“I just don’t get it,” I said to Ashton the next afternoon as we sat in the kitchen, working on my math. I was slowly, but surely, making progress. We made idle chitchat as I worked through a page of questions that Ashton had written out for me. I noticed that he had really, really, nice handwriting. Like, it was almost feminine. He was leaning against the kitchen bench a couple of metres away and occasionally moved a couple of feet, like he was nervous.
A few times, out of the corner of my eye, I caught him staring at me when he probably thought I couldn’t see him. I noticed him staring at me during English earlier that day too, when I put my head down to write.
“Don’t get what?” Ashton asked, taking a step forward to help. “No, the song, I don’t get the song,” I said quickly.
“Oh,” Ashton stepped back into his original position. “What don’t you get about it?”
“What’s it even about?” I asked, trying to balance my attention between the conversation and the math. “Okay, so, it’s about this guy and this girl, and they sleep together one night and then the next morning for whatever reason she’s in his underwear-”
“But why? Why is she in his underwear?”
“I don’t know? She just is, I guess.” He scrunched up his face, which was really cute.
“Anyway, so, she’s in his underwear and he looks at her and he’s like, ‘Wow, I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you."
“Okay," I nodded, "But what about ‘I’m so down’? Down? What the hell does that mean?”
“Like, you know, down to settle down with her, move in together, have a family, whatever,”
“Right,” I chuckled, “It’s a good song.” He opened his mouth and took a breath and for a moment I thought he was going to say something, but then he closed his mouth again and we continued on like it didn’t happen.
I finished the problems in record time. “You’re getting better,” he said encouragingly, but I knew I was only quick because I was eager to see the drawing.
“So, have you finished the drawing yet?” I said in an attempt to be casual. His face lit up, and I realised he’d been looking kind of tense the whole time. “As a matter of fact, I have." He said, "Hang on a sec,” he grinned that stupid grin that made my heart flutter and raced into the hall to get the picture out of his backpack. When he reappeared, he was carrying an A4-sized gift, wrapped in shiny silver and gold paper and tied neatly with a ribbon.
“Aw,” I cooed, feeling the blush rising to my cheeks. It occurred to me that in the week or so I’d been tutored by Ashton, I’d probably blushed more than I had in any week in my entire life.
“It’s actually not even that good but I guess it’s okay,” he ran his hand through his head with a nervous laugh. His cheeks were practically glowing.
“I’m sure it’s amazing,” I said and sat down, gesturing for Ashton to do the same. I wiggled the pink ribbon off the present carefully, lightly punching Ashton on the arm when I realised that the ribbon was actually store-bought and all he had to do was peel the sticky strip off and stick it onto the gift wrapping.
“You’re such a loser,” I laughed, “You can’t even tie up a damn ribbon.” He held his hands up in defence, smiling a really cute open-mouthed half laugh. I carefully peeled the tape off the paper, not wanting to rip it. “
Oh come on,” he groaned impatiently, rolling his eyes at me. “Sorry,” I shrugged, continuing to be as careful as I could, even though I knew the paper was probably just going to end up in the bin anyway. I squeezed my eyes shut as I pulled the drawing out of the paper, beyond excited to see how Ashton drew me.
When I opened the picture, I couldn’t help it – I gasped. It was drawn so perfectly, almost too perfectly. It was clear he’d spent heaps of time on it because it wasn’t like looking in a mirror, it was better. Ashton had turned all of my flaws, the freckles that are scattered around my face, the way my nose flicked up at the end, the way one end of my mouth curled up a bit when I was deep in thought, into some amazing piece of artwork that was me but at the same time wasn’t me.
“It’s amazing,” I whispered, taking in the incredible detail of the drawing. “It’s gorgeous.” Ashton just shrugged at me and said, “It’s you.” I shook my head at him violently, so violently that he frowned at me. “It’s better than me, it’s, like, me 2.0.” I told him, still in awe of how Ashton managed to turn me, of all people, into a masterpiece.
“No, that’s definitely you. I didn’t change anything; I drew you, not some other version of you that I thought you might like better.” I smiled, feeling rather blushy. “Well,” I said matter-of-factly, “I do like this one better.”
He shuffled his chair closer to mine and looked into my eyes so that it felt like he was staring into my soul and said, “Well,” he mimicked, “You shouldn’t.” And we sat there, for a long time, staring into each other’s eyes, his bright green eyes a trap I was unable to escape. He was frowning only slightly, and I found myself oddly disappointed when he finally looked away and said he should go.
I followed him to the door to say goodbye and as soon as he stepped out, he turned around to face me and opened his mouth and closed it again, just like he had earlier that afternoon. “Bye, Brooke,” he said softly instead, and walked off in the direction of the stairs. Confused, I shut the door but before I even turned around, the doorbell rang. I didn’t bother looking through the peephole, because I knew it was Ashton.
I opened the door and started to come up with some welcome back, haven’t seen you in a while joke, but Ashton beat me to it. “Doyouwanttoseeamoviesometime?” He blurted out, taking me by surprise. “What?” I laughed gently, hoping that he actually said what I thought he said. “Do you want to go see a movie sometime?” He asked again, very slowly, carefully pronouncing his words like I might not understand if he spoke any faster. It was an incredible struggle to keep the happiness swelling inside me inside me.
“Ashton Irwin, did you just ask me out?”
“Yes?” He said, making it sound like a question. He rocked forwards and backwards on his feet, fidgeting with his hands. He’s so adorable, my mind sighed.
“Let me think about it,” I teased, tapping my finger against my chin. “Of course I’ll go with you, dork.”
wow this feels like a really weird place to end the chapter but I’m going away for the weekend and I really wanteD TO UPDATE BEFORE I LEAVE
also this hasn't been proof read and is really short because I'm literally about to go to the airport so sorry for any mistakes bear with me omfg
