Chapter 41: Chapter 39

I continue glaring at the boy sitting on the opposite couch.

Ashton, being delusional of my deathly glares, continues playing with Grisbee. I don't get what she sees in him. She usually doesn't like any of my friends.

Ashton smiles at her and looks at me, only to meet my scowl.

"Are you ever going to tell me what I've done wrong?" He asks.

I scoff and look away crossing my arms. My dad just thought I was sneaking a boy in my room when it wasn't even my fault in the first place! Do I need to explain more? Hmm, that's what I thought.

Kat walls in the room. "How do I look?" She says twirling around.

"Amazing."

"Overdressed." They both turn to me.

"Kiara!" Ashton gasps as Kat's face falls.

"What? I'm just stating the truth," I say crossing my arms. "Does she realize it's just a movie marathon, not prom?"

"But it's still not a nice thing to say to your sister," Ashton says. "See how upset you made her?"

I turn my gaze to my little sister. Indeed, she looks like she's on the verge of crying.

"Okay, okay, don't cry," I tell her. "You look beautiful in that but I don't think you should wear that dress to make your crush on him obvious."

Ashton's mouth turns to an 'O' as my sister blushes. Feeling insulted for being ignored, Grisbee jumps out of Ashton's lap.

"If you really want him to like you," I tell her. "Like really really like you, and not as a fuck-buddy-" Ashton flinches. "-act casual around him."

Both Kat and Ashton look like they're in deep thoughts.

Five minutes later, Kat walks into the room wearing her casual tee and denim.

"Now?"

"Perfect," Ashton and I say at the same time.

Kat beams. "Thanks, guys, I'll be going now."

"Enjoy the night."

"Be careful."

Ashton and I say at the same time.

"So if you want to impress someone," Ashton says once Kat's gone. "The rule is to act casual around them?"

"Not for you," I mutter.

Ashton frowns. "What do you mean by not for me?"

I roll my eyes. Man child. "Not trying to be sexist, but that advice is for girls."

Ashton pressed his lips together thoughtfully. "So what's for the guys?"

"Man up and tell the person how you feel about them before it's too late."

Ashton nods. "Already too late," he mumbles under his breath.

I raise a brow. "Whom are you crushing on now?"

This catches him off-guard. "W-what?" Look who's shattering. "N-no one."

But the red spots on his cheeks say otherwise. I simply tilt my head at him and raise a brow.

"Don't ask, okay?" Ashton pleads.

Of course, I'm going to act like a nice concerned friend.

So I jump on the couch with him and press myself against him.

"Who's she? Do I get a name? Does she go to our school? Or is it someone from your old school?"

He pushes me off him as the blush deepens. "None of your business," he deadpans.

"Oh c'mon, I thought we were friends."

"Friends, not best friends."

My smile flatters. "Party-pooper."

He starts laughing. "You're the one saying."

"What does that mean?" I narrow my eyes, daring him to continue.

Ashton doesn't stop laughing. "Let's stop pretending," he says between his laughs. "It's Halloween, the whole world is celebrating it out right now."

"Not the people from Asia and Australia, it's already November there."

Ashton ignores me. "And here we are, in our house, killing ourselves with boredom."

I gasp. "Are you implying that I'm boring, Mr. I-own-a-car-that-share-my-name-with-me?"

This makes him laugh more. "And here I thought you could use some company after what happened this afternoon."

And there he goes. I told you he's a party-pooper.

My sudden change of mood doesn't go unnoticed by Ashton too.

"Shit! I didn't mean it that way," he says.

"At least it was honest," I sigh. "Well, I can't possibly go around and pretend this afternoon never happened."

I sit quietly.

"I'm just too tired of these bullshits," I tell him after a while. "But the newspaper, then my parents and now him too. As if senior year itself wasn't bad l enough already."

I have the worst luck in the entire state. Maybe even in the entire universe.

"All I wanted was to graduate happily," I continue. "And I worked so hard for it. I made my own set of rules and I followed each and every one of them. I gave up on fucking everything, all I ever wanted to do with my life just to get in a good college with a goddamn scholarship to I won't become a burden to anyone. Was it too much to ask?"

Tears start filling my eyes and I don't even try to stop them. What's the point of anything anymore?

Ashton notices the tears and scoots closer to me.

"Shh," he whispers and takes my hand in his. "I know it's hard. And it hurts like hell. But we can forget it for the night. We'll talk about it tomorrow. Or maybe never if that's what you want, okay?"

I shrug.

"The second reason why I'm here instead of going to the party is that I didn't want you to sit in your house lonely and cry on Halloween."

"What's first?"

"I like spending time with you," he says cheekily.

A blush creeps onto my face. How it manages to come on my face when I'm crying like a dead cow, only God knows.

Boy, Ashton does know how to make a girl special.

"Flattering."

"I'm serious here!" He protests. "I really like to have you around. And I know I've been a jerk lately, so I wanted to make up for it."

I chuckle. "It's okay loverboy, I get it."

"Loverboy?"

"You just admitted a while ago you got a secret crush."

Ashton mutters something under his breath. "Whatever Snow." There's that nickname again. I'll be lying if I say I didn't miss it.

"Why Snow?" Ashton looks at me. "Why Snow when there are plenty of other nicknames? You usually call your girls those."

"Because you're not my other girls."

I tilt my head. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well," Ashton runs a hand through his hair nervously. "Let's cut the details but you already know what's my only business with them." Humor me. "And mostly because girls don't appreciate it if I call them in someone else's name. I know that because it happened once and don't ask me how it ended," he sighs. "It's just hard to remember all their names. So nicknames are the safest option."

