temper, temper || irwin a.u

ten

Why was Finn leaving her lesson to come visit him? Ashton thought. He was pretty sure they weren't friends or anything, the conversations or lack there of, kind of implied that they were merely acquaintances, or neighbours. Ashton was sat on a stool in the middle of the room, hunched over the bench where the sketch he was currently working on lay. The work-space around him was messy, much like his hair, but that was how Ashton worked. It was all mainly his mess anyway, this small space was basically his, he revelled in that and the mess surrounding him proved that. Since the room was isolated he had his phone playing Good Charlotte aloud, it wasn't like it was disturbing anybody.

Finn walked into the room, whistling the tune of the song playing, obviously it was loud enough to hear outside of the space he was occupying. He turned it down when she entered and smiled at her. She didn't smile back. She just sat down next to him, peering at what he was working on.

"What brings you down here? You don't look like you've ever stepped foot in an art studio." He smiled at her again, but Finn looked offended, her signature glare on show.

"So if I don't strike you as an artist, what do I look like?" Ashton stared at her for a moment, she didn't actually answer his question, like she was deliberately trying to avoid it.

"Like a poet or something, very introverted, I could be wrong." Finn stared back, surprisingly without the offended look on her face.

"You are." She replied simply, twisting to face away from Ashton and towards the window that overlooked the woods. There was silence for a while and Ashton continued to stare at her, not in a creepy way but in an intrigued way, she was a mystery to him. Little did he know she was a mystery to herself too.

"Has Michael been bothering you?" Ashton said before he even had time to think about the words tumbling out of his mouth. It brought Finn out of her daydream and she turned to face him again. He noticed that everything she did was done softly, the opposite of how you'd expect her to act.

"No, apart from glaring at me like his eyes were lazers in French." Finn rolled her eyes and chuckled, something Ashton had enjoyed hearing lately. He frowned, however.

"I don't understand his problem, do you two have history or anything?" Finn's eyes widened when he finished and bit her lip, tearing her eyes away from Ashton.

Michael and Finn? There was a clear tension between them, but nothing that ever suggested it was sexual, at least not to him. This bothered Ashton and he wasn't sure as to why, he pushed the thought to the back of his mind, and instead, focused on what her face had just confirmed.

"So, you two were like together?" Finn blushed and groaned.

"We were never, 'together' he was just a distraction." She admitted, Ashton nodded as if he understood although in his mind all he could think was, what the fuck? 

"You weren't in a relationship then? I probably would've known if you were but..."

"Oh God no, never that. It was like a one time thing." Finn had a look of regret all over her face and Ashton could tell she was lying, it wasn't just a one time thing.

"I'm not gonna pry or anything, but you know, if something happened, if he did anything-"

"So much for not prying." Finn laughed and shook her head. "Nothing happened, it was just a fling, it wasn't ever serious." She looked away again and Ashton chose to not delve any deeper into the issue, although he really wanted to find out what happened, and how it happened.

Ashton felt slightly betrayed. Michael was his best friend, he usually bragged about all his 'flings', why would this have been any different? Ashton told Michael about his hook-ups, all the lads did. But Michael had kept Finn a secret. He worried that something worse had gone on, but he knows Michael too well for it to something like that. Michael seemed hurt, the way he spoke about her, the way he acted towards her, and the way he acted when Ashton himself spoke to Finn, he mocked him about the 'sexual tension'. Now Ashton knew it was an act, and he and the boys certainly fell for it.

The bell rung, snapping Ashton out of his own thoughts and back into reality, only to find Finn staring at him and then quickly looking away whilst blushing. Why were they always staring at each other? Maybe it was subconscious but it certainly happened a lot, they both seemed to be equally as intrigued by each other. Ashton shoved his supplies in the draw underneath the bench and kicked the stool whereas Finn placed it under the table. They both grabbed their bags and made their way out of the studio, there was an exit leading to the side of school and Ashton thought Finn would've gone back inside the main building but she didn't, she followed him out towards the gate.

"Don't you have anymore lessons?" He asked, Finn stopped walking and turned towards him.

"No, it's Wednesday, we don't have History on Wednesday's." He nodded before walking towards her and they both walked out of school together. This time, the walk home was comfortable, Finn didn't want to be as far away as possible from Ashton, and Ashton wasn't trying to be as annoying as usual.

The pair strolled along their route in a comfortable silence, this is what he liked about Finn, he felt comfortable around her, and vice-versa. He wondered how quickly this happened, it had only been a day since he walked home with her, yet a lot had changed since then. He'd caught her sneaking out of her window, to which he helped, he'd found out about a hook-up between his best friend and the girl he said he hated, and he realised she wasn't as hard as the front she put on. He'd learned she was softer, deep down perhaps, but definitely softer.