Sex & Sentiments Part Two// Ashton Irwin

English & Encounters

English. Last lesson of the day. So far I had avoided seeing Ashton, and was beginning to think maybe he had dropped out of school, or moved away, or got eaten by a lion or.. something...

The last time I saw him was when I went to his house telling him I was choosing Luke.

I'm pretty sure Ashton wasn't all that upset about it after hearing stories about his summer... Drinking his way from party to party, different girl or girls every night.. But I already spent too much time thinking about Ashton.. I wasn't doing that this year. Never again.

I saw my usual seat from last year by Emily, now occupied by Calum. Luke wasn't in this class so I couldn't sit with him. Lana and Paige had taken the seats near the front, and there was only one empty seat in the back.. This was it. All my hard work, trying to forget him, everything he ever said to me, the touch of his skin, the way he looked, the way his lips felt on mine.. it all flooded back as soon as I laid eyes on him.

I grudgingly took the seat beside him. He was different now. His hair had grown longer, and he was hiding behind a dark hoody, keeping to himself. He wasn't the centre of attention, swarmed by friends and girls. He didn't have that usual jock arrogance about him, I guess because he was no longer a jock..

I opened my notebook without saying a word. Mr. Whitton, or Witty as he was known to all, entered the room much to everyone's confusion. He wasn't in his usual gym getup, and even looked like he had dropped a few pounds.

"So," Witty begins, "before you swarm me with questions, over the summer I finished my English degree, and will now be teaching English, as well as Gym and Health-- any questions?"

Half the class raised their hands.

"None," Witty smiled, clapping his hands, "good. Let's begin."

"I'm going to come around with you're first assignments. Since I can't be bothered waiting for you all to choose a partner, I want you all to look beside you. This person is your partner for the next 6 weeks." I look beside me to Ashton and internally groan. Everything I worked for.. and now there is no choice. "This person is your new best friend. The assignment sheet has the details, you have this lesson to choose any novel of your choice, and write a mind-blowingly amazing essay on it, that better be so good, it brings tears to my eyes." He hands Ashton and I our assignment sheet.

"You two." Witty says as he closes in on us, with a look of utter sternness, "I'm not going to be getting any trouble from you this year am I?"

"No sir." I reply automatically, instinctively I go to nudge Ashton for his answer, but I stop myself.

"No sir." Ashton says.

"Good. Well, good luck."

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"You're going to have to talk to me sooner or later," Ashton says after the first 15 minutes of class where I've been aimlessly ignoring him, "we are partners."

Usually I would've expected him to say that with some sort of arrogance, and maybe cock his eyebrow, but he doesn't.

"Fine." I say, "What book do you want to do for our project?"

"That's what you want to say to me?" He says, his old personality, just barely scratching the surface, "After 3 months, that's what you want to say?"

"What do you expect Ashton?" I say with a heavy sigh, "What do you want me to say? I said my piece 3 months ago... and you let me go."

"You said your piece?" Here it is. This is the Ashton I know, "You said: 'Luke loves me, I love him, Good-bye Ashton.' Of course I let you go, I.. whatever." He rolls his eyes. That was my thing. Reserved only for Ashton during his obnoxious comments, or arrogant antics last year.

But I still don't know how to respond, so I don't. I wait for a moment.

"I think we should do Romeo and Juliet, it's a classic, or if you wanted to do something more modern we could do The Fault in our Stars?"

Ashton scoffs beside me, "You have a thing for tragic love stories."

"Maybe because last year I was in the middle of one." The words escape me before I can stop myself, and Ashton looks at me with a sternness that would rival Witty's.

"Okay then, why don't we do Twilight? Stupid love triangle, perfect."

"Except I wasn't in a love triangle," I spit back, "my love was one sided."

"So, just like now. How Luke loves you, but you don't really love him do you..?"

"Who do you think you are? You don't know anything, I love Luke."

"Is that why you've turned into a Lana clone and hate everything about yourself Indie?"

My heart stops for a second. A Lana clone? I was nothing like Lana. Yes, I was technically a cheer-leader, and I could look the part, but I wasn't some slutty, self-obsessed, airhead cheer-leader. And Lana was my friend now. Once you get over her high pitched voice, self-obsessed, boy crazed personality, she's not too bad.

"It's Lucy." I say with a hint of finality, indicating I was done with this conversation.

"What?"

I sighed heavily, "I go by Lucy now."

"Indie, I know you. This isn't you." He says motioning to my uniform and hairstyle.

"Correction Ashton, you knew me."