“So he just asked you out?”
“Literally, right there, he just opened the door again and asked me out,”
“Oh my God,”
It was lunch on Friday and I was explaining the whole situation vis á vis Ashton to Caitlyn, my best friend, who was sitting across from me in the cafeteria. I hadn’t actually spent that much time with her lately, I was trying to make up for it by spilling all the details of me and Ashton. Apparently too excited about my possible relationship with Ashton, Caitlyn ate hardly any of her chicken burger.
Caitlyn bought something almost every day from the canteen, which sort of made me feel like my ham and cheese toasted sandwich was inadequate. Something in Caitlyn’s eyes changed as she looked at somebody behind me and she effortlessly changed the conversation to the upcoming formal. “Who do you think you’re going with?” She said stiffly, trying to send me the message that I shouldn’t look behind me, so I figured Ashton was probably approaching.
“I don’t know, whoever asks me, I guess?” I said. She scoffed and rolled her eyes at me, clearly unsatisfied with the response. Caitlyn was the kind of girl who believed that if I wanted a date to the formal, I should go ask them. But, frankly, I didn’t actually have anyone in mind. Except Ashton, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Suddenly, my mind was racing with thoughts concerning Ashton and our maybe-relationship and would it even happen and would we just be friends and what if what if what if, but my thoughts were interrupted when Ashton put his set his lunch down on the table and quickly covered my eyes with his hands, as if I hadn’t noticed him before.
“Guess who,” he whispered in my ear. His breath on my neck sent shivers down my spine. “Ashton,” I answered immediately, moving my head slightly so he knew to take away his hands. I didn’t even need to look up – his aftershave had given it away before I even heard his voice. He pouted as he slid next to me. “Hey,” he grinned at me. And again, I was overcome by this sudden realisation that Ashton Irwin was the cutest. Thing. I’d. Ever. Seen.
I didn’t even need to sugar-coat it. Ashton was literally so cute, just seeing him made my heart swell to the point it felt like I couldn’t breathe. And the way his dimples were so, so deep and his eyes went all squinty and glistened whenever he smiled was quite honestly the cutest thing I’d ever seen. I’d held baby pandas in my own hands and it still wasn’t as cute as this.
“What’s up?” I asked him as he started to unwrap his bread roll. “Oh, nothing much, Brooke, what about you?” I narrowed my eyes at his unnecessary addition of my name into the sentence, it made me feel like something was up.
“Well, Ashton,” I said, imitating him. “Caitlyn and I were just discussing how excited we are about the upcoming math test.” I could’ve mentioned the formal, but I didn’t want to make Ashton uncomfortable.
“Thrilling. Hey, uh, listen, Brooke,” he started to say, but we were interrupted by three boys coming and sitting down at the table. Calum, Luke, and Michael – the rest of Ashton’s band. I raised my eyebrows at Ashton, but he just grinned – those dimples, goddamnit – and shrugged. I looked over at Caitlyn, who already appeared to be deep in conversation with Calum.
Next period was English, so I was sitting next to Ashton who had Michael on the other side of him. The lesson was almost over and at this point I’d given up trying to pay attention to what the teacher was saying, my focus was on the clock which seemed to be ticking slower than it ever had before. I was almost sure I was about to fall asleep when I felt Ashton nudge me in the shoulder and nod towards a note that he’d slid along the table. Feeling Ashton’s anxious gaze on me, I realised why he’d been nervous at lunch. Barely able to keep the smile off of my face, I carefully unfolded the piece of lined paper:
Movies tonight?
I was hardly able to keep the smile off my face when I wrote my reply:
Yes.
A look of relief washed over Ashton’s face before I even passed the slip of paper back to him, becasue he'd been watching me write the answer. We didn’t even say anything, but I could feel that the awkward tension between us was no longer there.
This is probably going to be the last short chapter because thiS IS WHERE THE STORY STARTS WOO EXCITED
