Not A Bad Thing//A.I.

14

Everly and her little sister Emma, exited out of the locker rooms, after her swimming lesson was over.

"Oh. Evie that's my friend Spencer!" Emma excitedly told her, pointing to a little brown haired boy waiting in the hallway.

"Spencer!" Emma shouted, even though they were only less than two feet away from him.

"Hi Emma!" He smiled.

"This is my big sister Everly." Emma grinned.

"Hi Spencer. Are you waiting for your parents?" Everly asked, confused as to why he was standing all by himself.

"No. My brother is in the restroom." He said.

"There he is!" He exclaimed, pointing behind the girls.

Everly turned around to see Ashton walking their way.

"I see you've met my brother." Ashton smirked at Everly.

"I guess I did."

"Ashton! This is Emma!" Spencer said to his older brother.

"Nice to meet you, Miss Emma." Ashton said getting down to his knees to be at Emma's height to shake her hand.

"Hi." Emma shyly said.

"Spencer and I were going to go get some ice-cream across the street, would you ladies like to join us?" Ashton asked, getting off of his knees and brushing them off.

"Yes. Can we please Evie?" Emma enthusiastically asked.

"Uh I guess we can. Mom won't be here for another thirty minutes." Everly agreed.

"Yay!" both Emma and Spencer cheered.

The kids excitedly started running ahead of them, waiting for them by the entrance.

"We'll go get the ice-cream, you two can go get the booth." Ashton smiled.

"Okay. I'll take just a plain chocolate." Everly said.

"I want strawberry please." Emma grinned from ear to ear.

"Coming right up." Ashton widely smiled, he walked away to the ice-cream counter with his brother.

"Here you lovely ladies go." Ashton said, sliding into the booth next to Everly, handing her her ice-cream.

"Thanks." Everly said giving Ashton a small smile.

The little kids began talking, getting immersed in their own world.

"So I feel like I haven't been seeing much of you lately." Ashton spoke up first.

"Well you've been busy." She said, emphasizing the word busy.

"Yeah. About that-

"It's okay. You don't have to explain to me. I get it." She cut him off.

"You do?"

"Not entirely, but I do get it. I just hope it's working, cause if it's not..." she trailed off.

"Yeah." he said getting where she was going.

"I didn't mean that in a harsh way."

"I just meant that if it's not working there's no point in continuing doing it. There's other ways of relieving stress or anxiety." she continued.

"Yeah I know." he said staring off into the distance.

"Sorry. That was way out of line." She quickly apologized, realizing that she was overstepping.