"Dani, where were you on Saturday?" Brooke asked. She shoved Luke's hand away from her slice of pizza that he had been trying to get at and brought it to her mouth, taking a bite.
"Saturday?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, we all hung out." Brooke said, referring to her, Luke and Calum. "We tried calling you but you never answered."
"I forgot my phone at home." I blurted out, remembering now that Saturday was the day I had spent with Ashton and his friend Michael. It's not that I didn't want to tell Brooke about it, but I was afraid of how she would react when she found out that I blew her off for Ashton.
"Oookay, but where did you go?" Brooke smiled sweetly at me. Clearly she wasn't going to leave me alone about this, I may as well just tell them.
"You told us on Friday that you would be free to hang out then. We went to the mall." Luke frowned, like he was disappointed I wasn't able to make it. I had completely forgotten about making previous plans with them, I didn't even recall being busy earlier in the day on Saturday, before Ashton showed up on my doorstep.
"I was an awkward third wheel!" Calum pouted.
"I'm sorry, guys. I totally forgot." I apologized, even though I really didn't mean it. I had more fun with Ashton than I probably would have with my actual friends.
"Where did you go?" Brooke asked.
I sighed. "I hung out with Ashton, actually."
"Ashton? The one in my gym class?" Calum asked.
"Are there any other Ashton's?" I retorted. Calum seemed a bit dumb sometimes, I felt that if I was left alone with him I would want to tear his head off because of his stupidity.
"There's this Freshman - "
"She wasn't looking for an actual answer, Cal." Luke cut him off. He gently pat Calum on the back, almost as if he was assuring him that he wasn't as stupid as we all thought he was.
"What do you mean you hung out with Ashton?" A sly smile appeared on Brooke's lips, as she already knew too much about the relationship between Ashton and I.
"We just . . . went out." I said quietly. I wasn't ready to spill every little detail out to them, that wouldn't be right. I liked the idea of Ashton sharing things with me that he didn't share with anyone else. Telling my friends about it would ruin this whole thing.
"On a date?" Luke leaned forward. This was the first time Ashton had been brought up and Luke wasn't being weird about it. He actually seemed interested this time, instead of upset.
"No, it wasn't a date. His friend was there." I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back in my chair. Suddenly I didn't want to discuss this anymore. I didn't like the feeling of my friends interrogating me over this day out with Ashton.
"He has a friend?" Brooke gasped.
"Uh, yeah. He's a year younger than us, though. Ashton's dead girlfriend's brother." I said bluntly. There was no point in hiding any of this now.
"Michael Clifford?" Calum asked.
"How did you even know that?" I rolled my eyes. I placed my head in my hands, at this point I was completely done with Calum.
"Oh, well I knew that Ashton's girlfriend was Michael's sister." Calum shrugged. "That junior that I was dating told me once because they had to do some science project and - anyway."
"You dated a junior?" Luke turned to Calum.
"Yeah, Kayla Sanders." Calum answered, looking proud of himself.
"Nice! Have you seen her - " Luke stopped himself and turned back to Brooke, who was glaring at him. "I love you."
"Whatever." Brooke rolled her eyes and scooted away from Luke, leaving him looking very confused.
"Anyway." I said, hoping that Brooke and Luke weren't going to start a huge fight in the middle of the lunchroom.
"Michael Clifford doesn't talk anymore." Calum spoke up after a minute.
"I know, Calum." I sighed. "He's angry at Ashton because he has something to do with Michael's sister dying."
"Wait, wasn't Ashton the one you - " Calum began to speak again, but Luke stopped him.
"Calum!" Luke shouted, quickly slapping Calum upside the head.
"Oh! Right." Calum looked between Luke and I, rubbing his the spot on his head Luke had just slapped.
"Why do you care so much, anyway?" Luke asked me.
"Care about what?"
"About Ashton." Calum answered for Luke. Sometimes I wondered if the two boys were actually dating instead of Brooke and Luke. They seemed to know each other awfully well.
"Dani has a crush on Ashton." Brooke finally spoke, flipping a strand of her hair out of her eyes.
"I do not!" I shouted, feeling my cheeks begin to heat up.
