Luca ↣ Ashton Irwin

[ eleven ]

[ eleven ] 

Mrs. Irwin could feel the climate change as she walked up to the two sitting at the table on Sunday.

Each of them had told themselves that they would spend as much time as possible with the other because they couldn't believe that this was their last day together. However, both of them were sitting at their own ends of the table, Luca reading fiction and Ashton reading nonfiction, both probably for the last day.

It was just so awkward and nothing was going to change that.

Mrs. Irwin walked to the table and sighed once, looked at both of them, and, noticing that neither of them were going to make the first move, sighed again and snatched both books out of their hands. Despite the teenagers' cries of outrage, Mrs. Irwin walked away with the books, calling over her shoulder, "Sorry, dears, but I want to check these two books out!"

Now they could finally talk to each other, dammit. The tension between the two was probably killing Mrs. Irwin herself more than it was killing them.

Ashton was the first one to break from his relaxed persona. He scratched the back of his head. "I'm really gonna miss you, Luca," he admitted.

Luca grimaced and didn't say anything.

Ashton's eyes glazed over as he realized that he wouldn't be seeing her lovely smile ever again.

He sighed and got up, putting the books back in their designated bookshelves, wanting to save his grandmother the trouble.

When he had finished, he went back to the table and gathered his own stuff and shoved them in his coat pockets, shrugging it on afterwards.

He went to hug and kiss his grandmother goodbye. Mrs. Irwin's quiet sobs could be heard from where Luca was sitting. "I love you so much, Ashton, dear. Please call."

"I will, Nan. I love you."

The door opened and stayed that way for a long time, then eventually closed, from what Luca could hear, and that was the end of it.

She didn't allow herself to cry.

She was surprised when Ashton came back, but pretended that she had been reading her fiction the entire time.

Ashton smiled at her one last time with his chipmunk teeth and gave her an incredibly light kiss on the cheek - so light that she wouldn't have known he was kissing her had she been blind. When she was unresponsive, he sighed.

"Bye, Luca. Please don't stop smiling when I'm gone."

As Ashton left - really left this time - Luca was ashamed to let the tears fall, but didn't stop them.

And Ashton - who also had tears spilling - was especially heartbroken because she had never texted him once after she had received his number. And now he didn't have any way of keeping in touch with the book-nerd with the lovely smile.

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