The next couple of days went by really fast. Yet, nothing interesting really happened. My best friend from OC, Paige, was thrilled about Nick and I. She always asked about him, and she told me how cute we would look as an official couple. To be completely honest, I wanted him to ask me to be his girlfriend. I think...I think I liked him!
Before I knew it the week had already advanced into Wednesday. It was 6 in the morning whe I woke up. I took a quick shower, and did my usual getting-ready-routine. "Do you have tutoring today?" my mother asked as I came down stairs to make some toast. I nodded and remembered myself that I had to tutor Ashton this afternoon. It didn't bother me as much as it would have last week. I'm still pretty terrified of him, but at the same time I know that there's a part of him that wouldn't hurt me, even if I pushed him past his limits.
We hoped in my mother's car and pulled out of the driveway. My mother didn't talk at all. "How are you?" I asked out of nowhere. Usually she's so bubbly and excited for the day.
"What? Oh, I'm fine," My mother answered. "Just had trouble falling a sleep last night, thats all."
My eyes were distracted by a decent sized bruise on her left thigh. "Geeze, mom." I remarked.
"I was so out of it this morning! Bumped into the coffee table." My mother laughed her usual laugh. I felt more comfortbale. "Have a good day!" She smiled as she pulled up to my school. I thanked her for the ride and headed towards the courtyard.
"Holaaa." I said as I met up with Abby and Jessie.
"Hello!" Jessie said as she hugged me.
"We were just talking about you and Nick." Abby winked. I blushed.
"Quick quesion." Jessie said.
"Shoot."
"Have you and Nick like...made out?"
I thought about that a minute. With my lack of experience, I really didn't know the difference between a kiss and full on "making out." I knew they knew I had kissed him on Saturday, but other than that, I haven't touched lips with anyone else.
"No, I've kissed him once and that was on Saturday." I replied. Jessie nodded.
"Well," She said. "That'll change once he asks you to be his girlfriend at the Halloween party!"
My heart leaped out my chest. What did she just say? "What?" I asked.
"C'mon Brooke, You know he's going to!"
"Why else would he invite you to the party?" Abby added.
My pulse incresed and an excited sensation came over me. It started to make a lot more sense, and I was overly joyful about it!
"Ahhhh," I breathed happily. "I'm so ready."
"Is this your first boyfriend?" Jessie asked. I nodded and she made an "Awww!" sound. I rolled my eyes and laughed.
"Speaking of kissing and whatnot," Abby said. "Guess whos been hookin up with Leila Chandler?"
"Ew, oh my God who?" Jessie asked. I had no idea who Leila Chandler was.
Abby tilted her head to the left. Jessie and I both looked over to the tree to see Ashton standing alone. His back was against the tree trunk and he was on his phone. He wore the usual, with a red beanie on his head, pulling his light brown hair back.
"Eugh!" Jessie spat. She seemed moridly disgusted. "Really? Leila Chandler? Even Ashton's hit a new low."
"Who's Leila Chandler? Is she really that bad?" I asked. It was almost as if I asked them who she was in defense to Ashton.
"Oh, you've still got lots to learn," Abby said. "She's literally the meanest girl at this school."
I don't think I've seen this girl around yet; I could have, but I wouldn't have known. I'll keep an eye out if I ever run into her.
After that the bell rang. I said goodbye to my friends, and made my way to 2nd period.
-
"Your homework is to finsh up chapter 6," Mr. Perkins said at the end of 6th period. "Find some works of characterization and write them down. We will be discussing them in class on Friday. Have a good rest of your day."
"Hey, you tutoring?" Jessie asked as we exited our english room. I nodded and Jessie sighed. "Waahh!" She said. "I wanted to go to the mall. I need to find something cute for the party."
"Go with Abby or Annie or Amanda! Send me pictures of what you find." I assured. Jessie shrugged in agreement and gave me a goodbye hug.
I shifted my feet in the opposite direction to go find the red pickup truck that I've come to know and hate. I hurried down the steps to the back parking lot. There was Ashton, a cigarette in his hands. "You always take so long." He remarked as I made no interest in saying hello.
"Thanks." I said, pulling myself into the passenger seat. Ashton started the car and turned the radio on, some screamo song came blasting through the speaker. I sighed to myself but kept quiet the whole ride over to Ashton's house. We finally got there and I followed Ashton to the usual spot. I sat down on the couch as Ashton sat down across the coffee table from me on the floor. He dug through his backpack until he pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to me. It was a quiz. I braced myself for the worst. But, I was incredibly surprised to see a 75%.
