Big Red's POV
Publik is one of those cafes where it's always busy but never full, so it's easy to trust that there will be an open table. Ashlyn drinks her chai latte while I sip the white hot chocolate that I always get when I come here. I don't actually come here often. I prefer a night at home with video games and KFC over cafe hangouts, but Ashlyn tells me how her family used to come here a lot with EJ's as kids, so she has memories ingrained in this place.
"So did you talk to her today?" Ashlyn asks.
"Talk to who?"
"The girl you like. What's her name?"
"Oh, Malaak," I respond. "Yeah, we spoke, but not a lot."
"Well, what did you talk about?"
"English, mostly. That's the class we have together."
"Okay, let's start there," Ashlyn says. "Try to talk to her about stuff other than school. Get to know her interests. Open up about yourself too."
"The only person I open up to is my orthodontist when he tells me to open wide."
That makes Ashlyn laugh as she replies, "Well, then you'll have to get comfortable with that. She can't like you if she doesn't know you."
"That's...a fair point," I admit. "But she mostly just talks to me for help with school."
"Then invite her over to study or something," Ashlyn replies. "If you two get along well outside of school, then that's a really good sign."
"I'd love it if I could ask her to the dance," I confess, "but she wouldn't say yes."
"You never know if you don't try."
"Well, have you asked your crush to the dance yet?"
Ashlyn hesitates before replying, "I was going to."
"But you didn't?"
"No. I was scared." Ashlyn brings her cup to her lips, preparing to take a sip after she finishes explaining the situation. "Her name is Emilia. We've been friends since September when we were lab partners for finding out our blood types in biology."
"What's your blood type?" I ask, interrupting her thought.
"O negative."
"Cool. Me too."
"Oh, awesome. If I need blood, I know who to call." We both take a few seconds to laugh before she continues, "Anyway, I'm just scared she'll get awkward if I ask her and she doesn't say yes."
"Well, you'll never know if you don't try," I throw back at her.
"Yeah, well, it's easy to say that when it's not you trying," she says.
"Sounds like hypocrisy to me."
"I'm not being hypocritical. I'm just..." She sighs. "Fine."
She tilts her cup, pouring out the last of her chai latte into her mouth. I glance down at my own quarter-finished beverage before looking back to her in shock.
"You really like chai lattes, huh?" I say.
She nods. "When I was, like, six, some person on a train offered me a sip of his, and I loved it."
"Wait, you drank a stranger's beverage?" I say. "Isn't that, like, the definition of what not to do?"
"I was six," she tells me. "I only saw a free drink."
YOU ARE READING
Wingmen | Redlyn
Fanfiction(Completed) When Big Red Redonovich and Ashlyn Caswell find themselves in the same situation, liking someone who doesn't like them back, they agree to be each other's wingmen to help them get the girls they want. However, their friendship gets a lit...
