Breathing Brown

Seventeen

Listen to: Play me like a violin - Stephen
For this chapter

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I've finished eating my turkey sandwich but Ella and Ashton are still currently stuffing their faces. I try to hold in my giggles. The sight of them rushing to finish eating is quite the show. I noticed that Ashton has gotten a little more tan. Maybe it was from football practice? I'm not sure.

"Well I'm done." Ella says as she narrows her eyes at the clock on the oven. "And late for babysitting my cousins! Gotta go guys." I chuckle while she grabs her purse and races out the door. Now it's just Ashton and I.

"So..." He draws it out and I gulp down a little bit of the awkwardness that is bombarding the space between us. A sudden knock on the door breaks our stare down and I don't hesitate scurrying to the door.

Who would be visiting me?

I didn't know I was important to anyone.

I open the door and see a very familiar face.

"Tanner!" I squeak in excitement. The smile pulled onto Tanners lips make my heart flutter, only a little though. I widen the door open more, suggesting that he can come in. Ashton turns the corner and enters frame of view. Uh oh.

"Who's this?" Tanner asks sternly and I watch his face go dead serious.

"I could ask the same?" Ashton asks, thoroughly confused.

"Well..." I step in between them, both of their figures tower over my small frame. "Ashton, this is Tanner, a childhood friend... And Tanner, this is Ashton, a friend from school."

They both sort of examine each other and I repeated prayer in my head that everything would turn out smoothly.

"Oh. Cool. Well I should be leaving anyway, I just wanted to stop by and say hello." As he finishes off his sentence, Tanner is already halfway down the driveway. I watch him pull out of my driveway and drive off. What the hell just happened?

"What a friendly guy." Ashton jokes, his voice sounds dangerously close to my ear. I turn my head and gasp. Our faces are only a few inches apart. I could clearly distinguish faint freckles spotted across the plane of his nose and cheeks. Cute.

"Yeah." I furrow my eyebrows together, "he's not usually like that."

"Oh." Ashton shrugs it off and starts walking to my living room. I slump next to him on the couch. We seem to always be sitting on a couch together somewhere.

"So is he your boyfriend or something?" I look at him with flushed cheeks. Boyfriend? No.

"I'm one hundred percent single." I exhale. Ashton smirks a bit before continuing on.

"Me too." He says. The night where Emma tried facetiming him replays in my brain. My heart feels a little pang of hurt, but I quickly shudder it off.

"I know." I smirk at him, knowing that saying that will most definitely make him feel bad. He looks at me with remorse sparking in those big brown eyes of his. The urge to just hug him is strong, but I resist it.

"How come you don't get excited to see me like you do with Tanner?" Ashton's question completely and utterly throws me off. My brain just goes numb, like all the gears stopped turning.

"It's not anything personal." Is all I managed to think of. Nice one, Taylor.

"Oh." Ashton fixes his gaze onto his lap. I suddenly feel nothing but remorse.

"I am always happy to hang out with you." I try to fix things. "I guess our relationship is super different than my relationship with Tanner. You know?"