She had cheated on him. That’s what that was. One of the best kisses of her life was completely tainted. She shook her head. No. The kiss was horrible. It was too…It just didn’t…She didn’t feel…
Ashlyn stopped midway through the parking lot and screamed. That was followed by jumping up and down and stomping her feet like a child. Her body was shaking with frustration and she wanted it out.
Thankfully, the school was nearly deserted by now and no one had witnessed her little fit. When she was done, she took in a deep breath. Another alert from her phone piqued her curiosity. She reached for it, and when she saw the screen, froze.
Missed call – Unknown
Missed call – Unknown
Unknown: I’m sorry, okay?
Unknown: Where are you?
Unknown: Ash, please don’t leave. I need to talk to you.
Ashlyn could feel the thumping in her head from the blood flow. When she was able to swallow, it felt like a brick sinking from her throat to the pit of her stomach.
She scrolled and looked over the messages again, hoping that the person she had been messaging like crazy the last couple days had not just been the one to send those messages.
She couldn’t explain why, but tears stung at her eyes. “No,” she whispered.
Stuck in a strange universe, oblivious to everything around her, Ashlyn didn’t hear Tripp’s fast approaching footsteps; however, the faint sound of her name from a voice she was beginning to recognize all too well, snapped her back to reality. She spun around, only to come face to face with a breathless and panicked wreck of a guy.
“You,” she managed to say.
Ashlyn stayed firmly in her place as Tripp took steps toward her; however, she had no intention of letting him get close enough to touch her.
“Yeah.”
She held up her phone. “You’re the only who’s been texting me?!”
Seeing how skittish Ashlyn looked, Tripp stopped about three feet in front of her before answering. “Yeah.”
“So, none of this was real,” she said softly, looking down at the phone in her hand.
Her words annoyed Tripp. “Are you saying that because it’s me?”
Ashlyn searched his face. For once it was firm and serious, something she rarely saw when it came to him. Usually he was lighthearted and full of laughter. Not thinking her words through carefully, only speaking as they came to her, “Yes. The person that I’ve been messaging is nothing like you.”
“How would you know,” Tripp growled, his voice deep and gruff. “You never even gave me a chance to be your friend.”
Ashlyn laughed. He was mad. Good. He deserved to be mad. It wasn’t fair that all these emotions were hitting her, and he acted unaffected. “I know guys like you. You don’t want to be my friend. Girls are just another thing for you to collect.”
Tripp shook his head in disbelief. “After everything I’ve told you, that’s what you think of me?”
A part of Ashlyn hated the hurt that flashed in his eyes, his beautiful eyes that became lighter with the slowly descending sun. “This mystery person is a joke. If it’s you, it’s just a lie, just a game for you to play to mess with my head.”
Tripp couldn’t take the venom she was injecting directly into his veins. “I think you’re scared.”
Ashlyn appeared shocked. “Of what?”
“Realizing that I am that person.”
“That doesn’t scare me,” she huffed.
“No. What scares you is that you liked that person, but you don’t want to like me because you have this idea of me stuck in your head from the first ten minutes of meeting me. It scares you that you’re wrong, and that maybe I am a great guy.”
She couldn’t take the way his eyes were latched to hers. It was more than simple eye contact. “I can’t do this.” Her words were barely more than a whisper as she turned from him. “Please, just leave me alone.”
Tripp forced himself to let her walk to her car, get in, and drive away. As much as it frustrated him, he knew what he had to do next. Wait.
After that kiss, and now knowing that he’s the person she’s been messaging, he had to believe that despite what she was thinking and feeling right now, in the days to come she’d realize that there was something between them.
He laughed at how ridiculous he was being over a girl, but from the moment he met her, all he wanted was to get to know her. An instant attraction was quickly leading to something more for him, and the softness of her lips, now just a memory on his, was proof of that.
✽ ✽ ✽
Ashlyn didn’t text Eric that night. She couldn’t. What would she have said? She had to say something, didn’t she? The idea that she had cheated on him made her feel sick to her stomach. It was kind of an accident, but he wouldn’t see it that way. All he’d see is red. Despite how she felt about Tripp, he didn’t deserve whatever Eric would dish out if he found out about what happened.
“In your pajamas already,” Ashlyn’s mom pointed out.
Ashlyn reached for a bottle of water, the refrigerator light now overpowering the glow from her mother’s laptop as she sat at the dining table.
“It’s nine, and it’s a school night,” she pointed out.
Poppy rubbed her eyes beneath her glasses and squinted at the corner of her computer to check the time. “Wow. So it is.”
“Anyway, goodnight mom.”
“Come sit for a second. I’d like to talk.”
Thankfully in the darkness Poppy couldn’t see Ashlyn rolling her eyes. Her mother was great, but as a therapist, oftentimes when she said something similar, Ashlyn felt like she should be lying on a couch in an office.
Ashlyn pulled out the chair across from her mother and took a sip of water. The blinding light from the computer did nothing for her mother’s looks. It made her appear far more tired and aged than she actually was.
“Is everything alright at school?”
It was an odd question for her mom to ask. “I guess so. Why?”
“Just checking in. I feel like something is a little off lately, especially today.”
