it," I shrugged a little, "you haven't changed either."

And I was right, the only change was some more inches added to her brunette hair. It now reached her fragile shoulders that were covered by a dark green coat.

"Hmm," the guy next to us, AKA Ashton, cleared his throat to be noticed.

We both looked at him.

"Oh sorry." Sharon said giving him a quick hug with one of her arms, "it's just that I'm too excited," she said looking back at me, and her smile grew even more, "I have a lot of things to tell you!" she warned me with excitement.

"Me too!" I said happily.

"I suppose you guys already met," she said this time talking to Ashton and not to me.

"We do." we said unison and laughed at our coordination.

"This is going to be fun." she exclaimed getting up with Ashton, and I still was sitting right there.

"What are you doing still there?, get up, why didn't you get in the apartment?" she questioned me.

He stretched his hand to me again, and the memory of how it felt made me want to do it again, so I took it and he held me up.

"Thanks." I said in a really low voice.

He nodded and then we separate our hands.

"What happened is that you left me the wrong keys," I complained, trying to look at her and not at the perfection at her side.

"The wrong key?" she looked shocked.

"Yes," I gave her the key I was keeping in my pocket.

She looked for something in her purse, and she found it: three keys.

"Sorry, you're right, these are the right keys," she stopped for a second like she remembered something important, "oh, now that I remember I gotta thank miss Montorfano for giving you the keys."

"The grumpy lady in the 308," I referred to the apartment.

"Hey, she's nice when she wants to." she shrugged.

"Let's say she never wants," I rolled my eyes, "I don't know why didn't you left the keys with someone less.... I don't know bitter." I stated.

Ashton chuckled.

"You're exaggerating," she tilted he head and laughed, "you must be really exhausted, you should be thankful that I already organised your bedroom." she smiled once again.

"I would be more thankful, if this door was opened." I laughed.

She laughed too and put the correct key in the lock, pushing the door opened, finally.

"Come on in, and take a sit, I'll be with you in a couple of minutes." she ordered me.

I was about to grab my suitcases, but Ashton did it first.

"I'll do it." he grabbed each suitcase in each hand.

I just gave him a shy smile, which he returned, giving me a breeze of inspiration, like a poet needs for his poetry, or like an artist needs for his work of art.

He walked behind me and left the suitcases in the living room, and then walked back to Sharon, I couldn't help staring at him while he left the apartment.

My stomach roared, and I realised I still had the cookie, that I didn't finished when Sharon arrived, in my hand.

I sat in one of the chairs in the kitchen, and proceed to eat my unfinished cookie lazily.

"I came here to give you back the CD you lent my brother." said Ashton in his velvet voice from the door.

"Ashton, love, you didn't have to worry about it, I even told Luke to return it whenever he wanted to." she answered.

I was choking with the cookie inside my mouth.

Love??? How was that possible???.

I could perfectly hear the sound of Sharon lips kissing some part of Ashton's face, while I was trying to swallow the cookie that was scraping my throat slowly.