Tattler || 5sos

Thirteen

            ~Ashton~

            The rain had gone from bad to worse, and I ran through the puddle to duck into the office building that was allowing the program to meet in its conference room. Trying my best to wipe my shoes off on the carpet, I followed the signs to the conference room, nodding politely to the lady at the front desk. My hood had kept my hair dry, at least. If there was one thing worse than being wet, it was being wet and cold. As I entered the conference room, I saw that other people hadn't been so lucky.

            "Hello!" an overly kind lady with dyed red hair greeted me with a crooked smile. I smiled and took the last open seat in the circle next to a girl with shoulder-length light brown hair. "We were just getting started with introductions. You may continue, Lucy."

            I didn't listen to Lucy as she finished up her reason for being here. Instead I stared at the floor and tried to fight the anger at my mother for forcing me to come to this meeting for depressed kids, or "Becoming Happy: A group for teens fighting themselves". What a joke. Sure I was a little down, but I didn't have any deep aching problems. Yet, at least. I decided to try to trust my mother again, and tried to listen to the others talk about their problems.        

            When the circle came around to me, I was ready. "I'm Ashton, I'm about to finish my freshman year of high school. I guess I feel like nothing's going to go right in my life."

            "Did you find out about this group by yourself?" the women with the dyed-red hair smiled largely. I think she said her name was Hilary.

            "Ah, no. My Mom made me come," I drop my gaze back to the dirty carpet.

            "Well, we're here for you, Ashton," Hilary said reassuringly. "Right?"

            There were unenthusiastic agreements from the circle, except for the girl beside me with the brown hair. She said it and tried to smile at me. I didn't smile back.

            The circle moved onto her next.

            "My name's Emery," her voice wasn't as strong as before, maybe it was because the rest of the circle was looking at her with judgmental eyes. Wondering why they were doing that to her, I inspected her better. Her hair was pinned out of her face, and she wore a tattered pair of dark skinny jeans and a sweater that she was constantly tugging at the sleeves of. She had big gray doe eyes that had no makeup on them whatsoever, which was different than most of the girls I knew. She had a light amount of freckles but other than that her skin was clear. I couldn't see why the others were giving her trouble. "I'm about to finish freshman year. My parents want me to be someone I'm not, and I don't know how much more I can take," her voice shake out at the end, like she can't say anything else without crying. She closes her eyes for a moment and when she opens them again she's like steel.

            "We're here for you, Emery," Hilary says in the same tone she said the me. "Right?"

            This time there's not even a murmur of an agreement. Not even Hilary tries to mask the silence. The girl named Emery bites down on her lip, hard, and I can see her steely composure breaking. She was trying so hard.

            "Right," I say aloud, surprising myself and everyone else. Emery looks at me and gives me the smallest of smiles as a thanks. I smiled back this time.

            The rest of the meeting went by uneventfully. Honestly I tuned out for most of it. But the few times Emery spoke up, I listened, if only to make sure she didn't break down. I didn't want her to start crying in front of all these people.

            "Great session, guys!" Hilary grinned when the hour was over. "Remember, we can survive anything!"

            Some people had already gotten up to leave when they realized she had finished, and Hilary left as well, the plastic smile finally being replaced by a scowl. I got up to leave, but stopped when I saw that Emery was slinging her maroon backpack over her shoulder.

            "She's sort of fake, isn't she?" I said to her. She gave me another tiny smile.

            "Hilary's the fakest of them all, she just wants more on her resume. But I can use all the smiles I get, fake or not," she crossed her arms as she talked to me.

            "Why are those kids so rude to you?" I asked, hoping I wasn't hitting a raw spot.

            "They think I'm over exaggerating. My parents are successful and I have plenty of money so I'm only allowed to be happy, happy, happy!" even her sarcasm seemed forced.

            "What school do you go to?"

            "Lincoln."

            "I go there too!" I replied, not believing I had never seen her around before.

            "I know, I've seen you there. You play the drums right? I'm in the art room during that time."

            She recognized me, but I'd never even noticed her. After talking to her as we walked down the wet sidewalk, I figured I would be noticing her a lot more.

            "Do you want to go get some ice cream or something?" I asked suddenly, because she looked like she needed some ice cream.

            She nodded a yes. "Anything to keep me away from home longer."

            So we went to the nearest ice cream place. She ordered a strawberry cone, which I turned my nose up at until she made me try it. "They have the best strawberry ice cream on the planet here," she smirked at me. She was right, I was the best. I don't know how long we stayed there, talking and laughing, but after we both left in our separate directions, I found myself smiling for no reason. I hadn't done that in a long time.

            I went back to the group the next week, and the week after that. If you asked my mother she would tell you that the group was really helping me, it wasn't. Emery was helping me, in her own special way. And I guess, I helped her too. We seemed to lean against each other, spending more and more time with each other outside the group. And when the group disbanded after one of the member's death, we still met up, mostly at the ice cream parlor. During the course of that summer, I felt more alive than I had the past three years of my life even though nothing had really changed except for Emery. Emery brought me back, and I brought her back.

            When school started back that fall, I was afraid we wouldn't see each other as much, but after music class that first day, when the teacher had been surprised at my active participation in the class, Emery was waiting for me outside the door, a genuine smile on her face. When I saw her standing there in the hallway, I couldn't help it, I took her hand and kissed her lightly on the cheek.

            "Well it's about time, Ash," she laughed, and then tugged me back toward the art room. "Come on, I want to show you my painting!"

            And just like that, I was hers.

- - -

this is probably my favorite chapter

if you couldn't guess, that was a flashback to how they met at the end of freshman year, they're so perf i was literally smiling while writing the end of this

tell me what you think!

i luh ya