Though she didn’t want to talk about it with her mom, Ashlyn knew that if she didn’t say what was bothering her, her mother would only continue to pester. For a split second, she thought about lying, making up some project for one of her classes that was giving her the fits, but her mother could tell when she was lying. If she ever decided to change from a marriage counselor and family therapist, she could have a great career as an interrogator.
“There’s this boy at school, and I think he likes me,” Ashlyn finally admitted, feeling her cheeks warming as she said it aloud.
Poppy smiled. “This is a bad thing because…”
“He’s just…He’s so cocky. He thinks–”
Poppy quickly interrupted. “I don’t like to speculate what other people think and don’t think.”
This is why she didn’t like talking with her mother. There always had to be a lesson or something insightful that she was supposed to pick up on. “Ugh. Can you just be my mom for a second and not a therapist?”
Poppy rubbed her tired eyes and laughed. “That’s me being a human. We shouldn’t make assumptions like that. Although fine, go on,” she sighed, pretending to be annoyed.
“He’s just a bit much,” Ashlyn said with a shrug.
“If he likes you, and you like him, there’s nothing wrong with being friends.”
“I have a boyfriend,” Ashlyn grumbled. Needless to say, her parents were the same as Emory when it came to that particular person.
“Ah, yes. The boyfriend. Sweetie, you’re in high school, you’re allowed to speak to the opposite sex. You shouldn’t feel bad about that because of Aaron.”
“Eric,” Ashlyn corrected.
“Right.”
“I talk to other guys. For example, Emory’s brother. I just think it’s unfair if I’m friends with someone who has kind of made it clear that he might like to be more than friends,” Ashlyn b
egan to ramble. If she were to admit it, up until today, things were going along fine with Tripp. She could see themselves maybe being friends one day. Then he had to go and ruin that.
“Kind of, might…When you use words like that, you’re trying to play down the truth. Well, I kind of might have eaten the last piece of cake from the refrigerator. You either did or you didn’t,” Poppy teased.
With sleep pulling at her eyelids, Ashlyn rose from her chair. “On that, I’m going to bed.”
“One second.” Ashlyn paused to hear what else her mother had to say on the matter. “I know you’re almost seventeen and you don’t like to talk about all this stuff. I just want to point out that I notice things. Today you came home more distraught and conflicted than I’ve ever seen; however, over the last few days, you’ve been happier and bubblier than I’ve seen in a long time.”
“I’d rather not talk about it,” Ashlyn mumbled, unable to meet her mother’s eyes. She really didn’t want to mention the kiss.
“I know that. Just know, the people we surround ourselves with, affect us, whether we want them to or not.
Ashlyn knew that, and it frustrated her. “I don’t want people to have an effect on me.”
“But they do,” Poppy stressed. “That’s why we try to have positive people in our lives, ones that lift us up and care about our wellbeing and success, and ones that make us laugh, make us happy.”
“Thanks, mom. Goodnight. I love you.”
“I love you, too,” Poppy concluded, letting her daughter get the much-needed sleep she looked like she could use.
✽ ✽ ✽
Ashlyn put her phone on the charger and saw text notifications. She was hesitant to click on any of them, rather, one chat in particular.
Emory: Yeah, I can meet before school. I’ll come to your car when Ellis and I get there.
Eric: Hey, babe. I need help on some lame history thing. Can you help me tomorrow?
Ashlyn rolled her eyes. She’d respond to that in the morning. Lately, Eric’s version of her helping him ended up with her doing it for him.
Like pulling off a bandage, she forced herself to click on the chat that was no longer an unknown person.
Tripp: I really am sorry, about a lot of things. I should have asked you before doing that.
Ashlyn’s eyebrows furrowed as she stared at the odd text. What was he talking about? While it would have been in her best interest to block his number and go to bed, she was far too curious.
Ashlyn: Doing what?
Tripp: The kiss.
Was he serious? What kind of guy asks a girl before kissing her? That sounded like something people would have done in the Victorian era.
Ashlyn: Seriously?
Tripp: Despite what you think of me, I was raised to be a gentleman. I guess I just thought the signals were there, for that I’m sorry.
She couldn’t believe that he was apologizing like that; however, something else in that message stood out, and an icy chill ran down her whole body.
She realized that he wasn’t entirely wrong. Even when they took that stupid picture together, and he held her, she didn’t say anything. She wasn’t the one to pull away. If she kept thinking about everything that followed, she felt sick to her stomach. Tripp didn’t misread anything. A part of her in that moment wanted him to kiss her, and if she was completely honest with herself, it wasn’t the first time that she had thought about his lips on hers.
Chapter 11
“Geez, what was so urgent,” Emory yawned as she closed the passenger door to Ashlyn’s car. “Ellis was so annoyed that I asked him to leave ten whole minutes earlier.”
Emory glanced over to Ashlyn sitting in the driver’s seat, staring at the doors far ahead to the front of the school.
“Uh, earth to Ash,” she said, nudging her. “You’re the one who said you needed someone to talk to.”
Ashlyn broke from the trance that had come over her. “I messed up,” she finally said.
“No, please be more ominous and vaguer,” Emory scoffed.
