Love-Love || OLD DRAFT

five - four

A/N

Thank you so much for reading, don't forget to leave comments and uh, if anybody wants to make fanart, or has suggestions for a playlist, don't hesitate to contact me!! :'D

I hope you're liking my boys so far!!

....

Aspen was like the breeze. I realised that in the days that followed. From the moment the breeze first hits you, you like it. And keep on liking it more and more. That's for the general, ordinary people. Aspen had a lot of friends, which proved my above hypothesis.

I, on the other hand, had a love-dislike relationship with breezes. I liked it for the very reasons other people did, and I disliked it (kinda) because breezes were often followed by ... dun dun dun - Super Storm. That guy was as annoying as he was hot, but enough about him - we're talking about Aspen here. An excited kid from the Fine Arts department who loved playing tennis and going about the campus, randomly handing out papers and paints to people, asking them to create whatever they wanted, and then hand him back the sheets.

"Or they can keep it with themselves, if they want to, it's absolutely fine," he said, grinning at me.

I stared at the stacks of blank pages he had asked me to hold as he balanced the art equipment in his hands, seemingly at ease, despite how it looked like the pencils and the brushes would roll off and fall any moment now.

"Why are we doing this, again?" I asked. "And give me some of those," I gestured at his hands. "You'll drop them."

He did not take the help I offered and turned around, and walked ahead. I followed. "You'll see why, after we're done," he said.

Did I mention he was like the breeze? People from all around us greeted him with "Hi"s and "Sup"s and "Good Afternoon"s as he passed by. And when I meant people, I meant every single one of them.

I wanted to comment on it, but didn't.

We stopped in the middle of the huge lawn and Aspen knelt down, dumping all the things he was holding on the grass. He patted on the ground, gesturing me to do the same, and I obeyed.

"So -" He took the papers from my hand and divided it into two stacks. He handed one to me and kept the other with himself. "You see the people sitting around? Go give them one or two sheets, along with these -" He grabbed a few paints, brushes and pencils and held them out to me. I wordlessly accepted them. "- and ask them to paint or write or do whatever, and give us back the sheets whenever they are done."

I stared at him. "So... you're like a hundred percent sure we're doing this?"

"Come on Riiiiiiiidge, trust me, it'll be fuuuuun!!" He poked my arms and continued to do so till I got to my feet with a hmph.

Aspen promptly jumped to his feet, showed me a thumbs up and skipped away towards the groups of people who lied scattered all around the lawn.

I sighed and looked around. Why was I doing this, again? Right, because I wanted to avoid Garnet, and keep myself distracted. It had been two days since the fiasco and I hadn't seen her since. In my own selfish ways, I did not want to either. I stayed at my college dorm room, refused to pick up Roux's calls and ignored any and all unknown numbers without an ounce of regret.

Being with Aspen helped. I knew it wasn't going to last. I knew we were going nowhere with our friendship, but I was selfish, and desperate. Desperate for all the happiness that came with him. I was smiling when I was with Aspen, talking about art, books, memes, and vines - luxuries I couldn't afford earlier because being Gravel meant constantly fighting - not just Super Storm but everyone and everything. The fight never stopped. Gravel was not the costume I put on, Ridge was. Ridge was the mask Gravel donned every once in a while, but now, for the first time, I felt like I could live - live as Ridge.

"What's it for?" the girl to whom I handed out the art stuff asked. "I mean, it's cool, I'll do it, but what's it for? Is it a project or something?"

"Uh, yeah," I said. "I'm from the Fine Arts Department -"

"No, you're not," the girl sitting next to her piped in.

I wanted to drop her into the Mantle. "Okay, I lied, sue me," I rolled my eyes. "My friend Aspen want -"

"Ooh," they cooed in understanding. "Alright, we'll do it," the first girl said cheerily.

"How - how does everyone know him?" the question slipped from my mouth before I could think twice about it.

The two girls exchanged a look. "He's the one who fired our last Principal Dr. Hembrik - indirectly of course," one of them told me.

I gaped at them. "What?"

"Are you new or something?"

Okay yes, maybe I was not entirely informed about the happenings of my college. Whatever.

"Hembrik had many cases of sexual harassment allegations against him, filed by the students," they explained. "The board was simply ignoring it. The student union President was scared to move against him. So Aspen started and led this student body which invited students from all walks to join, to protest, to investigate the matter. Concrete evidence was found, and with the immense pressure, the board was forced to fire Hembrik."

It took me a while to digest the new information. I was aware of Hembrik getting fired, but the details were unknown to me, simply because I never bothered. College was a facade - one that forced me to write exams every once in a while - and that was it; a place where Gravel's alter ego lived.

"You seriously did not know?" the girls asked.

"I'm new," I said and walked away, mind heavy with what I had just heard. I wanted to ask Aspen about it, but I wasn't sure what I'd say. What was I supposed to?

I returned to the spot where we had dumped our things to find that Aspen was already there, grabbing his bag and looking like he was about to run.

"Hey Ridge, I'm so sorry. I have to go," he said when he saw me, impatiently bouncing on his feet. "Something important's come up. You can uh, wait here and spread these out, or - I won't mind if you leave." He shook his head and I could tell he really, really wanted to dash. "I'm sorry."

"Dude, calm down," I laughed. "It's alright, I'll wait here; pass these around."

Aspen grinned. "You're the best, Ridge. I'll see you in a few."

I nodded and watched bemused as he ran towards the gate.

That was another thing about him - he was always moving - running, laughing, skipping, pacing, sketching. It was like, the guy was physically incapable of being still.

Shaking my head, I sat down on the grass and pulled out my phone. I had expected two or three 'sorry' messages from Roux, but instead, I was greeted by a bombardment of notifications.

The police scanner I had installed on my phone was screaming orders to and fro. The news apps were losing their minds.

"Fuck," was all I could say when I realised why.

Garnet had broken into Haynorr - the maximum security prison of the country.