"Oh my god, Ashton." I said. I looked up at him.
"What?" He asked. A look of fear and panic fashed through his eyes, which confused me a little.
"This is amazing! You've improved by almost 30%." I said. His muscels seemed to relax a little.
"How did you do it?" I asked.
"Well you know," he said. His tone of voice was something I've never heard come out of him. It almost sounded...playful and jokeful. "The area of a triangle is always 180 degrees." A sly smile crept on his face. I was completely and utterly surprised in how different he was acting than how he usually is.
"Wow, you must be a genius." I played along.
"Maybe I should tutor you."
I chuckled. "Maybe you should just tutor me in art." Honestly, he probably should.
"Oh holy fuck about that," He said, his eyes darting around the room. "Be right back." He got up and went into the back room of the trailer. He came back out with a blank canvas.
"I know what we can do for our project."
Relief flodded over me, for I still hadn't thought of anything that we could do for our art prjoject.
"Shouldn't we do math?" I asked.
Ashton shook his head. "It'll only take a second."
"Alright, whatcha got?"
"Have you ever seen the sky when the sun sets here?" he asked. I thought about it, but it looks just like any other sky at dusk.
"Yeah, I mean its just mixture of a couple colors."
"Exactly! We could do like the sky and the colors would be like red and pink and purple and," By now Ashton was in complete rambling-mode. "Then put dark colors in cotrast to act like the mountains that surround Vegas-"
He looked at me with wide and excited eyes. He must've noticed how confused I was at how he was acting, because he slumped back and ran his hands through his hair.
"Sorry," he mumbled. "I get really excited about art."
I tilted my head sympathetically. "You should," I said. "You're pretty incredible." Ashton shrugged. That must've been the end of the discussion.
"Okay lets look at math now." I laughed.
An hour passed and nothing extremely important happened. After we went over notes and his homework, the room went silent.
"Have you read chapter 6?" I asked Ashton. He nodded. "I'm on 7."
"Why are you so ahead?"
"I don't know. I just love that book."
"How many times have you read it?"
Ashton furrowed his eyebrows. "I've lost count."
I nodded and suggested we get back to geometry.
"Why?" Ashton groaned. "Its not like I'm gonna use any of this shit in the future."
I sighed. "Of course you will, and you know it. too." I retorted.
"Uh, no. I won't."
"Why?" I asked, kind of annoyed. "Do you have any plans after high school?"
"Course. I'm gonna be in band. Don't know how, but I will."
The way he said "band" made his austrailian accent come out.
"You play an instrument?" I asked. Well then.
"Drums." He replied. I tilted my head to the side. I never new that about him. My curiosity took over. "Let me hear." I said. Ashton raised his eyebrows, but reluctantly sighed went to the back room. He came back out, dragging a big wooden box with him. He stumbled as he dragged it out, laughing quietly at himself. I looked at the box, confused.
"What?" he asked, sitting ontop of it. "Did you think I could afford an actual set of drums?"
I dragged my eyes away from his and shrugged. "So you just...tap your hands on it?"
Ashton nodded. "LIke this." He made a quick beat on the box, tapping his foot on the grungy floor. A slight smile spread across his face. I noticed the dimples on his cheeks and the way his eyes squinted.
"What shall I play?" He asked. I shrugged. "Anything you'd like." I told him.
Ashton tilted his head, as if he was thinking of a song to play. Suddenly, he tapped the box three times, and went into a full on beatboxing thing with his mouth, keeping another steady beat with his box drum. I raised my eyebrows and watched him with pure impressment.
"This city never sleeps." The melody quietly escaped his mouth, as if he was singing loud enough for only him to hear. I recongized the song as "The City." by Ed Sheeran, which was a beautiful song.
"I hear the people walk by when its late..." His muscles flexed under his shirt as he tapped his hands onto the drum. His voice was incredbie. It was so unique and beyond anything I've ever heard before.
"Louder." I said. I didn't mean to demand that he sang louder, but God, he was good. Ashton laughed and shook his head. "Nah, I don't really sing." He said.
"Please?" I asked. The look on Ashton's face told me he really wasn't used to people asking him to play for them.
Ashton started up his tapping and got into the chorus of the song. "London calls me a stranger, a traveler..."
