Chemistry

Chapter 24: To Break a Heart

The music in Daniel's truck had been blasting loudly every since the two had left the library together. They had finally broken the awkwardness with a few jokes here and there. And they had ended up completing there informative powerpoint. Ashlyn would turn it in to Mrs. Ordeniro tomorrow afternoon, and then present it to the class with Daniel on Wednesday when he gets back.

Ashlyn and Daniel were in the truck singing and bobbing their heads to a variety of songs. He had finally found out what her favorite type of music was.

"Pop!" Ashlyn screeched in excitement. The sudden noise caused Daniel to freeze with his hand on the tuner button. "Leave it here!"

Daniel rose his eyebrows in disbelief that he couldn't have guessed that. In fact, he did. He just thought it was too typical. But he obediently removed his hand away from the dashboard and sat back in his seat. There wasn't a song playing. The DJ of the station went on to talk about how to win free tickets and what not.

"You like pop?" Daniel asked as if it were taboo.

"Uh, yeah! Some of the best songs are pop!"

"Some," Daniel emphasized.

"Whatever, " Ashlyn laughed. "Then what's your favorite genre? You look like a pop boy."

Daniel furrowed his eyebrows and snapped his head back. "For real?" He looked over at Ashlyn who was nodding her head. "How do I look like I listen to pop?"

"I don't know," she mumbled. "You just do."

Daniel grinned and shook his head. "I don't play soccer, I'm not scrawny, and I don't wear American Eagle or Sperry's."

Ashlyn smiled as she gaped in disbelief. "How stereotypical of you!"

"How hypocritical of you to call me stereotypical when you were the one who said it looked like I liked pop!"

Ashlyn made a face of confusion, but as soon as she understood his point, she nodded her head in agreement. "True."

"Nah," Daniel said grinning, letting Ashlyn know that he was only kidding. "but my favorite genre is rap and sometimes country."

"Really?" she asked. She studied him for a few moments while he stared at the road ahead. It was close to seven and the glint of the orange sun reflected off of his green eyes. Ashlyn couldn't stop herself from marveling at how gorgeous he looked. His eyes squinted from the bright sunlight that seeped through the windshield. And her intentions weren't even to study his beauty. But instead, they were to see if she could picture him rapping alone to 2 Chainz or whoever. Before she could come to a conclusion, that was just what captivated her. His attractiveness. And she could feel her heart quickly skip a beat when he looked over at her. She quickly looked away; hoping that he hadn't noticed her staring.

"Yeah," Daniel responded. "Is that so hard to believe?

Ashlyn rubbed her arm in nervousness. "No it's just-," suddenly the car was filled with a jazzy harmonica hook, and Ashlyn stopped in mid sentence. "Oh my God, this my SONG!" She exclaimed. She leaned forward to turn the radio up like the volume wasn't already pushing towards making the speakers bust, and said, "I'm gonna sing this song. Don't judge me."

Daniel smiled. "I'll take the rap part."

"Okay!" Ashlyn said. She sat back into her seat and nodded her head to the beat of the song. Once the intro was over, she sang, "It's goin' down. I'm yellin' Timberrrr. You better move. You better dance." They sang the whole song together, and shared a few laughs whenever Daniel got tongue tied during the rap verse.

When the song went off, he reached forward to turn the radio back down so he could say, "You're really not that bad of a singer."

Ashlyn beamed. "Too bad I can't say the same about your rapping."