Picturing Different

by Nikki Kwiatkowski

  One person that Ashlyn hadn’t spoken to since he arrived was Tripp. It seemed as though he just disappeared. It’s not like Ashlyn was extensively looking for him, but she thought their paths would have crossed more. There were barely fifty people throughout the common space and patio and backyard, but not a single one was Tripp.

  Ashlyn took her time down the hall toward her dad’s office at the end. The door was open, and she could tell that the light on his desk was on because of the unique amber glow pouring through the opening. Sure enough, she heard him talking. She thought his case was wrapping up, but something must have come about last minute. She was just about to turn around and go back to the party when she heard a familiar chuckle. What was Tripp doing in her dad’s office?

  Ashlyn curiously rushed to the office’s doorway. Her father saw her immediately and all conversation stopped. Tripp sat in a chair on the other side of Daniel’s desk, directly across from him. He glanced back momentarily to see Ashlyn standing there, shocked and confused.

  “Hey, Ash,” Daniel greeted with a smile. “Can I help you with something?”

  “Uh…yeah. Mom is looking for you. She wants to do presents soon.” Her words were spoken to her father, but she couldn’t help but watch Tripp.

  Daniel clapped his hands and stood; as he did, so did Tripp. “Perfect.” He and Tripp then walked toward the doorway. Ashlyn took a step out into the hall, but still watched them carefully. “It was good talking with you Tripp,” Daniel said, patting Tripp on the shoulder. “I really hope everything works out for you.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Jennings,” Tripp said shyly.

  Daniel closed his office and took off back to the party, leaving Tripp and Ashlyn alone in the hall.

  Once her father was out of earshot, “What was that about?”

  “Nothing,” Tripp said with the most melting smile.

  “How long have the two of you been back here? I haven’t seen you since you arrived…With Emory,” she added.

  Tripp raised a brow and took a step closer to Ashlyn. His smile had faded into lips that harbored the faintest of smirks. “Were you looking for me?”

  Ashlyn could feel her breathing becoming more difficult with him so close, with him looking at her like a hungry animal. “No. I was just pointing out the obvious.”

  “I was talking with your dad, as you’ve obviously seen.”

  “About what,” Ashlyn asked once more.

  Tripp’s eyes dropped from hers down the hall toward the party. “Just baseball stuff.”

  He was lying. His whole demeanor had shifted.

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “Oh, yeah? Then what do you think we were talking about,” he asked, unable to look at her.

  Ashlyn let out a deep breath. “I haven’t a clue, but just forget it. I don’t have time for whatever games you’re trying to play.”

  Ashlyn started back down the hall and Tripp fell into step surprisingly close beside her. “Trust me, Ash, I’m not playing any games. You really should work on your patience. Not your strongest virtue,” he teased.

  Ashlyn paused her steps momentarily to glare at him. “Oh! When it comes to you, you have no idea how patient I am.”

  His face turned serious and dark. “Likewise.” Not allowing her to control the situation, he took a step around her and went back to the common area, leaving her alone in the hallway.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Ashlyn sat down in a chair her mother had placed near the table of gifts as others stood around, some solely focused on her, others drinking soda and stuffing their faces.

  “Alright,” Poppy began. “Your father and I want to go first, because I know this is going to be your best gift, and I simply can’t hold it in any longer!”

  Ashlyn smiled. Her mother’s excitement was contagious. She didn’t know what she was expecting. Her parents hadn’t asked her what she wanted for her birthday, nor had she mentioned anything. She only hoped this wouldn’t be one of those gifts where she’d have to pretend that it was the best thing ever.

  She was a little surprised and slightly underwhelmed when her father handed her mother the envelope which she then received. Knowing the practicality of her parents, it was probably a trust or maybe something set up for college.

  “Thank you,” she told her mom once she received it.

  “Hurry up, open it,” Poppy exclaimed. Daniel placed his hands on her shoulders and whispered in her ear.

