"Why are you being so quiet?" Gracie asks, accusingly, once Ashley joins her in the hall.
"Huh, what?" She responds, cluelessly.
Gracie stares at her for a long time, with narrowed eyes, before her jaw drops and her gaze widens.
"What?" Ashley panics. "What's the face for?"
"You brought a boy back last night, didn't you?" Gracie begins to smirk. "Is that where you disappeared to?"
"I, uhm—"
"Oh my god!" She whisper-yells, punching Ashley's arm out of excitement, earning a small groan. "I can't believe you didn't tell me. Were you even going to tell me? Who is he? What's he like? Is he hot?"
Ashley grimaces, and begins steering Gracie out of the door.
"Uh, that's a lot of questions," she says, trying to avoid answering, which only earns a disapproving look.
"Come on, give me something," Gracie nudges, as the two of them climb into Ashley's car.
"Okay, uhm, so—" She pauses, trying to figure out a way around this. "You don't know him," Ashley lies, as convincingly as she can. "He's nice, and yes, he's hot," she says quickly, in hopes that it'll cut the conversation as short as possible.
"Is that really all I'm getting?" Gracie raises her eyebrows, as Ashley pulls out of her complex.
"Yep," she confirms, with a stern nod, earning a small sigh; but, thankfully, that seems to end the conversation— for now, at least.
When Awsten wakes up, it's almost eleven o' clock; it takes him a little while to feel awake enough to realise where he is, and he panics for a moment when he realises that he's clinging to a pillow, rather than Ashley's body.
Reaching for his phone, Awsten finds various texts and a couple of missed calls from his friends; they're all wondering where he is, as if he's been missing for days, but in reality, he's just slept in unusually late.
He eventually scrolls through the notifications to find a text from Ashley.
🐚
good morning! i hope you slept
okay. gracie came to get me this
morning because we had plans for
breakfast, but you looked cute so
i didn't want to wake you...💕
btw, your shirt is on my dresser:)
Awsten can't help but smile at the text, unable to stop blushing as he reads over it again.
He lets out a groan though, when he realises the time, and rolls out of bed with the intention to find the rest of his clothes.
His jeans are in a pile at the end of the bed, from where he'd kicked them off the night before.
He finds his tshirt on Ashley's dresser, just like she'd said, and it triggers the memories of last night— when she was pulling his shirt off, and the way she giggled when he threw it across the room.
Pulling on his t-shirt, he realises that it still smells of Ashley from when she's worn it last night— he hopes the scent lingers all day.
After that, he wanders out to the kitchen, collecting the rest of his belongings on the way.
Awsten's phone ringing loudly, causes him to jump, as he digs into his pocket to answer it.
