Okay first things first- HAPPYYYYY BIRTHDAAYY LIAAAAA! *gives a bone breaking hug* I love how we've become great friends. I love how we talk about random shit. I love how we fangirl over Zayn and the other 1D boys. I love our weird talks ((awwhhh babbiieee luv yeww 22 xoxoxoxox:**muaahhhz)) xD I mean, throw a dictionary on their faces GODDD. I love your pep talks, your sarcasm, your craziness. Heck, I even love your best friend.
You both are the ideal kind of best friends for each other. Your friendship's precious :') <-- random awkward fact.
I know I'm a day early, but I couldn't really help it.. I'm not good with surprises brooo. Sorry -_- Even if I buy somebody's birthday gift a week before their birthday, I gift it to them right away cause I'm such an impatient person:P
Have an amaazzzzinnngg day. Enjoy with your close friends etc etc. See? This update was especially for your birthday- a birthday girft from me to you, maybe? Eh. I wish with could meet but ashkjh whatever. I'm really happy I got to know an amazing girl like you.
You're precious. :')
And yesss, for all you other guys, go check out her joint novel which is in the external link). Give the book a chance, you really won't regret it.
Here's an extra long chapter for you guys, this time. Enjoy :)
Lia, I love you x'D
Previously:
Zac gulped. He was on the edge- this was it. It was the perfect moment to ask her out. He could tell her right then that the way he felt for her was overwhelming and that he wanted her to be his girlfriend. 'No,' he thought. 'I'll ask her out when she's in a better mood.'
"Zac?" Ashley repeated a little loudly, waving a hand in front of his face.
"I wanted to ask you something," Zac rushed out quickly before he could change his mind.
Ashley glanced him. "What is it?"
Zac paled. What had he gotten himself into? "Will you . . ." he trailed off as Ashley looked at him curiously.
"Zac?"
'Here goes,' he thought as he took a deep breath before stopping, moving in front of Ashley and looking her in the eyes.
--
"I . . ." Zac began, but stopped. Instead, he exhaled loudly and took a step back. "Nothing."
Ashley cocked her head. "What's bothering you, CB?" she asked in a low, concerned voice.
"N- nothing, I guess," Zac mumbled.
Ashley raised her eyebrows. "Okay? If you wanna talk to me about it, you can," she offered.
Zac nodded. "Thanks. I'll keep that in mind . . ."
Ashley sighed. "You might wanna get into your classroom now" she said, gesturing to their right. "We're here, and the warning bell just rung."
"Aren't you running late for english?"
"No," Ashley said with a shake of her head. "It's a sub."
Zac took a deep breath before stepping forward and pulling the brunette into a bear hug. "I'll meet you later."
"Yeah," Ashley mumbled into his chest. "See you later."
Stepping backwards from where she was standing, Ashley cheerfully waved at Zac once more before turning on a foot and making her way towards her locker.
Ten minutes later, Ashley found herself outside the school library with her binder, a physics textbook and a spiral notebook in her hand. Quickly, she pushed open the door and nearly stumbled to the floor as soon as she stepped in. Glancing at her feet, she cursed on noticing that her shoe laces were untied . . . again. She trudged her way over to the table closest to the entrance and slammed her books down, earning a glare from the librarian in the process.
"This is a library, child. This place is supposed to be the abode of silence," the librarian said as she prepared herself to launch into a full blown explanation of why keeping silent in the library was important.
Ashley threw her an irritated glare; she wasn't in the best of moods that day either.
"You should—"
"I'm sorry!" the brunette exclaimed. "It won't happen again."
"Do you kids these days even know the meaning of sorry? If you do, then do you mean it when you say it? How d—"
"I'm here to study. Gotta go," Ashley muttered as she grabbed her things and hurriedly made her way towards the back of the library.
As she made her way to the back of the library and began looking for a suitable place where she could sit and study, and avoid the librarian too, Ashley stopped in her tracks. The one person she'd just spotted poring over his books was the last person she had expected to see in a library, that too studying.
"Heath?"