  Ashlyn put her finger under one of the corners of the envelope and began tearing it open. When she looked inside, she saw something colorful, and as she carefully withdrew it, realized that it was a pamphlet full of picturesque nature scenes. She opened it. There were more pictures, ones of animals, with descriptions and statistics that she didn’t have time to read as she sat there.

  She looked up to see her parents smiling from ear to ear. “I don’t under–”

  “We’re taking you to Africa this summer,” Poppy screamed. Several people gasped and clapping ensued. “There’s a reserve that we’ll be staying at. You’ll get to see so much! We know how much you love to take pictures and we thought this would be a wonderful experience!”

  Ashlyn looked back down at the pamphlet. The next page talked about excursions and activities.

  Tears came to her eyes, and the only thing she could think of was to tell herself not to cry. As happy as she was, she knew that there was going to be an uncomfortable talk in the future, one where she had to tell her parents what happened to her camera.

  She jumped up from her seat and ran into her parents’ arms. “Thank you, so much! This is like a dream come true.” It was. She’d be able to see things that she had never seen in her life.

  “We love you,” her father said, and gave her a quick kiss on her forehead, not wanting to embarrass her.

  Ashlyn went back to opening the rest of her gifts. She wanted to be quick about it, fully knowing that her friends and family didn’t want to stand around quietly watching something so uneventful. Most of her friends got her gift cards. She was grateful for that. They were something that she could either definitely use for herself, or absolutely regift at a later point in time.

  She was rather surprised when she opened the gift from the aunt and uncle who were horrible when it came to presents and knowing anything about her. It was an extremely large and heavy coffee table book on various artists, their work, their lives, and their influence in modern day society. Not bad.

  Ashlyn had two gifts left. She knew exactly who they were from, Emory and Tripp. Every year, party or not, she purposefully left Emory’s for last, knowing that her friend had little patience when it came to gifts. She was surprised that Emory hadn’t stormed over to her earlier and insisted that she open it right then and there.

  She was terrified to see what Tripp had gotten her. Knowing him, it had to be absurd and ridiculous, or thoughtful and sweet. Wanting to delay that for just a second longer, she reached for Emory’s box. Before she could begin opening it, Eric stepped forward.

  “Wait, I have something for you.”

  “Seriously,” Emory shouted throughout the room, garnering a few laughs.

  “Babe,” he began, to which Ashlyn cringed. “I know we’ve had our ups and downs.” Was that what he called smashing her camera and calling her names? “But I want you to know how I feel about you.”

  He withdrew a small box from the pocket of his ripped jeans. Ashlyn froze. What was he doing? She felt like she was drowning, but then remembered that was probably because somewhere along the way she had stopped breathing.

  He handed her the small box. Thank goodness he did so without doing something as stupid or insane as getting down on one knee.

  Upon opening it, Ashlyn was slightly relieved to see a silver necklace; however, it wasn’t that simple. It was a heart with an engraving that read, Love Always.

  Ashlyn eyes immediately shot up to Eric. He had the biggest smile on his face, and in the past she would have found that melting;
however, something in his eyes was different, and it had been for a long time. She was just about to tell him thanks for the gift and move on to Emory’s when his next words knocked the air from her lungs.

  “I love you, Ash. And I’m going to make sure that you know that, every day, for the rest of your life.”

  He had never said those words to her. They had never said those words to each other. It wasn’t until then that Ashlyn realized that she had never used the word love when it came to talking about her relationship and feelings for Eric.

  Emory looked to Ashlyn’s parents, hoping her mother would step in and take the gift from Ashlyn and place it with the rest of the opened ones, but everyone seemed stuck in place, waiting to see what Ashlyn would say. This was one time that Emory was certain that Ashlyn needed saving, and if no one else would say something, then she’d take it upon herself to snap everyone from the spell that Eric had cast with the garbage that he poured from his mouth.

  Before she could take a step forward, she felt the space next to her, where a towering guy once stood, turn cold and empty. She looked behind her to see Tripp retreating from the room. She could seriously kill Ashlyn right now.

