Confessing to Her (And other Olympic-level Feats)

Chapter 24

Click.

The moment the phone went off, Ashley remembered that it was just the two of them now in Dustin's car. She stared at her phone for a little bit before putting it away. She felt her hands and legs shaking.

How could she still be this nervous?

She had a normal conversation with him earlier! Ashley glanced at Dustin. His hands were placed on the wheel and he looked as stiff as aboard. His eyes looked calm, but his lips quivered.

"So, um," Ashley said. "Do you.... Um, think that Chelsea's gonna actually do it?"

"Probably," Dustin said. "She seemed serious."

"I hope she does," Ashley said. "It's been a long time coming, y'know?"

"Yup..." Dustin said.

And just like that, she'd run out of things to say. Ashley was thinking about just staying quiet until Chelsea came, but that would have been unbearable. The redhead said she'd be there for ten minutes, but it'd probably be longer. No- Definitely longer.

So what was she going to do?

"Hey, so..." Dustin asked. "What do you like doing for fun?"

"I like... uh, volunteering. And watching over kids..." Ashley gasped. "Wait! Uh, you talk to Lucas, right?"

"Chelsea's younger brother?"

"Yeah."

"Course I do. He's my little buddy."

"He's adorable, isn't he?"

"Yup,"

"He likes those phone games, doesn't he. Does he talk to you about them, too?"

"Yup. It's adorable."

"Yeah."

Silence.

Ashley lowered her head. While she looked completely calm on the outside, on the inside, she was panicking and cringing. That conversation literally went nowhere! She thought Lucas was going to be able to help her out a little, but he didn't. She kept darting her head at the boy and looking away. She felt an intense frustration rise up in her chest. It started to boil up. Her face became completely red as she started to pout, and then, she erupted.

"Ughh! This is so awkward!" Ashley cried. "I hate small talk! I'm so scared to say something and it hurts!"

She finally decided to follow her own advice, 'when in doubt, just tell the truth.'

"Dude... Same," Dustin said. "It sucks so much.. Like, you're just there thinking 'man, what do I say?'"

"RIGHT!?" Ashley cried.

"Hey, by the way, Do you know what 'Social filtering' Is?"

"Huh?" Ashley's frustration dissipated as she raised her eyebrows. Her heart began to race. Finally, a conversation!

"What's that?" Ashley asked.

"Okay, first, do you know what a water filter is?"

"A water filter? That's the thing to filter out the bad stuff out of water and junk, right?"

"Yeah. Social filtering is basically that. You 'filter out' what you'd usually say to a friend when talking to a stranger. Let's say you were talking to Chelsea right now. You would be just talking away, saying whatever you want. But when you're talking to say, me, you 'filter out' what you'd usually say. People usually do it for the sake of being accepted."

"So in other words, because I want you to accept me, I'm less likely to say things I'd usually say."

"Yeah, exactly. It's the thing when talking to strangers. Wait- Uh, not saying that I am a stranger!" Ashley felt the tenseness in her body fade a bit as she laughed a little. "Wait, no, we talked before, we're not strangers..." Dustin began to blush and scratch his head awkwardly. "I uh, I mean, we did meet recently, so we're not strangers..." He chuckled nervously.