The blond jumped, with a startled expression on his face before hurriedly moving a textbook from the table and onto his lap, with a sweeping motion of his hand. "H- hey Ash," he said nervously. "Sup?"
Ashley narrowed her eyes at him. "What are you hiding?"
"Nothing," Heath replied a little too quickly. "Why would you think I'm hiding something?"
The brunette slowly made her way over to Heath's chair. Towering over him, she put her hands on her waist. "Heath?"
"Ashley," Heath replied cheerfully as he scooted closer to the table. "Fine, I'm studying economics," he muttered as he gave in to Ashley's glare.
Ashley raised her eyebrows. "Studying . . . comics, right?"
"Economics," he repeated.
Ashley let out a low whistle as she slid into the chair next to Heath. "Since when did you start studying?"
"Ever since I decided that I'd do anything to win over this really bookish girl," the blond admitted.
"Emma?" Ashley asked, as a smile made itself onto her face.
Heath nodded. "There's a problem though."
"What is it?"
He exhaled loudly. "I need to impress her and I'm sure that involves getting good grades. And for me, getting good grade is as tough as . . ." he trailed off dismally.
"It's alright, loverboy," Ashley chuckled as she ruffled his hair. "I'll help you out as much as I can. That's gotta count for something, right?"
"You will? Really?" Heath's whole face brightened up as he looked at Ashley.
She nodded.
"Thanks! Thanks! Thanks!" the blond repeatedly exclaimed as he pulled her into a hug. "You're the best, Ash!"
"Okay, let's get to economics now . . ."
Half an hour later, Heath slammed his textbook shut, grinning from ear to ear. "I freaking love you."
Ashley laughed. "You better remember whatever we did today."
"I will!" he replied enthusiastically as his stomach growled. "And I'm hungry. What d'you have after lunch?"
"Physics," Ashley replied, suddenly feeling weak. She put her head in her hands and groaned.
Heath crouched down on the ground next to the brunette. "All okay, Ash?"
Ashley nodded. "Yeah. Let's go," she said as she stood up with a sudden burst of energy. Hardly a moment later, she again felt extremely dizzy and clutched Heath's shirt, trying to steady herself on her feet.
Heath shot her a concerned glance but didn't say anything.
"Oh, there's Jayden with Diana," Ashley pointed out brightly once the dup stepped out into one of the main corridors, a couple of minutes later. "I think he's got a thing for her. In fact, I'm pretty sure he's got a thing for her.
"Cupid Ashley's found a new target," Heath spoke in a reporter voice.
Ashley laughed. "Oh, shut up!" she exclaimed as she smacked him hard on his forearm. The brunette was really glad that she and Heath had moved on from their previous awkwardness and were now normal again. She smiled slightly as she realized that Heath was slowly turning into a great friend of hers.
"Diana's a great girl," Ashley stated. "And Jayden . . . well, who doesn't like him?"
Heath grunted in agreement. "And he's started to get sensible too. If that's the effect Diana has on him, I'm all for them dating!"
"Yea—" Ashley began to agree as she rummaged in her bag, but was interrupted by Heath swearing loudly. "What happened?" she asked as she looked up at him to see the blond laughing loudly.
"Jay— Jayden followed Diana into the girls' restroom without realizing where she was heading," Heath said between bursts of laughter. "I take my words back about him turning into a sensible dude; he's still the same 'ol."
Ashley shook her head as an amused expression came over her face. "Oh, these lovestruck people . . ."
"You're the one to say it," Heath pointed out.
The brunette went red. "Shut up."
***
Before fourth hour started that day, Ashley put in the combination and opened her locker to get her physics material when a note fell out, reminding her of the fact that the same thing had happened the previous day too, twice. She stared at it as the note fluttered to the ground before bending down and picking it up.
"Not another one," she groaned in a low voice.
The brunette frowned in confusion as her eyes scanned the paper with a handwritten message.
Swallowing roughly, she glanced up and down the corridor wondering who would send her anything like that. As her knees suddenly felt weak, she leaned against the lockers by her side, deep in thought.
"Hey, Ash!"
