Paint You Wings // Ashton Irwin [au]

Fifteen

Emilia's POV

Hell week.

This is the only way I can describe the entirety of this week so far. Julia has been badgering me with different dresses that she found online and how she wishes we could afford the three-hundred dollar gown she stumbled upon that in my opinion, looked completely hideous. It was never-ending. When I thought I was safe away from the apartment and in my classes, she would still send picture messages of dresses to me. Most of which I deleted immediately because they were either not my style or out of my price range.

Even though Julia has been annoying the living shit out of me, she was the least of my problems this week. When I left Ashton and the boys on Monday, I found out that I have exams in both my government and trigonometry class on Friday. I know I will do well in government, but with trig...let's just say I'm mathematically challenged. I know I will have to study twice as hard for math. In addition to that, on Tuesday, Michael and I found out that we had a history exam on Thursday. We decided to study together since I am acing the class and he is on the border of failing even though it was still early in the semester.

All the extra studying that we had to do made it difficult for me to hang out with Ashton. He also has to study for a few exams this week so we really didn't see each other after Monday other than the short period we have together in communications. We still keep in contact throughout the week with text messages full of complaints about not wanting to study as well as desperate calls for help with remembering the ungodly amount of information we were cramming into our brains.

The weight that has been piled on my shoulders slowly lifted after finishing the history exam yesterday. Michael and I were both confident that we passed with flying colors. Government was just as easy. However, the same can't be said with my trig exam. When I walked into the classroom, I forgot every trig function that I needed to remember for the test.

Which quotient identity was I supposed to use to find tangent 'x'? Was it sine over cosine? Cosine over sine? Hell if I know.

Everything had been wiped from my mind. I even had to check my calculator three times to make sure that two times two was four. It would be a miracle if I passed that exam.

Earlier in the week, Ashton and I agreed to go dress shopping with Julia after I finished the last of my exams. His dad cancelled class today since he had to get things ready for the party tomorrow evening, so that gave us a lot more time to look for a dress.

Ashton picks me up after I finish failing my trig exam and we pick up Julia, who was waiting at our apartment before heading to the mall. The drive there consists of us explaining how well—or awful—we did on our exams. I don't even want to talk about trigonometry, but Ashton pulls it out of me. He tells me that I should ask Luke for help next time since he is a genius when it comes to math. I can't afford to fail and repeat a class so I agree on the spot.

"Do you mind if the guys meet us there?" Ashton asks, quickly glancing over at me before returning his eyes to the road. "I was able to convince them to meet us there so that I wouldn't die of boredom when you try on dresses."

"That's fine," I say. I don't blame him for wanting to drag his friends along with him. I'm not looking forward to trying on dresses just as much as he isn't looking forward to watching me try them on.

Once arriving to the mall, Ashton parks in the parking garage and we head to the only store where I know I can potentially afford a dress at. For the sake of saving money, I insist we find something at the large Macy's department store instead of some boutique that Julia had initially wanted us to check out. Julia pouts at my request but gets over it quickly after spotting the gowns. Ashton follows quietly behind us, laughing to himself because of Julia's excited behavior.