Therapy ➳ Ashton Irwin

Fifth Memory

Fifth Memory

 

Ashton, Luke and Stella were in middle of maths class. It was seemingly a boring, normal day. But only seemingly.

 

Stella’s world was about to be flipped upside-down into water, where she would drown in her own grief.

 

 

The Sun was streaming through the open windows. It was the beginning of December, almost summer in Australia, to the heat was impressive. To make it worse, there was no air conditioning in the school, and only a small fan for the whole class.

 

The classroom was small and hot, with small wooden tables and chairs for the students, and one larger set for the teacher. The blackboard was fixed on to the wall opposite facing the class, behind the teacher when she was sitting. There were small lockers for each student at the back of the room.

 

Luke, Stella and Ashton were in the second last row of the class – a seat that Ash would always complain about because he could not see the blackboard – and the fan’s cool breeze did not reach them, so they were sitting there, sweating.

 

None of them could concentrate on the class. Luke knew that his mum would explain it to him later; Stella was brilliant at maths and had learnt how to do it on her own when she was bored and Ash… he was not good at maths so he did not even try.

 

The only sound within the class was Ashton’s pen tapping the wood of the table surface, the chalk the teacher held scraping along the blackboard and the light sound the fan made.

 

“Ashton, please stop that, it is highly annoying,” said the maths teacher, not even turning around to look at him. She instantly knew it was him anyway.

 

Ashton blushed slightly as everyone stared at him, and put his pen down. He was still just as painfully awkward as when he was five, but he was really open with Stella and Luke.

 

Right after the teacher sat down back in her chair facing the students, the door to the classroom opened, revealing the headmaster. He was tall and thin, with thick-rimmed glasses and black hair.

 

“Stella Carter?” he asked. Ashton shot a questioning glance at his best friend on the other side of Luke. Was she in trouble?

 

She put up her hand and the headmaster acknowledged that she was the student in question.

 

“Could you please come out for a minute?”

 

The whole class was staring at her, but she stood up with no hesitation whatsoever, and exited the classroom. Ashton and Luke were left sitting there, very confused.

 

When class ended, instead of heading to the playground, the boys went to look for Stella. She was nowhere to be seen.

 

In the end they split up to search for her. Luke searched the first floor of the building, and Ashton looked through the second.

 

When Ash stumbled across the second floor girls’ bathroom, he thought that there was no harm in trying. She could definitely have been in there.

 

“Stell?” Ashton called out. There was no response. But he heard muffled sobbing in the last cubicle, as cliché as it sounds. “Stella, is that you?”

 

“Ash?” her voice sounded broken, muffled and painful. His eyebrows knitted together. What was wrong?

 

“Stella, it’s me, Ash. Please open up!” He said, knocking slightly on the wooden door to the last cubicle.

 

“What are you doing in the girls’ bathroom, you can’t be in here,” he heard through the door. He rolled his hazel eyes.

 

“Like I care, now open up!” He said, folding his arms. He heard her unlock the door, and it creaked open, revealing his brunette best friend. Her blue eyes were rubbed red and her face was blotchy. “What’s wrong?!”

 

“My dad…” her lips trembled and she shook. She was shaking quite violently and she felt as though she was going to be sick any moment. She felt dizzy and beyond grief. “My dad died in a work accident…”

 

Ashton did not know how to comfort her. So he just held her in his arms as she cried, patting her back and not speaking a word. He knew that it was useless to say how sorry he was for her. He knew that his silent comfort and company was the best he could give her, so he just let her cry as much as she needed to.

 

Stella was so grateful for having Ashton there. She felt lost and as if she was stepping in to a new phase in her life full of the unknown. But she knew that she would have Ashton and Luke beside her through everything, and that was a massive comfort.

 

Stella didn’t fully comprehend the full meaning of death. She was too young to experience the loss of a parent. All she knew is that he would not see him again.

 

When she slowly stopped crying, Ashton let go of her, but instead grabbed her hand tight.

 

“Your dad is up there, looking down on you. He is in a better place now.”

 

Stella smiled weakly.

 

 

Maybe he was right.