Sean's voice got Ashley out of her daze. Snapping her head up to look at the approaching boy, Ashley saw that her friend had a wide smile on his face.
"Hey," Ashley replied as she hastily crumpled up the piece of paper. She was about to throw it into her locker without Sean noticing, but Sean's hawk like vision didn't let that action slide.
"Hey, what's that?" he asked.
Ashley's face paled. "Nothing."
Sean eyed Ashley's locker door suspiciously. "It can't be 'nothing'."
"Really, Sean, it's n-nothing," Ashley stammered as she eased her locker door shut, but was unable to do so with Sean's hand blocking the opening. "Sean, we're getting lat—"
"Ash," Sean chuckled. "Is it a secret love note from Zac, because of which you're looking all flustered? Are you guys secretly dating or something?"
Ashley shook her head. "It's nothing like that . . ."
Sean shrugged. "Kay then . . . you ready to head to physics?
Ashley nodded. Walking next to Sean, she squeezed her eyes shut before opening them and seeing stars blurring her vision.
"Are you alright?"
"Y-yeah," Ashley replied slowly. "Just a bit of . . . it'll go away."
"Why don't you go to the nurse?"
"It's nothing major," Ashley replied. "It'll go away in a minute."
Sean grunted, giving in to Ashley's protests, yet again that day.
It had been fifteen minutes into the lesson and Ashley's headache was nowhere close to going away. The rate at which it was increasing, Ashley wasn't sure how long would she be able to put up her facade of being perfectly alright.
"Ms. O'Connor, pay attention!" Mr. Harrison exclaimed in his booming, loud voice.
The whole class snapped their heads to look at Ashley, who looked all red and clammy.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Harrison," Ashley mumbled. "I'm not feeling too good right now."
The elder man's expression softened. "Would you like to go to the nurse?"
Ashley nodded feebly. "I guess."
"Okay, you can go," Mr. Harrison agreed. "Just make sure you go there only, and nowhere else."
"Yeah," Ashley replied as she stood up and trudged out of the classroom, stumbling a couple of times on her way out.
Sean stared after Ashley, feeling a bit annoyed at her. 'Why can't she take care of herself?' he grumbled in his thoughts.
As soon as physics class ended, Sean rushed towards the nurse's office to check if Ashley had reached there and was being take care of.
"Is Ashley O'Connor here?" Sean asked politely as he walked up to the aged woman. He couldn't trust Ashley to take care of herself and go to the nurse.
"Yes, she's here but I'm afraid you can't meet her right now," the nurse replied with a stern look.
Sean shrugged. "Okay then, guess I'll just come later. Thanks. I've gotta get to a class now," he explained before rushing out of the plain and peaceful room, towards his english classroom.
***
It was sixth hour, and Zac impatiently tapped his pencil on the table while he waited for Ashley to reach the spanish classroom
Where was Ashley and why wasn't she there yet?
'Is Cody being an asshole and stalking her again?' he suddenly thought. Sitting up straight on the chair, instead of slouching the way he'd been before, Zac checked the time on his watch. 'It's been ten minutes since he lesson started.'
Hesitating, he raised his hand.
"Yes, boy?" Mr. Acosta nearly barked. He hated being interrupted from his lecture.
"May I go use the restroom, sir?"
"Why didn't you go ten minutes back, before the class started?"
'I'm sorry I haven't planned out my pee schedule,' Zac thought sarcastically. Clearing his throat, he looked at the middle aged man in the eye as everybody else stared at him. "I'll make sure this doesn't happen again. Can I go now?"
"Make it quick!"
Zac nodded before he ran out of the classroom, almost a hundred miles an hour. Quickly, he whipped out his cell phone and dialled Ashley's number. A few moments later, he groaned, feeling increasingly frustrated as he straightaway got directed to voicemail.
"Where's she?" he mumbled in a low voice as he quickly spun on one foot, with his eyes wide open as he looked for the brunette. Suddenly, his eyes focused on a uniform clad brunette who stepped out of the English classroom, a few meters away. "Ash?" he called out loudly, but she didn't respond. Tearing ahead, Zac quickly covered the distance between them before reaching out to her and hurriedly tapping her on the shoulder. "Hey, why aren't you in class? Acosta's gonna go crazy if he realizes you're skipping Spanish."