  “Yay,” Emory exclaimed as she stomped her way up to the table and snatched the box that was hers. “I love you too, Ash,” she said in a snotty and sarcastic tone, as if it was obvious that everyone loved Ashlyn and Eric wasn’t saying anything new. “Here,” she demanded. She held out her gift for Ashlyn, who was still holding the box with the necklace. Emory yanked it from Ashlyn and snapped it shut. “Let me get rid of that so you can wrap this up. Some of us haven’t made it to the snack table yet,” she laughed, but Ashlyn could see that Emory was shooting lasers with her eyes. Emory handed the box to Ashlyn’s mom, who then placed it on the table with the rest of the opened gifts. She realized that Eric was still standing there. She looked at him like she was confused and blinked very rapidly, as if to say, Why are you still standing there?

  “Thank you, Eric,” Ashlyn managed as he proceeded to step to the side with other guests.

  Emory then bounded back to her group, with Ellis shaking his head and rolling his eyes in disappointment.

  “What? I had to,” she whispered.

  “No. You did not. You just pushed every button there is on Eric Weaver,” Ellis told her, showing great concern.

  Ashlyn tried to go back to the way she was before Eric’s stupid confession. She had dreamed of a guy telling her those words one day, but that’s not at all how she pictured it, and that’s not at all how she thought she’d feel after hearing it. She didn’t feel butterflies and excitement. She didn’t want to jump up and down and scream with joy. She wished he never would have said that. More than anything, she just wanted him to leave.

  Instead, she put on her happy face and pretended that she was having the best birthday ever.

  Emory’s package took forever to open, solely because she used more tape on the wrapping paper than needed. When she finally managed to get to the actual box and open it, her eyes widened. She ran her hand over the beautiful pieces. There were various sizes of Kolinsky Sable brushes. Ashlyn knew of them, but had never bought one for herself, knowing just how expensive some of them could be.

  Emory was thrilled when she saw the look on Ashlyn’s face. For a moment it erased the damage that had been done moments ago.

  Poppy soon took the box of brushes away, knowing that Ashlyn could sit there and play with them forever. “And the last one…” She paused and flipped the box around. “There’s nothing on it,” she whispered to Ashlyn. “I don’t know who it’s from.”

  “Then I guess it’s a surprise,” Ashlyn told her mother. She knew who it was from.

  She quickly glanced about, looking for Tripp. She didn’t see him, and she didn’t want to make finding him a big deal, so instead, like ripping off a bandage, she began opening the box.

  She barely tore one of the sides of wrapping off when she felt the bag of bricks drop in her stomach. This was the kind of gift her parents should be buying her. Emory easily spent a couple hundred on her brushes, but this, this couldn’t be.

  Ashlyn stopped unwrapping it and stared at the image on the side of the box. Panasonic LUMIX G95.

  “Well, what is it,” someone shouted. It was either Kayla or June, but Ashlyn couldn’t tell. The voice seemed foreign with the blood pumping through her ears.

  She wanted to both hug and punch Tripp Scott.

  Chapter 21

  Tripp pressed his back against the wall of the empty hallway. He honestly didn’t know if he wanted to see Ashlyn open his gift or not. More than anything, he was certain that he couldn’t stay in that room and listen to Eric’s garbage for one more second.

  He hadn’t thought things through when Emory invited him, and while he wasn’t sure what to expect, Eric’s presence wasn’t even in the realm of possibilities.

  He showed up. He told her happy birthday. He gave her the gift he planned to buy her before he even knew about her birthday. He had done his part as a friend. Perhaps it was time to bow out gracefully.

  Tripp felt the phone in the pocket of his jeans go off several times. Hesitantly, he reached for it, expecting the worst.

  Ashlyn: Where are you?

  Ashlyn: Are you still here?

  Ashlyn: We need to talk.

  Tripp let his head fall back into the wall. Nothing good ever came from those last four words. As much as he wanted to slip out the front door, he couldn’t do that to Ashlyn on her birthday.

