Tangled Strings (sequel to Red Strings)

Chapter 22

Mikey opens the door for me an I curtsey in response.  "What century are we in?" he asks closing the door. "You're back!" Ashton smiles from the kitchen preparing what looks like vegemite on toast. "Morning." I smirk grabbing some water from the fridge.  "Ello love" Luke says appearing from the living room and kissing my cheek.  "Ello" I reply.

"When Nat gets back we should go swimming" Cal says also appearing from the living room his eyes where red and his hair was a mess. I shoot Luke a look and he sends me one back the type that said 'not now explain later' I nod slightly. "It's really hot let's go in now" I ask hopeful "Ash you should invite Sylvana over" I tell him he blushes taking a bit of his toast. 

"Sylvana in a bathing suit he would lose his mind." Michael says everyone except Ashton laughs.  "That is precisely why we should, I'll tell Nat!" I say pulling out his phone. "Don't you dare!" Ashton yells charging at me with his head down.  

I squeal dropping my phone as he picks me up and spins me arounds. "Michael send the text!!" He runs over to my phone and picks it up. "What's your password?" "1111." "Creative!" "Shut up!" I tell him, as Ashton drops me on the couch and runs over to Michael. 

He types something quickly before tossing it to Luke who I assume pressed the send button because he hold the phone over his head in triumph and we all cheer, well all except Ashton who flips us all off.       

Natalie's POV

"Don't worry about Mrs. Tenson.  She's a bit of a hard marker, like all Literature teachers would be, but honestly: BEST one to have.  She covers everything really well, cares about opinions and new ideas plus, she's actually super funny." Sylvana tells me, as we walk past the university library.  

I nod understanding.  Thank God Sylvana was around!  She was a second year here at the uni, and she had one or two of my teachers that I was going to have to deal with.  "So quick question...." I said as we sat down by a tree on the grass.  "Mhm?" Sylvana asks as she takes a sip of her coffee.  "What's going on with you and Ash?" I ask looking at her.

She blushes and replies "Nothing really, just exchanged numbers, bit o texting here and there, the regular kinda jazz...."  I raise my eyebrow and say "Oh really?" "Oh yeah." she said adjusting her sunglasses.  I keep my gaze at her.  She turns to me.  "What?" she asks and I then say "Come on Sylvana.  It's obvious it's a LOT more than that." 

She shuffles a little in her spot and says "Alright yeah, I guess we sorta have feelings and all....but I just don't know.  I feel like Ashton's not ready yet, hell, I'm scared I'm not ready yet...." I'm silent for a moment before I then say "Listen, Ash is a really nice guy.  He'll treat you a hell of a lot better than a lot of other guys can.  But it's all up to you."

I feel a buzz in my pocket, and I pull out my phone.  I can see that it's Skyler, and I then look at Sylvana and smirk.  "What?" Sylvana asks and I then say "C'mon." "Wait, I'm really confused right now...." Sylvana says and I then say "How far is your place from here?" "I literally live right over there." Sylvana says as she points to the other side of the street, where there are some dorm rooms.

I then say "How long will it take for you to grab everything you would need for swimming?" "Why swimming?" Sylvana asks and I then say "Alright, Skyler says that I should bring you back with me to come and swim in the boys pool."  Sylvana bites her lip and then says "Are you sure about that, I don't wanna intrude or anything-" "Sylvana we're INVITING you!  Let's get over there and grab your stuff.  The next bus that heads near the boys place is coming in around 20 minutes, I don't need this to take forever!" I say, and we run over to the dorm rooms, and Sylvana leads me up to the 4th floor, and we go a couple doors down to come to hers.

She opens the door, and I can see that it's just her in the dorm room right now, due to the empty bed across from her.  She quickly is grabbing things and I can see all sorts of posters up on her wall including Sleeping with Sirens and All Time Low.  "Good taste you got there." I mention and Sylvana turns around for a moment and says "Thanks." 

Finally we get everything and get on the bus on time, to get to the boys.  We board the bus and we grab a seat near the back.  "Why is it that you and Ashton constantly blush whenever we mention the other one's name?" I ask her.  She blushes.  "See you just blushed!" I say as I poke her cheeks.

"I don't know.  I guess it's not like we're even together, and people think we could be." Sylvana says looking out the window.  Finally we're nearing the stop.  "Well here's our stop!" I say as I push the red button, to let the driver know to stop at this stop.  I get up as we wait by the doors, and finally the bus slows to a stop and me and Sylvana hop off.  

"You're ok to walk right?" I ask and she nods.  "I walk to a lot of places." she states as we begin our journey back to the house.  "So what are you going to be taking this year?" I asked and Sylvana paused and then said "I'm going to be taking Medicine, Neurology and Biophysics." 

"That's awesome." I said before we finally arrived at the entrance to the house.  I opened the gateway and I then yelled "I'm back!  And I may have brought someone special with me too!"  Skyler came out and squealed "SYLVANA!!"  Sylvana smiled and the two hugged and I went inside yelled "Ashton!  Get your ass down here!"  

Ashton came down the stairs running a hand through his air.  "Oh my god Sylv is here isn't she?!" he asked.  "Sylv?" I ask cheekily.  Ashton blushed and said "Well I know you call her Vana and all but still I mean I like Sylv, and I guess both work and ya know-" "Ashton just get outside and say hello!" I cut him off, as I push him out the door.  

I get up the stairs and I get changed into my swim suit.  It's a tribal halterneck bikini, and I also grab my towel, putting my hair up into a bun and grabbing my sunglasses as well.  I get out the door before suddenly I walk straight into none other than Calum.

"Sorry, sorry." I say and he smiles at me and says "It's nothing Nat."  I blush slightly.  Since when did we get back to calling each other by our nicknames?  My eyes flicker though to his chest, because, of course, he's shirtless.

"Nice tat you got there." I said seeing the tattoo by his collarbone.  He looks down and chuckles.  "Yeah, figured I would get something like that.  Kinda shows when I wear tanks though." he says and I then say "Well it does look good." 

"What was it supposed to mean?" I ask as he's about to walk down the stairs.  He turns around and shrugs.  "I think I got the numerals for our year.  When the success story really began ya know?" he said and I nodded before he changed the topic.  "How's Ash with Sylvana?" he asked as we walked down the stairs.  

I laughed.  "Well Ashton is Ashton.  Who knows what he's up to." I said as we got out the door and into the hot sun.  

 Author's Note

HIIIII

ooooo look Natalie and Calum getting aloooonnngggggg especially after the last chapter ;)

cept of course the real question is not only for Catalie to get together, but what about Ashton and Sylvana!  what is really going on with Sashton....

xx