"What do you mean?"
Zac took a couple of steps back. "Oh. I'm sorry. It's not her, it's you . . ."
"It's Emma. And should I be offended by that?"
"N-not really," Zac stammered as he suddenly remembered that the girl standing in front of him right then was the girl who screamed at him in front of almost the whole student body for spilling chicken noodle soup all over her, back in freshmen year. "And I know your name."
Emma nodded. "And I know yours too. I mean, who doesn't?"
"Hah," he laughed weakly.
"And I also remember that you dumped chicken noodle soup all over me a couple of years back," the brunette added with a laugh.
"I'm sorry about that," Zac replied as he awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. "Are you still allergic to chicken?"
"Yeah. Anyway, I think we both should head to class . . . especially you, because you've got Acosta for fifth hour?" she raised her eyebrows.
Zac nodded. "I do. See you around."
Emma smiled. "Sure."
***
"So, you're saying that Ash fell ill during physics and went to the sick room?" Zac repeated Sean's words, sounding a bit worried.
It was seventh hour and Zac and Sean were in the locker rooms, changing into their Gym clothes.
Sean chuckled. "That's what I just said, mate. It's probably just a fever. It'll go away soon . . . nothing major."
"Yeah," Zac sighed as he . "But I was gonna ask her out today, after school."
"Somebody's finally grown a pair," Sean commented offhandedly as he slipped on his sneakers. "Bro, honestly, it's time you asked her out. This whole cat and mouse game between you two, all of the jealousy, possessiveness, denial and awkwardness is getting too much."
Zac rolled his eyes. "You looked like you pissed your pants every time you talked about asking out Gab, so don't talk about me. For you, it was a love at first sight scene," he said slyly. "Right?"
"N- no. Pfft," Sean spluttered.
Zac raised his eyebrows. "Oh, really?"
"I think this is our class," a fourteen year old Zac said with as much confidence that a freshmen could possess, to the gangly boy next to him who also happened to be his roommate.
"Yeah," Sean muttered. "These braces suck. I mean, I look like a dork."
Zac was about to reply when a blonde girl pushed past them and walked ahead.
"Hey!" Sean protested.
The girl stopped in her track and turned around. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said with an uncertain smile. "I was in a hurry."
"We could see that," Zac chuckled. "I'm Zac, and you are?" he held out his hand towards the girl.
"Gabriella," she replied taking his hand. "Nice to meet you," she said before turning to look at Sean expectantly.
Zac prodded a dazed looking Sean in his ribs.
"I'm Sean!" he exclaimed, snapping out of his reverie. He stuck out his hand. "What did you say your name was, again?"
"Gabriella," she repeated with a shy smile.
"That doesn't make it a love at first sight," Sean said under his breath.
"Oh yeah?" Zac laughed. "Remember that evening you told me you had a thing for her?"
"Right," Sean went red. "Oh, and remember days after that when you told me you thought Victoria was cute? You guys were in a relationship for what . . . a week?"
Zac shuddered. "Don't remind me."
"Why'd you guys 'break up'?" Sean asked, making air quotes.
"Because I told her that I thought her shoes sucked," Zac replied with a laugh. "And then she punched me and dumped me."
"That was hilarious," Sean said with a happy sigh. "Good 'ol times . . ."
"I like the present better," Zac said in a low voice. "You and Gab are dating, and Ashley transferred into Oakridge."
"Ask her out," Sean said firmly.
"I will. You took your own sweet time asking out Gab," Zac retorted.
"Hey!" Sean protested. "At least I did it. At the rate you two are going . . ." he trailed off, shaking his head. "I don't wanna comment on it."
"Fine. I'll do it soon," he grumbled at Sean as his mind went back to the time he spoke to Ashley, previously that day.
Sean stood up. "Good," he said, thumping Zac's back. "Now, let's get a move on it, if we value our posts as the soccer team's captain and co-captain."
