Ashton Enchanted » [cashton] √

2.3

He'd steadily managed to get things back to normal when he was around everyone else; alone, however, he tended to slip into increasingly frequent bouts of self-pity. That's why despite having handed in his own essay already, he was sitting with Sierra and Crystal in the library, helping them with theirs. 

Crystal went to speak, "no talking until you have at least 300 words," Ashton interrupted, sipping bored from the popper in his hand. 

She rolled her eyes at him but silently went back to typing on her laptop anyway. They stayed like that for another fifteen minutes or so until she turned to him, grin on her face, "I'm at three-fifty. So what I was going to say was, Michael and I were planning on going ice skating tonight if you guys wanted to come,"

"Oh my god, that sounds so fun! I haven't been ice-skating in forever; I'll text Luke; he and I will totally come," Sierra told them excitedly. 

Crystal then turned her gaze on Ashton; he made a sarcastic apologetic face, "rats! Sierra stole my date; it looks like I'll have to stay home," he said, shrugging. 

"Oh, I can find you a date easy enough," she said, that terrible glint both she and Luke got in their eyes appeared. 

"No!" Ashton said quickly, "I will come as long as you don't make Calum my date; in fact, don't even invite him, then and only then will I come," he said firmly. 

"Jeez, did you and Calum have a falling out?" Sierra laughed uncomfortably. 

Crystal shot Ashton a look and then laughed, "no, Ashton just gets embarrassed when Luke and I meddle, we can be a bit obvious," she said, smiling warmly at Sierra, "anyway better get back to these essays, never be able to skate if we don't make a decent start," she said and turned back to her computer.  

Sierra seemed content in her explanation and went back to her own work as well. 

Ashton pulled his own laptop toward him, deciding that there were worse distractions than starting his flashcard research. 

When they parted ways an hour later, it was under the agreement they'd meet at the rink in a couple of hours, and everyone would make their own way there, Crystal explaining her mum was using the car tonight. 

When he got home, he immediately asked his mum to give him a ride and started trying on clothes, dressing incredibly quickly. Then he sat on the couch for half an hour, dressed with a coat he'd had to fish out of the winter storage laying on the couch beside him. 

"Well, someone's excited," his mother said happily; she had a pile of unfolded linen in her arms that she sat in one of the armchairs, and Ashton reached across, grabbing a towel to fold up. 

"What, I'm not allowed to be excited to see my friends?" he asked, knowing he sounded like a moody teenager. 

She chuckled to herself, "I never said there was anything wrong with it, you know I love you spending time with Crystal, she's such a sweet girl, and a good influence on you gets you out of the house," she told him, as she too joined in the folding up. 

"You go out too much; you don't go out enough," he said, doing a poor imitation of her voice. 

"Oh," she rolled her eyes, "you can pretend to be moody and miserable all you want; I know you love it," 

"Can we just leave?" he whined, standing and abandoning his folded towel on the couch. His mother rolled her eyes again but stood collecting her keys from by the front door and ushering him out to the car. 

She continued teasing him the entire way to the ice rink and pressed a kiss into the side of his head as he darted out the passenger side door. 

He was five or so minutes early, but everyone else was already there. Then he finally awkwardly clambered out onto the rink, his hands tightly on the railing. He only looked up from his keen focus on the handrail when he heard someone skidding to a halt beside him, Luke, effortlessly sliding in to stop half a foot from him.