Freckles

SIXTEEN

"I'm not scared of you Ashton, I'm scared of how fast I've come to appreciate you and your foul mood. That's what scares me."

What did that even mean?

Ash huffed in annoyance as he remembered what Trey had told him the day before. He slammed his fist on his table, the entire class including his roommate turning towards him, intrigued.

Ash just yawned and buried his head between his arms, signaling everyone to get on with their business and leave him alone. He was in a strange mood.
Not understanding the meaning behind Trey's words frustrated him.

But what annoyed him even more was the recent growing desire to slam his lips onto Trey's. He didn't know why he wanted it so bad, but it frustrated him not being able to.

And Ash didn't do well with frustration.

He subtly tilted his head to look at Trey. The small boy was quietly sitting next to him, writing whatever the teacher was talking about. He watched the slim fingers grip the blue pen running across the paper.

Even from here, Ash could tell that his handwriting was neat and his lessons organized. Which was intriguing since his bed was always unmade and his clothes randomly lying on the floor of their room.
He often had to remind him to put away his stuff because he hated the mess.

But what was he even doing here, why wasn't he in a normal place with normal people? The more Ash came to discover him, the more things he wanted to learn about him. But he knew that he would scare Trey off if he asked too many questions.

And he had just started to figure out his own feelings, there was no way he was letting Trey go.

The small boy stopped writing for a moment, his eyebrows scrunching, deep in thought.
He bit on the end of his pen, completely oblivious to the tall male sitting next to him and blatantly staring at him, not even bothering to hide it.

Well at least he wasn't biting his fingernails anymore. Ash smirked as he remembered the very beginning when he had scolded him for it. Trey had actually kept the small bottle of hand sanitizer, it was sitting almost empty on the corner of his desk.

When he was done staring, Ash tucked his head back into his arms and sighed, he still didn't understand that boy, and he didn't like it. He shrugged and decided to go back to sleep.

"-ton? Ashton? Ashton wake up!" Trey yelled in Ash's ear. The tall boy woke up with a start and grabbed the closest thing next to him to fight whoever had decided to bother him during his nap.

Trey stared at him for a short moment before bursting into a fit of giggles. Ash was dumbfounded. "What are you doing here Trey?" He asked, grumbling.

"The bell rang like five minutes ago... You were in such deep sleep that you didn't hear it I guess. But what were you trying to do with that pencil case anyway? Scare me?" He continued laughing softly.

"Yeah yeah keep on laughing. Don't you know that a pencil case is a first choice weapon?" Retorted Ash. He felt quite stupid because the small boy was right.

Trey laughed again.
"Fine, why not, but now hurry up we have to go to the next class!"
"Okay, Okay let a man wake up." Retorted Ash. He yawned and got up, grabbed his bag and followed him down the hallway.

Trey was unusually chatty today, he didn't seem like he was afraid anymore, even greeting a few people on his way. His smile seemed to reach the others and he was just radiating positivity, which was a first.

His stutter had almost completely faded. Ash nodded absentmindedly to what he said, carefully taking in his surroundings as they walked.

They were clearly opposites in so many ways: whereas Trey tended to trust more easily and relax once he was familiar with his surroundings, Ash never trusted. He was always tense except maybe in his room when the door was locked.