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Ashton Brooks secretly longed for him.
She would always gaze at him across the room during rehearsals, or watch enchantedly as he tuned his electric guitar in the garage. She could never go a day without seeing him. Each and every morning, she would follow the same routine. Wake up, check the garage for him. Take a shower, get changed check the garage again. He normally was sat on the couch with Bobby, Ashton's younger brother, waiting for her to get dressed, but sometimes he could be found practicing various chords near the window. Once she found him, she would make sure to pass by him at any given moment to see if he noticed.
But he never did.
He was always focused on something or someone else, Ashton never knew. She was always curious to find out what occupied his brain so much that he couldn't shift his focus to her for just a second. She liked to think he was just trying to avoid eye contact with her because he was embarrassed, but deep deep down she knew that he would never like her as she did him. She was too... perfect.
That was one thing Ashton hated about herself, she was like every main character in all the books she had read late at night, or all the television shows she watched with the band. Straight hair, blue eyes, smooth clear skin, her grades: immaculate. She never missed a test, and always revised prior to be sure she did everything in her capability to pass. She didn't want to, she would much rather be pretending to write songs, but secretly admiring the boy from across the garage in a daydream. But her parents insisted she had top marks in all her classes. That was one of the agreements of her being in the band. Besides making sure Bobby was never hurt and was safe at all times, grades were the unofficial rule of performing.
Ashton also hated the fact that she was never noticed, she gave in to stereotypes too often, and soon faded into the background after a year of being in the band. But soon enough, she managed to break her shell again and re-embrace her true self.
What was that her true self, you ask?
Well, Ashton decided to fit into the band a lot more, sneaking out and being rebellious to meet up with her friends. Sometimes she even snuck people in through her window. It was the band's drummer who helped her with her wardrobe. She threw out all the pink, lacy, prissy outfits, and replaced them with comfortable, loose dark ones with various band names on to look the part.
It made her feel a lot more confident in herself, enough to perform one of her songs, which the band loved and agreed to keep for when they played on a big stage one day like the Orpheum.
It was only four people who actually talked to Ashton. Bobby told her about the band he was kick starting in the garage, and asked if she would come and watch, to see if they were all in key or not. She happily agreed, knowing her background in musical training.
