Ashton Enchanted » [cashton] √

0.4

Crystal picked him up for school a few mornings later, and he'd had a pretty cheery outlook for the day even after she told him 'give us a smile', and he'd been stuck grinning like a mad man for the three blocks to Calum's. When she'd told him to move over for Calum, the grin had finally faded from his face, and he was able to lift his head up again. Before that, he'd been sitting awkwardly with his chin tucked against his chest in an attempt to avoid having to explain the painful-looking smile. All in a day's work is what he'd thought and tried to stay on the positive note he'd started the day with.

"Have a good weekend?" Calum asked as he slid into the backseat, placing his bag between his feet on the floor.

Ashton hummed, "Yeah I caught up on most of my assignments, so I was able to just watch Netflix all weekend," he told him simply, hoping a weekend alone watching Netflix didn't come across sad and lonely.

"Ugh, I wish that had been me, but Luke wanted us to go to some dumb jewellery store with him looking for something for Sierra and then on Sunday Mike got the new Call of Duty, so he wanted us to go over and play that. I mean not that it wasn't fun, but it would have been nice to have at least one day where I was just doing nothing you know?" Calum explained, letting the words out in one long stream.

Ashton had nodded along as he spoke, he didn't really get it he was never inundated with people wanting to do things, but he liked to think he could imagine. "Yeah, it's nice to have nothing to do every now and then," he replied simply.

After that Crystal turned the music up, and Michael spun around grinning at Calum. It must have been a song they all knew because he grinned back and the three started singing along. Ashton watched a small smile on his face and noticed that Calum had a pretty nice voice. Michael, on the other hand, was intentionally screaming along poorly to the lyrics and shot Crystal a dirty look when she turned off the car (and by extension the music) as they pulled into the parking lot.

They were early, and Crystal apologised saying she was used to picking up Luke, who lived on the opposite side of the suburb. Ashton didn't mind, even though being around everyone made him a bit anxious, it was nice to spend time outside of the house just socialising.

When they got to their lunch spot Luke was waiting for them, "hey guys," Luke said, looking up from his phone as they approached. As Ashton took a seat next to him, Luke turned to grin at him, "bet you're glad Sierra and I don't need a ride anymore, enjoying not having to walk?"

This wasn't entirely uncommon for them, Luke seemed to be the one who tried the hardest to be his friend and Ashton appreciated it. It made him easier to be around than the others. Michael always seemed to be watching him, waiting for him to mess up and profess his undying love for Crystal. And Calum, well, he made Ashton's stomach flip flop, so he was never a calming presence even if he was lovely to look at, doing so always managed to send a deep flush up Ashton's neck.

Luke, however, was inconsequential, not that Ashton didn't like him and didn't want Luke to like him in return, it was just that Luke didn't think he was trying to date his girlfriend, and Ashton didn't have a crush on him so talking to him was infinitely easier.

So, he laughed easily in response, "yeah you could have started walking earlier," he could almost imagine Michael's ears flicking up in interest, Ashton was not a joker, not with Michael anyway.

Luke laughed back, "I'm so inconsiderate," he rolled his eyes and turned over his shoulder to start saying something to Calum and Ashton noticed that both Michael and Calum had been watching the exchange. Not pointedly or suspiciously just with a level of curiosity, Ashton hadn't expected. Crystal was typing away on her phone unfazed, and so Ashton shifted his focus back to Luke, who in turn diverted his attention from Calum.

They chatted about Sierra, Luke's classes and what ATAR he was hoping for, and Ashton watched out of the corner of his eye as Calum and Michael's apparent shock waned, and they started up a conversation between themselves, and he was able to forget about them and their eyes. After the first bell rang the pair walked all the way to Luke's first class still chatting and when Ashton waved Luke off and headed on his way to his own class a smile was plastered across his face.

There was an ease to the way they talked that Ashton wished he could translate to Calum; it was just that he and Luke had no expectations of one another and that made things infinitely easier.

He met Crystal outside their morning class, Biology, they had finally had to hand in the research papers they'd been putting off. It honestly hadn't ended up being that bad, and the class was going relatively well considering this teacher could tend to be an asshole in the morning.

But then Ashton had put his hand up, and things would have still been fine if his teacher hadn't paused where he had.

"Yes, Ashton?"

"Can I please use the bathroom, sir?"

"Ashton its first period you can't need to go already,"

"Please sir, I'm busting,"

"Wet yourself then" then the fateful millisecond too long pause, "I'm kidding you can go but be quick,"

It was too late; Ashton had done exactly as he'd been told. He'd, fortunately, had the entire classes attention and he blushed a deep shade of red and sprinted out of the classroom. When he got to the bathroom, he hid in one of the shower cubicles and took his pants and underwear off and washed them in the shower as best as he could.

As his clothes hung over the shower wall drying, he sat on the floor, naked butt on the floor and tears streaking down his cheeks.

This was his own fault. He knew not to draw attention to himself; he never raised his hand in class unless it was absolutely necessary. He'd been riding the high of his conversation with Luke before class and the few nice days he'd been having with Crystal of late.

He groaned as he tried to figure out how he was going to get out of the bathroom. There was no way he could tell his mum; she would just apologise over and over again and cry. He started to wring his underwear dry, and once it was only slightly damp, he put them back on. The sickly-sweet smell of the school hand soap had masked the smell of pee, and he now felt he could venture out and use the hand dryer to aid in the drying of his school shorts.

As the continuous hum of the dryer melted into the back of his mind thoughts of running away and never having to face any of his classmates ever again began to be inescapable. As ashamed as he was by the idea that everyone thought he was incapable of holding his bladder, the consuming sadness of knowing that this could happen a dozen more times was a hundred times worse. He had no control over his life not even in the simplest of ways, and that was an incredibly debilitating thought. He'd never have a normal life, and things that were beyond his control would ostracise him for the rest of his life. So, after the first bell rang, he hid in the shower cubicle again until the next bell sounded and then snuck out in his still-damp pants to the train station.