"Oh, please. They have nicknames for each other and everything." Brooke laughed. "He calls her Murphy and she calls him Irwin. It's all very cute."
"Cute." Luke muttered, staring down at his lap.
"He doesn't like me back." I protested.
Brooke shrugged. "I wouldn't be so sure."
-
"What are you doing?" I asked, noticed that Ashton was still walking next to me. Usually when we got off the bus after school he went in the completely opposite direction from our houses. I didn't know where he went, but I never felt like questioning it.
"Walking." Ashton answered simply. He licked his lips as he put his cigarette between them again, breathing in more smoke.
"You don't normally come this way, that's all." I muttered under my breath, staring down at my feet as we walked.
"What, I can't walk you home?" Ashton questioned.
"Oh, so you're walking me home now?" I let out a dry laugh.
"You don't get it, do you, Murphy?" Ashton raised an eyebrow at me. He tapped his cigarette with his index finger, the ashes from it falling to the ground.
"Get what?" I asked.
"Nevermind." Ashton smirked.
"You're so hard to figure out!" I groaned.
"I do that on purpose." Ashton laughed. He grabbed my arm, pulling me closer to him and out of the way of a big rock sitting in the middle of the sidewalk. He knew that I would have tripped over it if he hadn't done anything, I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking.
"Why?" I asked.
"It's fun." Ashton shrugged, taking a drag from his cigarette and looking out into the distance.
"It's not fun for me." I rolled my eyes at him.
"Why do you do this, Murphy? Why am I so interesting to you?" He said suddenly, startling me.
"You're different." I shrugged.
"Ah. And you like different, don't you?" Ashton raised his eyebrows at me. A gust of wind blew by, sending his hair in all different directions.
"I mean . . . I guess." I looked up at Ashton as he feverishly tried to straighten his hair out again while biting back a laugh.
"So you think I'm interesting." Ashton said. He grabbed my hand for a short second and stopped me from walking any further, as we were now in front of my house. He let go of my hand almost too quickly, letting it drop back to my side. Ashton stepped in front of me, staring me down like we were about to start a fight with each other.
"I do." I nodded.
"I intrigue you." Ashton leaned in closer, dipping his head down so he was level with me.
I swallowed hard, nodding.
"You want to get to know me even better than you do now, don't you?" Ashton whispered. His lips were almost touching mine now, and if I had known any better I would have thought he was about to kiss me. His breath smelled like mint and tobacco. A mixture of spearmint toothpaste and the cigarettes he always smoked.
Just as I began to lean into him, Ashton pulled away.
"I heard you were talking about me at lunch today." He laughed.
"Where did you hear that?" I asked, trying to hide the redness in my cheeks by pretending to brush hair out of my face.
"Your one friend that's in my gym class. I can never remember his name..." Ashton scratched the top of his head, struggling to come up with the name.
"Calum?" I suggested.
"Right, the Asian one." Ashton nodded.
"He isn't Asian." I smiled softly, mainly at the fact that everyone seemed to think Calum was Asian when he clearly wasn't.
"Well," Ashton paused. A smug smile appeared on Ashton's face before he continued to speak. "He told me that you were talking about me."
"What did he say?" I asked, hoping that Calum didn't do something stupid and tell Ashton how much I've been obsessing over him.
"He seems to think you have a little crush on me." Ashton chuckled and I made a mental note to slap Calum tomorrow. "Which is funny, because I thought he had a crush on you."
"Oh, does he?" I questioned, trying to play this off as well as I could.
"But, that's impossible." Ashton laughed. He handed his cigarette to me, which was almost finished, and I took a drag.
"And why is that?" I gulped.
"Because you're Danielle Murphy. And Danielle Murphy doesn't develop a crush on someone like Ashton Irwin." He took the cigarette back from me and breathed in the last of it before dropping it on the ground and stomping on it.
"What does that mean?" I asked. Ashton began walking backwards, away from me, and I realized that this conversation was over.
"You're funny, Murphy. Real funny."
". . .What?" I questioned, not sure how to responded to Ashton.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Murphy." Ashton sighed and turned around. Before he was completely gone he called over his shoulder, "7:15."
-
Ashton's such a mysterious little shit oh god