(in)visible

six

Opening the door to the coffee shop, the warm air enveloped her like a blanket. She ordered her coffee, and while she waited for it, she looked around for a place to sit. The place was packed, probably because it was starting to get really cold outside. Just as she was about to give up and started thinking she should maybe just take her coffee and head straight home, she spotted a familiar face all the way in the furthest booth by the window.

“Hazelnut latte for Lyanna?”

She thanked the lady behind the counter, and headed toward the boy with the permanent goofy grin on his face. He saw her coming, and waved at her.

“Lyanna, what’s up?”

“Hey Luke,” she responded, almost at the booth now, “I don’t want to be a bother, but can I maybe join you? This place is crowded as f—Oh, you know what, never mind.”

She stopped dead in her tracks as she saw who was sitting with Luke in the booth.

Ashton.

His face betrayed no emotion as he met her eyes. He just looked at her, and it actually surprised her that he didn’t throw some snide comment at her. But maybe that was just because Luke was there.

“No, no, come sit!” Luke gushed, scooting aside, completely oblivious to the tense situation.

For a brief moment, she hesitated, but because she hadn’t spoken to Luke in a while, and also because she really didn’t want to go back into the cold just yet, she sat down.

“You know Ashton, right?”

“Yeah.”

Ashton frowned at her curt reply, but Luke again didn’t seem to notice. He carried the conversation almost all by himself, she only needed to nod and smile occasionally, and Ashton didn’t say anything either.

She tried to focus on what Luke was saying, but she couldn’t help but notice that Ashton was staring at her intently. She took a sip of her coffee, and looked over at him. He was looking at her intently, a frown etched on his face. When their eyes met, he tilted his head ever so slightly, as if he was thinking about something.

Luke’s phone rang. He fumbled in his pockets for a while before looking at the screen with squinted eyes.

“Oh, sorry guys I have to take this. Hello? Yeah. Oh, shit! I totally forgot! Yeah, no, you’re right, I just forgot. I’m on my way over right now. Yeah. Bye.”

He hastily put the phone back in his pocket, and shoved his beanie on his head.

“Guys, I'm so sorry but I actually have to run. I have this group project and I forgot we were supposed to be working on it today, so I'm going over to the library.”

“That’s okay,” Lyanna told him, “I’m going to head home then.”

She slipped out the booth, allowing Luke to do the same. He already had his coat halfway on.

“No, no, you guys can stay, I’ll see you both soon yeah?” he said, heading towards the exit, waving over his shoulder and  almost tripping over his own feet.

Shaking her head at Luke’s clumsiness, she grabbed her coat as well, but was stopped by Ashton’s voice.

“Wait. Can I uhh.. can I talk to you for as second?”

She wanted to tell him to shove it up his ass. Why would she want to talk to him? He was never even remotely pleasant to her. But then she remembered the promise she’d made. She promised Sparrow she would be nice. She sighed before putting her coat back down and shuffling into the booth again.

“Sure. What is it?”

He looked down at his hands, as if uncertain what to say. She’d never seen him like this, he was always so cocky and arrogant. Weird.

He looked up, and shook his hair out of his eyes. She noticed he wasn’t wearing his usual bandana to keep the curls off his forehead.

“Why do you hate me?”

His question surprised her. She opened her mouth as if to answer, but no words came out. She blinked a couple times fast, and then finally she found her voice.

“I – I don’t hate you. I just don’t like you. I don’t care enough about you to actually actively feel a passionate emotion for you.”

She could hear the arrogance in her own voice, and she could see a scowl forming on his face. His hazel eyes clouded over.

“Wait. Let me explain. I don’t like you, and I have every reason not to. I mean, you’re never nice to me, and you make me feel like shit every time I see you. Like the other day, I was just walking home from the library, do you remember? You just had to come and make me feel bad, calling me arrogant and stuff. Why do you feel the need to do that?”

“Well, you called me worthless!” He half yelled at her. She could see the muscles in his jaw tightening.

“No, I didn’t. I – ”

“You said that – ”

“No, wait, let me finish!”

She held up her hands, palms open.

“You said you wanted to talk. If you are going to interrupt me every five seconds, I'm out of here.”

He didn’t look too happy, but he didn’t say anything either. He just leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest.

“You came up to me, and I was just trying to ignore you, but you kept prodding me! So, yeah, maybe I said some ‘not so nice’ things, but you started it! When have I ever started it? I don’t even know why you hate me! What have I ever done to you that you feel the need to treat me this way? Huh?”

The scowl had vanished from his face. Instead it was like he had placed a mask of indifference over his features. Her voice had been growing louder and louder until she was almost yelling at him, and he didn’t even bat his eyes. It pissed her off. Suddenly, she didn’t even want to be there anymore.

“You know what? Fuck you! You can’t just ask me a question like that and then just sit there like a fucking statue! Do you even realise how many times you’ve made me cry? No, wait, of course not, you don’t even think about that because you don’t give two shits and a flapjack about my feelings! So fuck you! Fuck you, Ashton! I don’t hate you, but I sure as Hell don’t like you either!”

She grabbed her coat and ran out the door, not even bothering to put it on first, or to grab her half-finished coffee. She just wanted to get away from him as soon as possible.

A/N: Drama! I love it! Ok, so little bit of Luke. Lots of Ashton being a stoic asshole. Lots of harsh truths from Lyanna. Tell me what you think? Also, if you like it, please comment or vote of share, stuff like that keeps me motivated <3