temper, temper || irwin a.u

eight

Ashton walked slowly to his next lesson, which subsequently he shared with Finn. He took his time getting to the opposite end of the building, knowing that Finn didn't want to be bothered by him. Michael approached him as he walked towards his English classroom, he saw that Finn had just gone in, he was glad he hadn't had to deal with Michael's sudden hatred towards Finn, the comments he'd been saying about Finn lately were making sense, but there was no reason behind it.

"So, I have a free period right now." Michael smiled as he reached Ashton.

"And I have an English lesson to go to." Ashton tried moving towards the classroom, knowing where this conversation was going.

"Please, Ash. Luke and Cal already said no."

"Mikey, I'm not skipping class to go to KFC with you, it's only 10am." Michael pouted, something he did a lot if he didn't get his own way.

"Fine. Have fun with the little bitch." He replied, hatred in his tone again, Finn really made an impact on him, and not a good one. Ashton walked into the class quickly, narrowly avoiding being late and slipped into his seat beside Finn, who hadn't uttered a word.

"Morning guys, so if you haven't heard, we're going on a trip." The classroom was filled with groans, and Luke and Calum decided to have a competition.

"Hood, Hemmings, quit it right now, or you'll be putting up all the tents on the campsite." Mrs Dray said, quickly shutting the two up and they uttered apologies.

"So I take it everybody knows about the trip, some of you still haven't collected your forms and such like I asked, but they need to be in tomorrow. I know none of you want to go on this camping trip, believe me, I don't either, but we have to."

"When is the trip, Miss?" A small red haired girl asked, her face covered in freckles and annoyance.

"It's next Monday." There were cries all around the room as she'd only given them 5 days notice.

"This is an outrage!" Calum roared, putting the class into fits of laughter, but Mrs Dray was far from amused.

"So if you can all get your forms in by tomorrow, that would be great." She said sarcastically before going back to her desk and projecting something on the board about poetry. Ashton leaned over slightly before speaking to Finn.

"Are you gonna tell me what really happened with Michael or no?" He asked in a hushed tone. Finn shot him a look but proceeded to speak.

"There's nothing more to say. I told you what happened." Ashton had believed what Finn said, he had no reason to doubt her or assume she was lying. It's not like she wanted to tell him anyway, he kind of made her, but he thought there was something else.

"I believe you, but why would he say that? Have you even ever spoken before?" Finn looked away quickly which had Ashton even more confused.

"Look, I won't talk to Michael about it, I just..." Finn looked back at him, back into his hazel eyes and frowned.

"You what, Ashton?"

"It doesn't matter." He said quietly and picked up his pen, attempting to distract himself from the conversation with the work the teacher had set, but both of them knew he wouldn't actually do any work.

"He's not going to hurt me." Finn whispered. Ashton wondered if she knew that he feared for her, he was after all, Michael's best friend. And on one or more occasion had seen the bad side of his anger.

"I won't make you tell me what happened, okay? But if you ever..." He trailed off again, not knowing what to say. Even if he told Finn, would she actually tell him if anything else happened, he decided to take the chance.

"Okay so, if you like, need me, or whatever, um." Ashton said nervously, Finn just looked at him clearly not knowing what he was mumbling about. Ashton took Finn's phone off of the table where it lay all lesson, just in case she needed a distraction, and urged her to unlock it. Finn did just that and hesitantly handed it back. Ashton swiped across until he found the contacts app and typed in his name and number.

"Text me, or call me, if you know, you need anything." He handed it back to Finn who just looked confused but nodded anyway. Ashton wasn't quite sure why he was so interested in Finn's well being all of a sudden, he got the impression that she didn't have too many people that cared about her.

"I don't care if it's like 2am by the way, I know you're awake at that time anyway." Finn blushed and put her phone back down on the table.

"So what were you doing up so early? I take it you weren't going for an early morning jog." Ashton laughed, he knew Finn probably didn't want to talk about it, but he was a curious guy.

"Ashton-"

"Unless you want to talk about Michael again?" He bargained, making her groan in annoyance. Finn slumped back in her chair and twisted the ends of her hair.

"I went to meet someone."

"At 2am?" Ashton practically yelled, earning weird looks from Luke and Calum who had stopped their game of noughts and crosses just to raise their eyebrows.

"If we're going to speak, the least you could do is shout about it." Finn sighed and bit her lip before continuing.

"Yes, I went to meet someone at 2am in the morning."

"Who?" Finn frowned at him, rolling her eyes at Ashton, again. He already knew he was too nosey for his own good.

"A friend, okay?"

"Who sneaks out of their window at 2am to go see a friend? If you didn't know, that's time for sleep, Finn." Ashton chuckled. Finn rolled her eyes yet again and let out a huff.

"If you're going to judge me, fuck off." She'd said a little too loudly.

"Finn!" Mrs Dray shot Finn a glare and approached their desk.

"What have I told you about profanities and using them against other students?" Mrs Dray raised her eyebrows and looked directly at Finn, who now had a red tint in her cheeks.

"I did kind of provoke her, Miss." The old lady smiled at Ashton, purely because he had such a nice voice.

"Just make sure there's no colourful language. The English language is a beautiful thing, you must use it wisely Miss Alexander." She said to Finn before walking back up to the front of class, at least Ashton's voice came in useful for something.

Finn glared at Ashton again. He rolled his eyes in an overly dramatic manner which got a small giggle out of Finn. A sound he'd never heard before but knew he wanted to hear again.