tw - themes from the last chapter are discussed. pls stay safe <3
march 2015
houston tx
Awsten eventually coaxes Ashley up from the pavement and into his car.
Her eyes are downcast as she sinks into the passenger's seat, and a heavy silence hangs in the air.
"Want some of that water now?" Awsten questions, softly.
"Please," Ashley croaks out, her voice almost completely lost.
He takes the bottle of water that he'd placed in the cup holder before he left, and offers it to her.
"Thank you," she unscrews the cap, limply, and taking a multiple small sips.
It's silent for a long time, with Awsten studying Ashley's every move intently, before he speaks up.
"D'you wanna tell me what happened?" He requests, cautiously.
At first, he doesn't think she'll reply, until she clears her throat.
"I think there's something wrong with me," Ashley mumbles.
"What? Why would anything be wrong with you?" Awsten questions, confused, beginning to frown; he wants to tell her that she's perfect in his eyes, but that feels wrong to say right now, so he doesn't. "What would make you say that?"
"Jake said so," she shrugs.
"Oh, come on, Shelly, you have to know that's not even close to being true," he replies, vying for her eye contact. "Ash, he—"
"I didn't think he was gonna stop," Ashley mutters, taking Awsten by surprised.
"He— You what?" His heart drops as her words catch up to him. "What did he do?"
Ashley gulps, looking down at her hands, her bottom lip still firmly clamped between her teeth, as fresh tears brim in her eyes.
"Ashley, what did he—" Awsten cuts himself off, when he notices blood beginning top bubble from Ashley's lip. "Hey, stop, you're bleeding," he points out, gently, reaching his hand out to brush his thumb along her bottom lip.
A breath catches in Ashley's throat at the contact, which Awsten notices, and slowly backs his hand away, before grabbing a tissue and handing it to her.
She holds it up to her lip, pulling it away after a couple of seconds to examine the blood that had leaked through the sheer cloth, before holding it onto the cut again.
Awsten waits patiently for her to speak again, not wanting to press any further if she doesn't want to talk about it.
"He just unbuttoned my jeans," Ashley says, after a long while. "That's all he got to do. I pushed him off after that," she admits, and Awsten doesn't know how to react. "It's fine."
"That is not fine," he shakes his head. "That's literally so far from fine. Shelly, I'm sorry—"
"Don't apologise," she dismisses. "You don't need to apologise. It wasn't you," Ashley says. "It wasn't you," she repeats, quietly, more as a reminder to herself, trying to refrain from thinking how different things would've been if it was Awsten instead.
