Painting Flowers // Ashton Irwin [au]

Five

Ashton’s POV

Shavings from the eraser pool onto my lap as I brush away the excess rubber off the white paper with the back of my hand. My eyebrows furrow together as I stare at the mediocre image before me and I huff in frustration.

“Ashton,” Ms. Waters calls, and hovers over my shoulder, examining my work. “Your head looks like a potato,” she says, referring to my poor attempt at drawing a human head.

“Thanks, Ms. Waters,” I mumble and tightly press my lips together, tuning out the hushed voices of the other students.

I already know it looks like shit; I don’t need her to point it out during class. I have no trouble drawing Emilia, but when it comes to practicing the shape of others’ heads, I literally suck at it.

“That wasn’t a compliment,” she informs.

“I know.”

“If you know then you should have taken that as a cue to erase that lopsided Mr. Potato Head and draw a better one.”

I roll my eyes, thankful that she can only see the back of my head. “Of course, whatever was I thinking?” I exaggerate sarcastically.

“Your guess is as good as mine, Irwin,” she says and walks away, not catching onto my sarcasm. I guess some people just can’t pick up on it.

Even though it’s the end of the week and in just a few short minutes I can go home and start my much needed weekend, Ms. Waters doesn’t fail to give me her constructive criticism and embarrass me in front of my classmates. She’s been doing this every class period and I don’t know if she’s having fun picking on me for every little mistake I make or if I really do suck at drawing. Whatever the reason, it’s annoying as hell. If this is what I had to deal with for the second week of school, I can only imagine what the rest of the semester will be like.

After Ms. Waters dismiss us, I pack all my supplies in my backpack before weaving my way through the large crowd of students trying to get out just as fast as I am. I speed walk to my car and thankfully by the time I leave the parking lot, I bypass all the Friday afternoon traffic and make it home in record time. 

Even though Emilia won’t come over until later, I’m getting all fidgety because I just want to see her. Starting from the second day of school to now, I’ve barely seen her at all. I haven’t been able to go see her early in the mornings like I did the first day because I keep sleeping in by accident and by the time I get to the campus, I barely make it on time for my first class. And when I try to see her afterwards, Felix always informs me that she already left to go to her class.

I can’t even have five minutes with her anymore and even though distance is good for us (especially since we need to stop being so dependent on one another), too much isn’t.

At least on Tuesdays and Thursdays I get a little bit of time with her—and by “a little” I mean a quick conversation that consists of: “hello,” “gotta go,” and “I love you,” before we have to separate once again. We still call and text each other, but I miss seeing her here at my house right after school or when we go out or stay in for lunch.

It has been tough on the both of us, but we’re making it work as best as we can. For example, weekends are strictly reserved for time with Emilia and friends so that we’ll at least have a good 48 plus hours together and get away from the pressures of college. It’s what we need or else we’ll all go nuts.

I drop all my stuff on the kitchen bar and kick my shoes off after sitting on the couch, accidentally hitting Calum’s leg in the process. He and Luke are the only ones home at the moment since Mikey is still at school for another hour or less.