Paper Aeroplanes (Ashton Irwin fanfiction)

3

A few days into summer and they haven't hung out any longer but Ashton finds him self staring out of his bedroom window and into hers, most of the time she's not even there. He just looks around her room, familiarising himself with how it's changed over the years they've not been talking, there are posters of bands that he's completely in love with, a row of scarves hung up on the wall, she's painted sections of the mint green to decorate it herselves, there are more changes concerning the layout of her room but the only thing Ashton really notices is the fact that the row of barbies is no longer sat on her shelf. His eyes scan the room and rest on a small spike of the plastic-y blonde hair much like that of a barbie that's just poking out from under her bed. As his eyes focus he notices that it's in a box, a box marked 'memories w/ ashton'. He feels like someone shot him in the heart, he doesn't know how to feel, he's touched that she kept a box of their memories but the fact that it's hidden underneath her bed causes a strange mix of hurt to stir in the pit of his stomach. Just then her doorhandle wiggles and he quickly sits himself down on his spinning desk chair. He rolls past his window casually and catches her eye.

"Oh, hey Zee," he smiles opening his window as she does the same.

"How's it hangin', Fletch?" she asks leaning on her window.

"It's all good," he replies. "What have you been up to so far?"

"I've been texting Michael a lot actually"

He watches her face light up at the mention of his name and his face falls as she checks through her phone. Why couldn't it have been him?

Quickly he changes the subject, "Do you remember when we used to talk, like, all the time here?"

She nods, "Yeah, I was told of for talking to you the day I moved in"

"That's where Zelda and Fletch came from," he reminds.

"Didn't we make a detective agency called 'Zelda and Fletch'?" she giggles, he loves her giggle.

"Yeah, we solved the mystery of the missing underwear when we were 10," he says.

"Lauren had somehow managed to nail it to the wall of the treehouse," Kristine remembers.

"Did you know there's still a little chunk of the white fabric and a nail stuck there?" Ashton asks, it was one of the things he had noticed the night he talked to Cruz, appart from the fact that he could only just fit inside that old treehouse now.

"Really?" Kristine exclaims.

He nods, "I noticed it the other day"

"We had some really fun times when we were kids," she says. "Remember we stole your mum's make up and dressed you up like a girl for the day"

He blushes, "The sad thing is, that was one of the many time I've dressed up as a girl"

The two laugh, reminising like this had made Ashton miss her even more and just then her phone buzzed.

"It's Mikey," she says picking it up and swiping over the screen.

His face falls once more as he watches her laugh silently to herself and begin to frantically text back.

"Why did we ever stop talking?" Ashton asks out of the blue.

"What?" Kristine looks up from her phone.

"Before we went to high school we could hardly make it through a day without talking and then we just stopped. Why?" Ashton elaborates.

"I don't know," she shrugs. "I guess we just made new friends, grew apart, it happens to everyone, I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner actually"

"But we promised we'd stay friends, I remember. And we both broke that promise," he exclaims slamming his hands on the window ledge.

"No need to get angry, Fletch, it's just life, there's nothing you can really do about it," she sighs.

"But there is something we could have done, we could have made the effort to talk more, arranged to go out at the weekend but we let stupid school get in the way," he huffs letting his head fall into his hands.

When he looks up Katrina is staring back at him, her big eyes not really focused on him but as if she was thinking about something and she is smiling.

"What?" he questions smiling too, just because she is.

"Nothing, I can just remember you got this angry when a bird stole your sandwich, you ranted and raved about how if you had taken just a second longer to leave the house it wouldn't have happened. I'm pretty sure you cried too," she says.

"You remember that, I didn't think anyone remembered that," he smiles light-heartedly.

"Of course I do, it was your Aunt's birthday and you really didn't want to go so we lied about going to the cinema and hung around the park for a few hours," she continues.

"Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about that, I don't think my mum ever found out," he starts to think back and adds. "Do you remember the last day of primary school?"

She nods and slowly a smile spreads across her face and she disappears for a second.

"What are you doing?" he asks as he hears the noise of things moving around drawers.

When she returns she places on the window sill a rock, but there on the side of the rock is the little painting of stick figure Kristine and Ashton.

"You still have it?" he feels like he could cry but doesn't.

"Of course, it was our friendship promise," she replies.

Quickly he turns and rumages through his own drawers until he finds stuck at the back, a mess of blonde hair in a pink ball gown, Rhonda.

He places it on the window ledge, "Found it"

"That, I didn't expect you to keep," she laughs at the grubby doll in front of her.

"It was our friendship promise," he repeats.

Her phone rings.

"It's michael," she says and answers it.

That's the end of their conversation, she closed the window, leaving the rock sitting just outside and disappears for the night while Ashton just sits alone.