Ashlyn turned in her seat to face Emory and shuffled so that she was sitting with her right leg underneath her.
“I don’t know where to start,” she began, running a hand through her hair. She kept it simple and down today. After having gotten very little sleep, fixing her hair was the last thing she wanted to deal with. “Tripp kissed me,” Ashlyn blurted out.
Emory’s jaw dropped and then she waved her hands back and forth. “Whoa, wait. I think we missed a bunch of parts to this story.”
“And I kissed him back. Oh god, it wasn’t just a kiss,” she groaned, slamming her head to the side into the steering wheel. “There was tongue!”
“Holy crap!”
Ashlyn closed her eyes and shook her head. “That’s not even the worst part.”
Before Emory could allow her to continue, “Worst part? Unless he’s like a really sloppy kisser with bad breath, I’m failing to see where any of what you said is bad.”
“No, he’s a great kisser, wonderful breath and…No! Stop! That’s not the point.” Ashlyn had to quickly stop herself from any further description. “What do I tell Eric?”
Emory groaned and sank back in her seat. “Unless you want Tripp’s mutilated body found in a field somewhere, you don’t tell Mr. Temperamental anything.”
“But if I don’t then–”
“One kiss, or whatever you want to call it, singular, right? It only happened once? The two of you got caught up in the moment, yeah,” Emory interrupted.
Ashlyn nodded.
“Then just let it be that and don’t worry about Eric.” The look on Ashlyn’s face made Emory skeptical. “Unless…There’s a chance that it might happen again…”
“No,” Ashlyn quickly shouted.
Emory saw how distraught Ashlyn truly looked, and though she wanted to point out the redness painted across Ashlyn’s cheeks and tease her, she sadly had to let that wait until this was something they could look back on and laugh about.
“You said there was a worse part,” Emory backtracked.
“You know that person that’s been texting me?”
Emory froze. “Mhmm.”
“It’s Tripp!” Ashlyn shook her head. “Like, I don’t even know how he got my number. Then, ugh. He was so nice and normal in his messages and for a split second…I guess I just wondered what it would be like to always have someone who asked about my day and told me goodnight, and…I’m such a mess.”
Emory took in a deep breath, knowing that Ashlyn would be mad at her for at least the remainder of the day. “I figured.”
“You figured? What part?”
“I gave him your number last week.”
Ashlyn stared at her calm and collected friend, trying to process what she had just said. “You what?!”
“Ugh. Be mad at me. The guy has the cutest crush on you, and rather than speaking to him, you act like he’s some deadly disease. Truth be told, I think it’s brilliant that he didn’t tell you who he was. For a few days, maybe you got to see the him that you wouldn’t give a chance to.”
“Why can’t any of you understand that I have a boyfriend?! I have for the last two years,” Ashlyn screamed at the top of her lungs.
“Maybe because he’s never around, and when he is, he doesn’t act like it,” Emory coldly pointed out.
Ashlyn was about to speak but quickly closed her mouth. They both knew that there was nothing she could say in retaliation to that comment.
✽ ✽ ✽
And so, the days went on.
Ashlyn never told Eric.
After a few awkward moments in class the first days since the incident, it became a little easier to breathe around Tripp. Thankfully, he nor any of the other guys sat with Ashlyn, Emory, June, and Kayla at lunch that week.
Ashlyn attended the two games that week with Emory. She took her pictures and made a quick exit before the end of the games, despite one of the nights Emory asking her to come along to a dinner
outing with several of Ellis’ friends.
As hard as it was, Tripp refrained from sending another text to Ashlyn after that day. She had his number too. If she wanted to continue a conversation outside of the classroom, she could text him; however, after several days, he knew that wouldn’t be the case.
In avoiding each other with every part of their lives except for that forty-five minutes a day, they had inadvertently neglected a very important project.
“Alright class, some of my overachievers from other periods have already handed in their projects.” Students in the classroom looked around as Mrs. Cohen said that. “Now you don’t think I’d be so careless to leave them out and let some of you last minute people get ideas? Just keep in mind, they’re due on Tuesday. If you want to enjoy your spring break, I’d consider getting them in.”
Just then the bell rang.
“I guess we need to talk about that,” Tripp said, bringing up the project that they only had a handful of days to both start on and complete.
“I have an entire closet full of crafting supplies. I can do the structure and you can write the paper,” Ashlyn pointed out. This way they wouldn’t have to work together outside of class.
Tripp zipped his backpack and tossed it on. “You want me to write a ten-page paper myself?”
“First of all, it’s double spaced. That’s technically only five pages,” she pointed out. “And the last page is sources and citations, so now it’s only four and a half.”
“You sure? The paper is sixty percent of the project grade.”
That got Ashlyn’s attention.
“You know what, I’ll do the paper.”
“And I’ll do the sculpture of our landform?”
Ashlyn didn’t like how the dividing of the project was going. While she knew Tripp cared about his grades and would do a good job, she preferred to do all artistic aspects.
“I’ll just do all of it.”
They had been walking out of the classroom, but now Tripp stopped and turned, blocking Ashlyn’s path.
Picturing Different Page 7