rainfall | ashton irwin au | completed

eight

"I'm sorry," was the first thing that left Ashton Irwin's mouth when I found him stood at my door an hour after the meeting at Ivory Lake. An orange glow from the setting sun surrounded him as if he was on fire and it was very hard not to stare. He did not look like a teenage boy; he looked like a mythical creature bringing light to the world. "Upsetting you wasn't my intention," he continued, his shoulders hunched as he shuffled slightly.

"Then what was your intention?" I questioned, hugging my bare arms around myself as a slight breeze wafted through us both. His wavy hair floated against it and my fingers ached to run my fingers through it.

"I just wanted to see if you actually cared. I felt stupid for getting so angry with Matt yesterday and I wanted to see if you would react in the same way." He wet his lips with his tongue and I averted my gaze to the sunset behind him. The sky was dark now, casting shadows of us both on the floor below us.

"I didn't flirt with Matt," I pointed out, trying to sound as cold as possible. "You flirted with Grace. You are obviously interested in her, and I don't blame you."

He shook his head. "The only person I'm interested in is you." He took a step forward and I narrowed my eyes.

"Why?" I challenged. I didn't understand why anybody in their right mind would choose me over beautiful, seductive Grace.

"Why?" He repeated incredulously, as if I had just asked him why the sky is blue and not why he had an interest in me. I nodded, my eyebrows raised. "Because...Because I like you. I've never met anybody like you before. I mean, you're stubborn and hostile, but you see the world in a completely different way to anybody else. And when you share that with me, it's..." he struggled to articulate himself and I gulped.

"It's what?"

"It's..." he sighed. "It's special, and real. It makes me feel a little less lonely, I guess."

The guarded part of me wanted to shut the door on him for seeing me in a way that nobody else had seen me. Everybody in Heatherly knew me as the quiet, moody teenager who didn't have any friends and had some weird obsession with the forest. Ashton saw me in a completely different light. It was almost like he saw past my guard. He understood me. I could not shut the door on his face.

I bit my lip hesitantly, not knowing what to say. I had to be sure that this wasn't a mistake. "I'm sure Grace could make you feel the same," I whispered.

"I don't want Grace." His eyes consumed me. I was swimming in their sea of green and brown, maybe even drowning. I did not fight to stay above the surface . If this was what drowning felt like, I welcomed it. My lungs were burning but I was alive. All this time I had simply been existing, but with his eyes on mine, I was finally alive. It terrified me, but I never wanted to lose this feeling. "I want you. I wanted you from the moment I saw you."