"Hi?" Jade wasn't too sure what Ashton was doing here. He told her he had to look after his brother and sister. So why was he still at school. With his gym bag, dripping in sweat and also coming from the football field. Of course. He was at football practise. It shouldn't take a genius to work out.
Jade wants to yell at him for lying but she doesn't feel comfortable enough. She just now really wants to get home. She's not even sure why this is irritating her so much. Maybe it was the lie. There was no need for him to lie. Yeah, she still would've been annoyed because Ashton's doing so well but honestly it wouldn't have bothered her. Jade knows how much Ashton loves football. It's what he is doing math for.
"Hi." Ashton repeats again after just saying it seconds before Jade did.
"Okay," Jade says slowly. She can feel the awkwardness rising between then both. "I should go." Jade nods her head towards the exit of the parking lot. "Hope you had good practise." She couldn't stop the sentence from tumbling out of her mouth. She couldn't help it.
She's had a pretty shitty day and last night was even shittier. She got in a huge argument with Calum and didn't even know what it was about. It started being about Charlie and next thing Jade knew was she called Calum an idiot and stormed out of his house. They didn't speak at all today and avoided each other completely in the hall ways. Now she was lied to by Ashton. She shouldn't care as much as she does and she knows this she keeps telling herself this.
It wasn't a big deal. So what if he lied? It's Ashton Irwin. What can you expect?
This was her thought process and with that she turned on her heels and began to walk towards the exit. She didn't think Ashton was going to follow her but he did. She heard his feet hit the ground and he ran to her side then in front of her to stop her from walking any further.
"Jade," he began and she had to stop walking or else she would've bumped into a very sweaty Ashton. That wouldn't be pleasant at all. "Let me give you a ride." He almost pleads. Maybe he thinks offering Jade a ride home would stop her being mad at him.
"It's fine." Jade brushes him off. "I wasn't expecting one so I'm fine walking." She says as coldly as possible.
"Well I'm here so I might as well drive you." He suggests and shrugs.
"No thanks." Was he one of those can't take no for an answer type guys?
"Jade, I'm sorry." Ashton says quietly. He was actually a little bit scared of Jade right now. He was worried he had totally ruined their 'friendship' or whatever was staring to happen between them.
"It's fine. I get it." Jade didn't care if she sounded like a bitch. Ashton shouldn't have lied. "Football is more important. It's all good."
"It's not that," Ashton looks down at his feet sheepishly and then back up at Jade. "I just have to. It's kinda what's expected of me."
She was now actually starting to feel bad. Maybe she shouldn't have been so cold. Jade knows what it's like to be expected to do something or be really good at something. She knows how much pressure can be put in you to do something so well because you show promise in it.
"Fine," she huffs out. "I'll get in your damn car."
"Really?" Ashton stares in utter disbelief. How had he managed to make her forgive him?
"Yeah." Jade says putting her little smile back on. Why was he so happy she was thinking about forgiving him?
~~~
The journey was mainly silent except for the radio which played music softly in the background. It was getting hotter and hotter so Ashton had rolled down the windows of his car to let some fresh air in. The wind was blowing Jade's hair about.
"I am sorry." Ashton finally spoke up.
"For?" Jade turned her gaze away forum the open window to Ashton.
"Lying, I guess?" Ashton shrugs.
"You guess?" Jade almost laughed. It was such a boy thing to say. Try and apologize but not be able to really actually do it.
"Well... uhm... I just..." Ashton spluttered and Jade felt her face grow into a huge smile. "What I meant was that... I think that's why you are mad at me." Ashton finally gets out. "Because I lied." He then adds.
Jade shrugs. "I was mad. Now I'm not."
"Really?"
"I'm just disappointed now." Jade says nonchalantly and looks back out the window.
"Oh." Ashton's chest falls. "I'm sorry."
"I just though you were actually taking this seriously. You know?" Jade says to him. "You were doing stuff by yourself and working through everything so quickly that I thought that there was no way you could have once failed math. But even after all that," Jade shrugs. "You still lied and went to football. You should've just said you were going."
"I know." Ashton admitted. "I don't really no why I lied. It just happened and I feel really, really bad."
"I believe you. I know you do." Jade replied. She just didn't know why he felt so bad. He shouldn't care. But technically, neither should Jade.
Ashton pulled into their street and silence overcame the car once more. It was a pretty annoying silence. It was awkward and tense and Jade had a weird feeling in her stomach and she didn't know what it meant.
"You'll have to make up for it though." Jade said when Ashton parked his car outside his house.
"What?" Ashton asked.
"Well, if you are going to be at football every Thursday then you should probably work out another day to be tutored after school." Jade explained.
"Wait, what?" Ashton still didn't seem to get it.
Jade sighed. "Keep going to football but also make sure you are keeping up with the extra classes."
"I can keep going to practise?" Ashton was dumbfounded.
"Well yeah?" Jade furrowed her eyebrows. "I'm not going to stop you."
"Seriously?" Ashton's mouth was open slightly. "And you would still tutor me?"
Jade hadn't exactly meant that. What she had meant was for Ashton to see if he could get tutored by one of the actual math teachers at their school on, like, maybe Tuesday. She didn't mean she would tutor him one on one. She had never done that before. That was Calum's thing. Not hers. But if that's what it would take for Ashton to keep his head down and work then she would do it.
"Yeah, sure." Jade smiled.
"Thank you." Ashton thanked her and she felt a small blush rise into her cheeks. "When?" Ashton asked.
"Oh, uh..." Jade was trying to think.
"Shit," Ashton then mumbled to himself and looked out of his window. Jade followed his gaze to see Ashton's father standing in the door looking at the two in the car.
"I'm late for dinner, probably." Ashton told Jade and she just nodded in understanding. "Just give me your number and we can work it out later."
"You want my number?" Jade was a little caught off guard.
"Yeah, we can text times and days I each other." Ashton explained.
"Oh, right, okay." Jade fished her phone out her school bag. She unlocked it and saw the picture of her and Calum she had as her home screen and smiled at it a bit. It made her sad knowing her and Calum weren't on the best of terms right now. For no good reason. She saw Ashton waiting patently for her and also staring down at her phone so she just handed it over to him.
He put his number in Jade's phone and then put hers in his. He locked her phone an have it back to her.
"Thanks." Jade says timidly seeing how Ashton's while demeanour has changed within the last minute or two. It was a little strange. He wasn't smiling or looking sorry for himself like he just was. He wasn't looking like anything. His face was stone cold and emotionless.
"Okay." He said and Jade took that as her cue to get out of the car. She opened the door and made sure she closed it carefully.
"Hey Jade." Ashton called as Jade began to walk away. He was now also out the car. His father was still watching them both and it was making Jade a little uneasy.
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for not being too mad." Ashton smiled again and that caused Jade to smile too.
"It would've been a stupid reason to get mad." Jade shrugs.
"Not really." Ashton echoes her shrug. He then looks over at his father who looks down at the watch on his wrist. "I better be going." Ashton sighed.
"Me too." Jade said.
"Okay," Ashton smiled again. "I'll text you later tonight. Yeah?"
"Sure," Jade felt a weird feeling in her stomach again. "Bye."
"Bye." Ashton did a little wave and turned away and towards his house so Jade did the same.
He never did text her that night but that actually made Jade a little relieved. She would have no idea what to text back or say to him.
But still a little bit if her was hurt and again she didn't know why.