FAR FROM NORMAL ── REGGIE PETERS

24. WONDER

That speech alone almost made Ashley break. Julie Molina was one of the greatest gifts life had ever given her. Or maybe the world had given Ashley to Julie? Either way, the blonde couldn't imagine life without her, Flynn either.

     They were both her lifelines.

"Thank you, Jules," Ashley whispered to try and hide the tremble in her voice.

"Words!" Flynn was smiling as she threw her hands in her air and Ashley couldn't help but let out a choked chuckle. "That is enough reassurance for me to head off to English. We'll see you later, Ash, alright? Smile, it brightens a room."

Ashley tried to smile for Flynn and the girl took what she could get.

Before the two of them reached the end of the corridor, Ashley watched Julie get stopped in the midst of people to take selfies. Now that was something Ashley was never going to get used to, being stopped in the hallway for photos.

It made her feel like a true rockstar.

Before Ashley could make her way towards calculus, she heard a voice.

"You okay?" The voice sent shivers down her spine but not in a good way.

"Luca, I'm really not in the mood to be hassled right now, so-" Ashley was cut off from walking down the hallway as Luca zipped in front of her. She felt the warmth of him, so foreign to any of the other boys she had had that close to her in the past few weeks. She resisted the urge to let off an uncomfortable shiver.

"You won't even let me praise you for the other night?" Luca raised his eyebrows at her. "The party at Julie's. We never got to talk after you performed."

Ashley felt a jolt of pain in her chest as she remembered the look in his eyes that night, the look of jealously that had flashed through his face.

"Okay." Ashley was tense all over and she knew at some point during the day, she would snap at someone - she wouldn't have minded if it was Luca but god forbid it be anybody else she knew. "If you wanna praise me for that performance, you can also tell me why you were jealous. Or, what you were jealous of. If it was a who or what, or whatever, I want to know."

Ashley almost smirked when Luca's face dropped an inch.

"You remember what that looks like in me?"

Of course, Ashley remembered. She had spent half of her freshman year of highschool seeing that look in his eyes every time one of the grumpy seniors gave Eden even a sideways glance in the hallway. She remembered that look.

"Like embers on a fire." Ashley didn't miss the flash in his eyes, of fondness maybe, when she spoke. She had always tied looks to imagery, ever since she was a child, so she could try and feel the emotions of others without actually feeling it herself. "Fire that doesn't know whether it wants to light or spit out."

Ashley was proud that she had rendered him practically speechless.

"You don't need to know why I was jealous." Luca's voice was quiet and Ashley could tell he was hiding something from her. She had known him too long.

"You wanted me to talk to you." Ashley raised her eyebrows at him. "I'll start right now if you'll tell me what made that jealous look appear in your eyes."

Luca was silent and Ashley, still feeling awful inside, didn't know where her confidence had come from. That had been happening a lot recently, confidence out of nowhere. She couldn't decide whether it was a good or a bad thing.