Almost an hour later as the clock struck a quarter past two and the seventh hour ended, Gabriella raced into the gym and waited for Sean and Zac to come out the changing rooms, all fresh.
"Sean! Zac!" she exclaimed loudly as her voice carried across the gym.
The two boys quickly jogged over to the blonde. Zac hung back as Sean reached his girlfriend and pecked her mouth. He exhaled loudly as he realized what a sap he'd turned into; whenever he saw Sean and Gabriella be so close to each other, Zac couldn't help but want to be that way with Ashley.
"Are you ready to go, Zac?" Gabriella asked, pulling away from Sean and effectively making Zac snap out of his reverie.
Zac cleared his throat. "To meet Ash? Of course," he grinned before pulling out his phone. Clicking on the facebook application, Zac updated his status and trailed behind Sean and Gabriella; after all, every couple needed their time alone. A couple of minutes later, though, Zac got bored of walking alone and checking updates on his phone. He quickly shoved his phone into his back pocket before bounding ahead and walking stealthily, close behind the couple.
"He isn't supposed to know, right?" Sean murmured. "Obviously, he isn't."
"I know, but how do we do this without him even getting a slight hint about this? It's almost impossible," Gabriella pointed out. "I thin—"
"Maybe, I can help?" Zac interrupted as he pushed the duo apart and made space for himself to walk between his two best friends. "What were you guys talking about?"
"We were thinking of how could we prank Jayden into doing something stupid," Gabriella replied too quickly.
Zac chuckled. "Poor guy. He already walked into the girls restroom earlier today . . ."
***
The next day, Ashley was feeling better but that wasn't so good either. When she woke up around a quarter past noon, the brunette was relieved to realize that she felt much better with her head hurting less, as well as the rest of her body. Groaning, she was about to go back to sleep when her cell phone started ringing. Without checking the caller ID, Ashley slid her thumb down the screen to answer it.
"Hello?" she mumbled sleepily.
"Open the door."
Ashley bolted upright on her bed. "Zac?" she asked, doubting whether she'd heard right. "Ouch," she groaned in a low voice once she felt sharp pain shoot up her back. She shivered a bit as Zac's low, rumbling laugh made her tense up.
"How are you feeling now?" he asked. "Actually before you answer that, open the door."
"Aren't you supposed to be in class?" Ashley asked as she dragged herself out of her bed.
"Free hour," Zac replied, happiness evident in his tone. "Are you here yet?"
"Yeah," Ashley replied as she swung open the door. "Hey," she said softly as she took in Zac's messy but somewhat sexy look. Glancing down at her phone, she realized that she hadn't hung up on Zac yet, so she ended the call, chuckling lightly. Before she could look up again, Zac pulled her into a bone breaking hug.
"School somehow sucks without you," he mumbled. "You better get well soon and get your ass back to school, quick."
"Zac," Ashley mumbled into his chest as she tightened her hold around him.
"What?" he asked, his chest rumbling.
Ashley shook her head. "Nothing. Do you plan on standing right here for the rest of the time you're here?"
"No," Zac replied. "Let's get in," he added before he let go of Ashley's frame. "So, how are you feeling?" he asked as he followed Ashley towards her bed.
"Better," she said with a sigh before she leaned into Zac's side. Ashley smiled as Zac reflexively put his arm around her and pulled her closer.
--
Ugh. Do you guys remember the scene with the librarian in this chapter? The weird librarian's character is based off the woman in my school. Ex-school, rather. I just finished senior year.. Anyway, GODDAMIT she was one annoying woman. She won't freaking shut up. Hah. One day she was lecturing about some random, worthless topic and I just spun on a foor and walked away when she was talking. Aren't libraries supposed to be silent? Well, with that woman going on and on and on about the most pointless topics on the face of earth, it was impossible to have silence in the library of my school :P
Anyywaaay, leave your votes/comments on the latest installment ;) Things are about to get more interesting sooon. Keep following this book, it won't dissappoint.
Once again, HAPPY BIRTHDAAYY to one of the best people I met online. Love youu xx
Have a nice day/night, y'all. Next update coming sooooon.