Ashlan.

I rested my dark green cardigan clad arms against the grocery cart as I pushed it down the isle with a permanent scowl on my face. I had gotten in so much trouble when my mom and grand-mère came home and Oliver and I were still up in my room. By so much trouble, I don’t mean being just grounded. I had lost my phone and computer privileges for two weeks, I’m not allowed anyone over or allowed over anyone’s homes for two weeks, and I was banned from going to the barn for two weeks – the last one hurt the most.

I thought my mother was over reacting, but my grand-mère said she was just being reasonable. She claimed that I had “betrayed her trust” by having a guy over and locked up alone in my room. I thought that was ridiculous, and she knew me better than to do anything that I would regret at all. But everyone’s full of surprises, right?

I was on my last day of suspension and the day couldn’t be going any slower. I thought accompanying my mother to the store would help me feel better and pass time by, but boy was I wrong. The day just seemed to drag on even longer, and grocery shopping wasn’t helping at all, and that was a first.

//

“Where ‘ave yeh been, Ash?!” Suzan exclaimed, slapping my shoulder softly. The first thing I did when I was finally free to have a life again was call Suzan. I would’ve gone to the barn if it wasn’t closed on Sundays.

“I was grounded for having Oliver over.”

“Oh…tha’s stupid,” she said, smiling over at me before ruffling my newly dyed hair. I had decided to go back to my natural color which was more of a strawberry blonde, but more blonde.

“Oh, by the way, yehr ‘air looks nice.”

“Thanks…It’s my natural hair color.”

//

I pushed the protruding button on the top of the camera, hearing it click before a bright and quick flash lit up the dark room. I let out a small giggle as Thomas – complete with the “deer in the headlights” look – let out a tiny, high pitched squeal of surprise.

“Shut up, Farm,” he growled, grabbing his camera out of my hands. I shot him a cheeky smile in return. We were quiet for a few minutes, just enjoying each other’s company. He was sprawled out on the crème carpeted floor of my basement, with me curled up in warm blankets on the brown couch.

I was slowly drifting to sleep until I felt Thomas poke my cheek. I tried swatting his hand away, but that didn’t work out to well, and I just ended up slapping myself. I groaned as he laughed mockingly at me.

“Yeh like Oli…don’ yeh?”

It took me a while to respond. Did I like Oliver? We did kiss, a lot, and he did make me get all warm and fuzzy and nervous at the same time. But I honestly didn’t like his personality. Isn’t that what mattered most? I mean any guy can have a beautiful face with gorgeous eyes and a nice body with a crappy personality, and I’d know right away that I didn’t like them, but with Oliver it was different.

“I…don’t know,” I replied lamely, accepting the weird look that Tom was giving me. Instead of commenting on it though, he just shrugged.

//

Tom and I had eventually migrated to his house later, seeing as there was absolutely nothing to do in my house but sleep, watch television, swim, and/or use the computer, and none of those appealed to us right now. The only complication of going to Tom’s house was that I actually had to take a shower and get ready, because according to Tom, I “‘…smelt bad.”

“When’s the next time yehr goin’ ridin’?” Tom asked, his fingers playing with my curly hair. He wouldn’t stop touching it after I had taken my hood off, claiming that he loved it. I thought that was very queer of him to say but he didn’t seem to mind.

“Tomorrow…Would you like to come?” I asked, hinting secretly that he should take pictures of me riding. He caught on because he quickly nodded. I loved how with different interests, we were able to mix them while we did one activity.

“Wan’ meh teh drive so yehr grand-mère doesn’ ‘ave teh?” he asked. My grand-mère hated taking the 40 minute trip to the barn when she wasn’t going to stay, and I felt bad, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask Thomas or Oliver or Curtis or anyone else to drive me out there.

I quickly nodded, accepting his request.

“Yeh know, I really, really love yehr hair. Why’d yeh eva dye it teh begin with?” His nimble fingers worked their way through the curls and knots in my hair. I shrugged in response. There was no real reason as to why I did color my hair, even though I have always loved my hair color.

My phone vibrated wildly in Tom’s lap. He looked down at it before he pushed the screen (it was a touch phone – the LG Versa to be exact).

“‘S Suzan. She wan’s teh know if yeh wanna go tannin with ‘er tomorrow,” he said the same time as the door open and slammed shut. Foot steps could be heard upstairs. I nodded down at Tom, and in response he began to type back a positive response to Suzan.

“Tom? Are yeh ‘ere?” The familiar sound of Oliver’s voice called from somewhere about the house.

“Yeah. I’m upstairs with Ashlan,” Tom replied, a smirk gracing his features. He began a countdown with his fingers, starting at 8. With each second a finger went down. After all his fingers had gone down Oliver had appeared at the doorway, his breathing slightly heavy.

“‘Ey Ashlan,” he greeted, a crooked smile on his face. I smiled and waved in return.