Love Like Leaves

Chapter 5

"What ya workin on there?" He asks trying to look over my shoulder at what I'm typing.

"Oh nothing..." I slam my laptop shut. "... Just... Uh... Some homework" I say nervously hoping he won't ask what it is EXACTLY I'm writing.

I don't think admitting that you write fanfiction about Elisabeth Blackwood is the best way to start off a conversation. Especially considering he's one of the more jock like people and would probably make fun of me for it.

He's also the type of person that would walk through Hot Topic just to look cool. I'm the type that would be too scared to leave the house and instead go on their website to buy socks with Disney characters on them.

He sits down across from me.
"Sorry I couldn't find you in this abyss of white girls" he chuckles.

"I guess it is kinda like Where's Waldo when you are looking for a white girl in a Starbucks" I say then realizing that it was the stupidest analogy I could have made.

"Ah yes and that, is why you are majoring in English, so you can relate things to Where's Waldo and say you have a degree in English so that means it has to make sense," he says with a smirk on his face.

He has always been known to be one to pick on people. I mean that's what he acts like around his friends at least. I've never seen him act differently. But this time it does seem different. It's weird. Almost like he's just joking for once.

"Soooo what did you want to talk to me about?" I ask.

"Oh, uh yeah, I just wanted to get to know you, since Professor Dexter paired us up for the test next week and uh, I don't really know that much about you" He stutters out.

Out of all people why did it have to be him? I would rather be partners with that really annoying kid Alex than him. If only Dexter could just stay out of my personal life and leave me to myself. He's been trying constantly since the semester started to get me to be more social. Obviously it hasn't worked considering I'm still just as much of an introvert as I was at the beginning of the semester.

I haven't always been the quiet girl who sits in the back of the class with thick glasses that cover half her face. In high school I was not a good kid. Every weekend I would go to parties and drink and do all the typical high school party things. It didn't matter if I had responsibilities to deal with the next day, I would still drink, and drink, and drink. Sometimes even until I'd pass out. That was until one night, when Shelby passed out and didn't wake up the next morning. It was a Saturday, I told my mom that I was going over to her house to study for a test we had on Monday. But we didn't study, we drank all day instead. We didn't even have a reason to drink, we just did. It was stupid of us and little did I know that it was going to cost my best friends life. I texted my mom telling her I was going to sleep over since we were so tired from studying all day. Then we continued to drink.

I woke up the next morning with a pounding headache. Just laying there for about a half hour just wishing the pain would go away but knowing that it wouldn't. After sitting there for awhile I finally decided to wake up Shelby so she could make us food considering I wasn't the best cook in the world but some days like this one, when my head was throbbing, it seemed as if she was. I put my hand on her arm to shake her awake but it was ice cold. It wasn't the normal type of cold either. Not like the cold of winter or the cold of ice. No, this was definitely the cold of death. I shook her and shook her. I screamed her name. She wouldn't wake up.

I called 911. They came and did their work. Checked her pulse. Nothing. I just sat there on the couch staring at the dead body of my best friend. The paramedics told me she was gone. My best friend was gone and there was nothing I could do about it. I just screamed. There was nothing else I could do. No other way I could release the pain I was feeling. Someone came up to me to try and comfort me but it didn't help. She died of alcohol poisoning they told me. Her death was from the same bottle of vodka that I had been drinking with her less than twelve hours earlier. From that point on I told myself I was done. I was done going to parties, I was done drinking, I was just done. There was no way I was going to let myself die like that, I couldn't do that to my parents. Even if I was a rebellious teenager that didn't listen to them I still couldn't hurt them like that.

"I'm Ashton, by the way," he starts, and I'm forced to look into those dark green eyes.

This chapter was brought to you in part by @abbyarm7, if you aren't familiar with her, I highly recommend you check her and her tumblr of the same username out.