Colored Bracelets (Lashton)

10. Outside the Lines

Before Ashton could even fall asleep, the night he came home from the party, he needed to stay awake and replay everything that had happened. They were the moments he wished he could always relive, having the same exact feelings he had when they occurred.   

As he tucked himself into bed, laying on his side and staring at the opposite wall, his fingers traced along his wrist, his fingertips moving bumping over the two new bracelets that were there. A smile appeared on his face because he was still so excited that he was in the bracelet circle.

Getting the bracelets led to a lot of first-time experiences for Ashton, which he knew every bracelet he received or gave to another person would bring him to feel and experience something new. It was the first time he had let anybody touch his bare body in such an intimate manner, his body feeling a heat and a chilling feel at the same time as Luke let his hands wander however they pleased. Then the even bigger milestone in his life so far, at least to Ashton, was his lips touching another person's for the first time. Now, he didn't know if he could count it as his first kiss because the only purpose of his mouth touching anywhere near Luke's was to retrieve a lime wedge from his mouth, which Ashton failed to even do successfully. 

On the car ride home from the party, Michael was fast asleep in the back. Luke helped his friend to his car and laid him across the backseat, telling Ashton that this wasn't the first time this has happened with Michael. Once everyone was in the car, Ashton taking his seat next to Luke on the passenger's side, Luke looked over to smile at him like everything was just going perfectly. 

The blue-eyed boy asked Ashton if he had fun at the party before letting him get out from the car. Ashton nodded quickly, answering the question with a pleased 'yes'. That made Luke chuckle at him, which Ashton noticed that Luke did a lot. He didn't know what he was doing to make him react that way but he felt it was for a good purpose. 

Luke told him that the next party probably be for another two weeks, explaining that there wasn't an exact pattern or schedule that the trading parties followed. It was because the kids involved really didn't want to cause any suspicions around what they were doing, which made complete sense to Ashton. 

The next Monday morning Ashton couldn't wait to get to school. He couldn't help but to have high hopes that things were going to be different for him now that he was in the crowd he always desired to be a part of. Ashton pictured all of those eyes to be fixated on him as he walked through the hallways. He felt like he was a new person now and he found the feeling to be quite refreshing. 

His mum never noticed the two new bracelets on his wrist as he ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast. Maybe it was because their colors weren't even close to being eye-catching, or maybe the bracelets didn't matter to her. She couldn't know what they were for. If she found, then Ashton was sure going to be in some serious trouble with her, and in trouble with the circle that he promised not to discuss with anyone outside of it. 

It was after he had himself breakfast that he had gone back to his room, finding the small plastic bag of bracelets Luke had given to him. He couldn't find the best place to hide them but he knew his mum no longer did his laundry, so he hide the bracelets under a random clothes pile in one of his drawers. 

He still needed to put the other colored bracelets on his wrists to let other people know whether or not he was dominant or submissive about certain things. The morning after the party he spent time researching what all of the colors meant, some of the colors symbolizing things he wasn't quite ready to experience with another person yet. 

Before he left for school Ashton made sure he dressed his wrists the way that he wanted, feeling even more at ease because he now had more colorful ones on than just those clear ones. How would people know which wrist was his dominant one or not? Would he have to tell the others before agreeing to anything? What if they already snapped at one of the bracelets? It wasn't like he was going to back down because he didn't want people to figure out what he did and did not know about physical or sexual relations with other people. He'd have to ask Luke about that.