I watched in awe. Seeing the way he shakes his head to the beat and closes his eyes and smiles every now and then, and the way his muscles tense as his big hands gently tap on the big wooden box...it only occured to me then that Ashton is actually a very attractive person. I know I shouldn't think that because I like Nick, but hey, it was true. If he wasn't so mean, or distant, or dangerous, or a player, then he would be the perfect guy for anyone. Unfortunately, my mind told me he was probably only good for hook-ups, which was diffidently not my style.
He ended the song and looked up, an embarressed look plastered on his face. I clapped and he jokefully took a bow.
"Well," I said as he got up off of the box. "That was diffidently something I didn't know about you."
"Its something no one really knows about me," Ashton replied, straining his voice a little as he dragged his box drum to the other room. He came back and sat down across from me. "Like my love for books. No one really knows about it."
"So, you really like books?" I asked. He nodded his head. "Of course." He replied.
"Whats your favorite book?" I asked.
"Well, besides my good friend 'The Great Gatsby'," Ashton said. "I like stuff like 'Divergent' because it was finally a current book that was really well thought out. And...'The Things They Carried' was really good and then old shit like "Noble House" and "Beloved" I read the Harry Potter series in one summer. I also like histrical fiction and whatnot. ...I don't know, a lot of stuff."
I thought about my favorite series. "Ever read 'The Hunger Games?'"
"Eh," Ashton replied. "It was alright. The love traingle was ridiculous."
I agreed to that one. I looked at my phone to look at the time. It was almost 6:30. I had to leave in 10 minutes. I looked up to see Ashton staring at my iPhone.
"How much do those things cost?" He asked.
"It depends," I replied. "Mine was about 250." I felt a bratty teenager, telling him about my 250 dollar phone in his 2 room, 30 year old trailer for a home.
"Sorry, I shouldn't ask you how much your shit costs." Ashton laughed, obviously wanting the change the subject.
"No its alright..." my voice trailed off. My phone vibrated, it was Nick. My eyes quickly glanced up to Ashton, to see his eyes staring at the screen as well. An angry look in his hazel eyes, which I ignored, even though I was confused by it.
"I think its time for me to leave." I said, sliding my phone off the table and onto my lap. It was 6:30, anyways. Ashton's gaze fell to the floor. "Oh yeah. Alright, lets go."
I grabbed my bag and followed him to his car. "See look!" Ashton said, pointing to the sky. He sounded like an overly-excited 5 year old. It was pretty adorable. I looked up to see the sun setting over the mountain tops in the distance. It was actually vey pretty, and I thought it would make a fine project. I smiled and nodded, agreeing with his idea. We hopped in the red pick up truck and drove in silence for a while. Then he turned on the radio, another screamo song.
We finally pulled up to my house and I thanked him for the ride. "Hey," I said as I closed the car door and leaned up against it, looking to Ashton through the open window. "If you don't want to waste your gas, you can always come to my house to tutor."
Ashton's eyes widened slightly, but nodded. "Thanks." He said shyly. I said godnight and watched as he pulled away. I sighed and checked my phone to read Nick's messages.
*Ashton's POV*
I pulled up to the gas station my Grandmother works at to pick her up. "Hello, Ashton." She said happily as she got into the seat next to me.
"Hiii." I smiled.
"How was tutoring?" She asked as I pulled onto the highway. I thought about it for a second. Today it was actually fun, maybe because Brooke and I didn't do much math. Maybe it was becuase my tutor wasn't as bitchy as I thought and she actually likes the same things I do.
"It was alright." I said blaintly. I didn't feel like talking about it, which I think Gram picked up on.
...
Before I knew it, it was 10:30 pm. Believe it or not, I had spent the last and a half hours studying what Brooke had taught me. It was pure hell, but things were starting to make more sense in this fucked-up world of geometry. I don't know, she was pretty smart. And not the bad kind of smart, either. She wasn't the kind of smart that only cares about work and grades and getting shit done. Well, maybe she is, but you know what I mean. There was probably a whole nother side of her that probably likes to have fun and fuck up and have a good fuckin time. It wasn't until 11:30 that I finally fell alseep.
*Brooke's POV*
It wasn't until 10:00 that all my homework was done, and I got into bed. I thought about my tutoring session with Ashton today and how different it was. I saw him legitamately happy and laugh and be the person that he actually probably is. I stayed up wondering about him. So many questions that I really wsh I knew the answers to. Like, what the heck happened to that boys' parents? Why is he so freaking distant? Why was there this constant fear in his eyes whenever he did something that he thought someone might not like? Why does he never tell people about his love for literature and music? Honestly, he's got so much talent, yet he doesn't share it with anyone. It wasn't untill 11:30 that I fell alseep.