  Tripp: I’m here.

  Ashlyn: My room. Now.

  Tripp wasn’t sure he read that right. It was only three words, but they didn’t make one bit of sense to him. He replied immediately and agreed, feeling a combination of anxiousness and uncertainty.

  The stairway upon entering was roped off with a whimsical sign that said guests should remain downstairs only. Tripp climbed over it and proceeded up. Though he had only been to Ashlyn’s house once before, he knew exactly where he was going.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Ashlyn picked up the small box from the table and looked around the room and through the glass doors leading outside. She didn’t see Eric anywhere. She had two people she desperately needed to talk to, and she preferred to get him out of the way first.

  “Ashlyn, darling,” Aunt Carol interrupted her, just as she was trying to get away from everyone. “How did you like the book? You don’t have it already, do you?”

  “It’s wonderful, Aunt Carol.” She saw her uncle in the distance talking with her father. “No, I don’t have that one. Please give my thanks to Uncle Roger as well.”

  She turned to leave, but Aunt Carol wasn’t having it. “Why don’t you come tell him,” she insisted.

  Ashlyn squeezed the box tightly in annoyance. She felt her phone buzz in the pocket of her dress. It was a text from Tripp obviously, and she couldn’t help but wonder if he was already waiting for her. When she told him to meet her in her room, she didn’t anticipate running in to Aunt Carol. She also didn’t anticipate Eric to have now pulled a disappearing act as well.

  “I just need to run up to my room real quick,” Ashlyn responded, rushing off before Aunt Carol could say another word to her.

  She fumbled over the barrier her mother had put on the staircases and bounded up to her room, knowing that Tripp was already there. Her head was all over the place when she told him to meet her there. She wanted to talk to him away from everyone else, and the only place she could think of was upstairs.

  Tripp felt lightheaded when he walked into Ashlyn’s room. It smelled sweet, clean, and delicate, probably from the lingering of whatever fragrance she had put on earlier in the day.

  What caught his attention most was the late afternoon sun pouring through the open curtains, highlighting an uncovered canvas. He slowly walked to the far side of the room toward the easel. Ashlyn couldn’t get mad at him this time. He wasn’t snooping. She had asked him to come here and she had been the one that left her
work uncovered for anyone to see.

  It was simple and beautiful. It must have held some sort of meaning to Ashlyn because it wasn’t something he could see her painting. He remembered that she had told him she painted from her photographs. There was no way that she took that picture anywhere near Raymere Grove. It was too surreal, like something from a fantasy.

  Ashlyn stood at the doorway, watching Tripp and attempting to catch her breath from bolting up the stairs. She couldn’t be sure if that’s what was causing the rapid and frantic beating in her chest or if it was the person on the other side of the room.

  Tripp anxiously turned around the second he heard Ashlyn’s bedroom door close. “Hey,” was all he could say as she walked across the room toward him.

  She looked beautiful, so beautiful that all he could think of was touching her to make sure she was real. He had never seen her in a dress before, but the orange and teal one she had on made her skin glow and her hair seem that much darker and shinier. She looked like she had stepped out of a fairytale.

  It wasn’t until he saw the box in her hand that his hope faded, and his heart fell to the pit of his stomach.

  Ashlyn sat the box down on her desk and continued toward Tripp. She had never felt so nervous in his presence. “You could have waited outside my room,” she told him, unsure how to start one of the many things she wanted to talk about.

  “Nope. That’s not what you said,” he teased, sensing that a heavy and devastating conversation was about to take place. “Besides, it took you forever. I got bored.”

  “And you thought you’d pry?” The glimmer in her illustrious blue eyes told him that she wasn’t upset.

  Tripp turned back to the unfinished painting. “It’s incredible.”

  Ashlyn stood beside him, already feeling the heat from his arm that was so close to touching hers.

  “Why this,” he asked. “Knowing you, it has to be something more than just a ship.”

  Knowing you. She liked that. As much as she could dismiss it, the truth was, Tripp did know a lot about her.