[ 4 ] 1960
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"Don't trust anyone."
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"Am I interrupting something?" He asked them.
The two pulled away from each other with lightning speed, Con turned to face Ashton. But the two were completely speechless. They didn't know how much he had seen, and they needed to think up a lie quickly.
"I was told the only relationship the two of you had was one of being childhood friends." Ashton reminded them. They were the words they themselves had used when they said it to him. Con had even insisted his family was too rich and of a higher class than Claire's. "Is it then, maybe, that the two people who I have come to trust, are lying to me?" Ashton felt a hint of hurt poking at him. If they were interested in each other, why were they hiding it from him? Were they doing it for his sake? Had Con noticed Ashton liked Claire and didn't want to hurt his feelings? There were many possible theories in Ashton's mind. But he just wanted to know the truth.
"No-" Claire began, her voice sounding nervous.
But Con cut her off before she could say more. He knew she was no good under pressure and could be stupid enough to let anything compromising out. "Calm down, mate. Whatever you saw was just a misunderstanding." His voice sounded as composed and as calm as ever. He was a master of deception.
"I saw you leaning in to kiss her." Ashton argued. If they were going to try to fool him, Ashton was willing to argue that what he saw was the truth.
Con shook his head. "Your view was skewed by the angle in which you saw us." He explained. Now the high class education of his family was coming in handy. "She had a bug on her face and I just helped her get it off."
"That's right." Claire gulped. She still could not get rid of the sensation that they had been caught. For Claire it was all a matter of convenience and money. Of course she had been in love with Con since they were children, and he was the ideal catch when it came to a husband. In the rich society of Sydney, money mattered above all, and Con's family had plenty of it. She also knew that the new boy in town had taken a liking to her. He was of new money and she knew it was convenient for her to get as much out of him as she could, especially if Con wasn't willing to settle down with her. "I have a phobia of bugs." She added after a short pause.
"Like I said," Con grinned, pleased that she hadn't screwed up. "Misunderstanding."
Ashton had never actually seen Con smile before and he didn't think he'd ever witness it. In the short time he's known him, he always kept to himself and hardly talked to anyone at all. Con wasn't the type to smile, it required a certain level of joy that Ashton thought Con would never condone. He wondered how someone as talkative and happy as Claire could ever be friends with him. Then again, the same could be said for him.
Ashton chuckled at the whole situation. "Aw, okay. Sorry for stirring up some unnecessary drama." He scratched the back of his head sheepishly before joining them on the grass where they were having lunch.
For the next few minutes, he watched them eat their lunch, until Claire finally noticed he had nothing of his own to eat. "Where's your lunch, Ash?"
"Oh," He looked down at his backpack which he had set down on his lap. "I was looking for you guys in the caf and I acidentally made some guy drop his lunch. Poor guy," Ashton lamented. "So I let him have mine cause I felt really bad for him."
"Let me guess," Claire sighed with a roll of her jade green eyes, "Lucas dropped his lunch again?"
"It happens often then?" Ashton asked, surprised.