I nod firmly, not exactly liking to hear the number of girls he fucked.

"But in your case-uh, you know," he hesitates. "Your last name is White. So, White, Snow White?"

"What?" I ask and start laughing. Ashton looks away.

I gasp. He was serious?

"Aww Ass-ton, you're so adorable." I pat his cheek. "That's so thoughtful of you. Heck, even I never thought of it that way." I ignore the peak of my heart's pace.

A blush creeps on Ashton's face again.

Woah, this boy is blushing a lot today. Is that the medicine dad gave him?

Ashton shoves my hand away. "But I don't appreciate your nickname for me," he says. "Get something better."

I burst into laughter.

"Like what? Fuckboy? Or rather, Loverboy?"

Ashton scowls. "Ashton is fine."

"Okay so it's 'Ashton is fine' from now," I laugh. His scowl deepens and tries to get up.

"Hey, where are you going?"

"Away from you."

"But you're hurt."

"I'll be fine." Ashton tries to get up and for the unnumbered time, falls back on the couch with a groan.

I chuckle. This night is getting better and better. Ashton crosses his arms facing away from me.

"Are you ever going to stop?"

"I-am-trying," I say between my laugh. He frowns with a pout, making him look more adorable.

Who knew Ashton could be this cute?

"So if I'm Snow White," I say after getting a hold of my laugh (which wasn't easy at all, by the way). "Then who's going to be my Prince Charming? You?" I tease.

"Only if you'll need a kiss to wake up," Ashton winks.

My jaw drops the floor as the atmosphere around us gets wider. I really didn't have that coming.

Suddenly I become aware of our proximity. Our legs are pressed together. My eyes move up to his face. He's also staring at me with his mouth open.

We stare at each other like a flounder, none of us utter a word. My eyes move down to his throat and his Adam's apple bobs.

"Umm," I stand up from the couch before things can go too far. Ashton visibly relaxes, and I realize my own breathing is steadying too. "Since you're not getting anywhere from here anytime soon, I'll get us some pizza and we can have a movie marathon."

"Okay," he clears his throat. "But I get to select the movies."

"Sure," I roll my eyes and hand him the remote before walking to the kitchen.

I heat two frozen pizzas, each for one of us, and a bowl of popcorns.

When I come back, the Hobbit is playing on the tv.

"Lord of the Rings, huh?" I hand him his pizza.

Ashton nods. "My all-time favorite."

"It's good. But I like Lord of the Rings more than The Hobbit."

"Me too, but it's hard to understand the main series  without watching The Hobbit first."

The movie plays on and Ashton himself into the movie.

We fall in silence and watch the movie. The first one finishes and the second one starts right after. By then, Ashton and I both are pretty tired. Unconsciously, I press my body against him as we continue watching the movie laying there.

Our hands are entwined and Ashton draws his other arm around me.

Me being tired from the long day, scoot closer to him and rest my head on his shoulder as my eyes give up.

*     *      *      *

I fall down from the couch and plant my butt on the floor with a thud when my phone starts ringing. I groan and sour rub my back.

"What's the noise?" Ashton groans. He yawns and scratches his arms.

I stare at him with my mouth open. I don't even wanna remember how we ended up in that position. When I look at the time, it's half past midnight.

My phone continues ringing.

"Can somebody turn that thing off?" Ashton whines.

"Gladly." I roll my eyes and search for my phone on the coffee table.

Grace's name flashes up on the screen.

"What does she want now?" I mutter under my breath before pressing 'accept'.

"HELLO-W MY FAVORITE BEASTIE!!"

I move my phone away from my ear just to make sure if it's actually her. Yup, it is.

"Grace?"

I hear her huff on the other side. "About time. I thought you already forgot your best friend. AND THAT WOULD'VE BEEN VERY MEAN!"

I pull the phone away again. Ashton is now fully awake and raises a brow.

"Grace where are you now?"

Grace giggles. "I'm going to Narnia!"

"Where?!"

"The other side of the wardrobe," she deadpans.

"Are you telling me you're inside a wardrobe?"

"Shhh!" She hisses.

"Grace, where's Miles?" I ask her worriedly.

"You won't believe who he was making out a while ago," she says excitedly.

Something's wrong. I'm sure Miles is virgin-er than me.

"Are you drunk?"

She snorts. "You know my alcohol tolerance is very high."

Which is debatable at the moment.

I hear a high-pitched scream from the other side.

"What happened?!"

But she ignores me. "Go, Miles!"

"What? Grace, can you hear me?"

I hear cheering from the other side. "You can do it!"

"Who can do it?" I demand pressing my phone tightly against my ears. "Hello? Grace? Hell-"

The line breaks and I hear beeping noise. She hung up.

"What happened?" Ashton asks. He lends me a hand to get up from the floor.

"I don't know," I tell him. "Grace seemed drunk and she was saying that Miles-"

Ashton's phone cuts me.

"It's Owen," he says and unlocks his phone. "He sent some photos of the party and-holy mother of-"

Ashton doesn't get to finish the sentence. His phone pings again. And again.

"Ashton?" He ignores me and scrolls down with wide eyes.

"Hey," I nudge him. "Is everything okay?"

Ashton shakes his head as his phone pings again. As he scrolls down, he loses his grip on the phone as I watch it falling on the carpet.

But Ashton doesn't give it a damn.

"Snow," he says and looks at me with a horrific expression on his face. "We have to go to Micheal's place ASAP."

📸

New cover^^^^