It had been three days since Michael and Ashton had gotten into the fight and they'd seen each other every for detention once since then, and they hadn't spoken a word. Ashton had also made a point of sitting in the staircase instead of trying to join the others for lunch, he was sure once Michael told them what had happened, he wouldn't be welcome there anymore.
He also kept returning to the same staircase in hopes that Calum would come looking for him, it was stupid really, they were barely friends and yeah maybe Ashton had thought they were about to kiss that night at the beach but, it was all in his head. Really what it all meant was that he had recurring daydreams about Calum coming and finding him and saying that he really wanted him to hang out with them. He'd had a few crushes like this before, almost all his others he'd chalked up to sheer loneliness, but this one was different, he actually got to spend time with Calum, so he knew he was nice and funny. Plus, he had friends now, well had being the keyword, so he wasn't lonely anymore, It was odd how much more a crush could hurt when you actually really liked the person, he'd always thought they were based entirely on aesthetics.
Ashton was deep in the thought about the fact that he might not get to spend time with Calum anymore and also about how many relationship dynamics he possibly did not fully understand when he heard feet at the top of the stairs and his head whipped around. A deep blush colouring his cheeks as soon as he saw it actually was Calum standing there, the younger boy quirked an eyebrow at him and grinned.
"So, is this your official hiding place now? If I'm ever looking for you, I can come here?" Calum asked, the grin still fixed on his face as he made his way down the few steps between, he and Ashton, sitting down beside him.
"Thought you were avoiding me like the others," Ashton admitted, his face still flaming.
"Luke and I have been away for state tryouts, but I'm sure if you'd actually spoken to Crystal, she would have told you she's not avoiding you. In fact, she told me that you'd vanished the past couple of days. Luke and I got back last night and first thing this morning when she picked me up, 'I haven't seen Ashton in days, I think he's avoiding me! Michael yelled at him, and now I can't find him anywhere, and he won't reply to my texts'" Calum said in his best mock off Crystal's voice.
Ashton chuckled, "I- it's dumb, I know," he said, his face contorting into an uncomfortable as he tried to keep his voice even, "It's just that-"his voice broke, and a few tears escaped the corners of his eyes, and as he tried to wipe them away with the back of his hand a sob wracked through his body. He was blushing terribly now and trying to hide his face behind his hands.
"Hey, it's okay," Calum consoled, carefully placing a hand on Ashton's back and rubbing in soothing circles. "Why didn't you just explain it to her? From what Michael said, you did the right thing up until you wouldn't talk to her,"
He opened his mouth, ready to confess to everything, to tell Calum that he couldn't even if he'd wanted to and it was all because of this curse, that there were so many things he hadn't wanted to do but had to, but just like normal the words caught in his throat. "I feel like Michael was- was way too kind with the way he explained things, I-I beat the shit out of those guys Cal. I couldn't stop, and they were so badly hurt, and I couldn't believe that I'd done that, and then I just froze up," it was partly a lie and partly entirely true, "I spoke to her after detention the first day, and I explained that it was my fault and the only person who was genuinely, entirely a victim was Michael, but on the day I just couldn't get the words out,"
"Why didn't you just explain it to Michael like that?" Calum asked, his brows furrowed but his eyes kind.
"He makes me so nervous, You and Luke I'm pretty good with but Michael, it just feels like he doesn't want to like me, which is fine, I don't mind if he doesn't like me, he doesn't have to. He was so angry the other day, I thought talking to him would just make things worse, Crystal always made it seem like he was ready to write me off as soon as he got the chance," Ashton explained.
"He got into a fight for you- Crystal-," Calum sighed, "I just don't think she wanted to share, I know that's bad to say, but you're her only friend that was just hers. The only reason she's friends with Luke and dating Michael is that they were my friends, that's how she met them, and same with Sierra she only knows her because of Luke. You're the only friend that was just hers, we've been asking her to bring you around for ages, but she always made excuses. I think she just exaggerated a little to maybe try and protect your friendship. And Michael's annoying as fuck, but he's nice, he was probably just frustrated, I bet he knows what you did by now and he'd too stubborn to find you and thank you," Calum told him all of this frankly as though they were facts, everyone should be privy to.
"I don't know if I buy that, Crystal always tells me to befriend with you," Ashton said with a laugh and a wipe at his eyes with his hands.
Calum's cheeks coloured ever-so-slightly, and he laughed along with Ashton, "I'm going to go and find the others, you should come back to hang out with us whenever you're ready okay? We'll miss you if you vanish," he patted Ashton's leg and then got up and left the way he'd come, Ashton's eyes followed him, but he didn't look back over his shoulder to throw a crooked smile or anything like that, but for some reason, he still couldn't get his heart out of his throat.
Ashton was sure Calum must have said something to the others because the next day things had been back to normal. Even with his confession to the Principal things had gone back to normal incredibly fast. He wasn't going to complain though, he was just glad he hadn't really fucked up having friends so quickly.
It had been a long time since he'd had anything even close to a friend, and he'd thought that he would be able to go back to being alone seamlessly and much thought. Now though when he was alone, he felt the loneliness much more pointedly, despite friendship having always been a foreign concept to him he'd apparently taken to it much faster than he'd thought.
All this had played on Ashton's mind so much lately that now as they all walked through the mall, he was filled with warmth and appreciation for such a simple moment. Crystal and Michael were looking for a new video game or something, and Luke and Calum had wanted to get coffee, Ashton had fallen into neither of those categories but was just out to enjoy everyone's company.
The five of them were walking as a group- well trying to walk as a group, Ashton kept breaking off because people kept calling out to him.
"Try our new cologne!" called a woman, and so Ashton had, had to stop and go back, letting her spritz the strong-smelling odour on his chest, before jogging to catch back up with the others.
"You're too nice Ash, you know you can just say 'no thank you' and keep walking right?" Luke asked chuckling as Ashton fell into step beside him.
"Just a bad habit I guess," he said with a shrug and rolled his eyes, he plastered on a good-natured smile, but part of him wanted to scream, 'you have no idea how much I wish I could'.
They made it another 300m's or so before Ashton was stopped again, "Try our new nacho chips!" this time Ashton took the chip happily and said thank you.
"That one was easy to say yes to," he shrugged laughing, "free food, sorry I keep holding you up,"
"Eh, the others will get over it," Luke said, giving him a fond grin.
Calum fell out of line with the others, "What are you two doing all the way back here?"
"Trying to teach Ashton to say no," Luke said, laughing and giving Ashton a playful shove on the shoulder.
Ashton blushed, "I can say no," he said defensively.
Luke raised an eyebrow, "alright, give me your shoes then," as soon as he said it Ashton groaned and started to hoping as he walked to get his shoes off until they were both in his hands and he was passing them to Luke.
He'd been chuckling the whole time, but as soon as Ashton thrust the shoes toward him, he lost it bending over in fits of laughter, "fuck you're hilarious Ash,"
Ashton joined in with the laughter, as Luke shoved his shoes back at him. Ashton threw the shoes back on the ground and stepped lazily into them, treading on the backs as he walked, "You have such a weird sense of humour, I like it," Luke told him happily, and something warmed in Ashton's chest.
It wasn't very often that the curse brought him any sort of good attention, but if his friends thought the weird things, he did were just his sense of humour, then that worked for him. He blushed slightly as he realised Calum has been watching them, and Ashton threw a quick glance toward him to see the other was watching them with a fond smile. Then he turned back to Luke, who was now telling them a story about someone on the hockey team. And that's the way he spent the rest of the afternoon, listening to Calum and Luke tell stories about people he'd never heard of and pretending he couldn't feel Calum's eyes linger on him every now and then.