The Darings

Ash Hughes believed in two things: she was entirely powerless without her St. Christopher charm bracelet and that there was no better way to unwind after a long week than a cuppa and a night in.

So when there came a knocking at her door at half-nine that night, Ash was startled for three reasons. One, no one had knocked on her door since the first week of school. Two, she didn’t really want to deal with anyone as she’d just finished her traditional green tea. And three, she had no pants on.

“Just a minute!” she called, scrambling out of bed to find something to cover her arse. She jumped into a pair of jeans, fiddling with the button as she went to the door to throw it open.

Only to see Finn Watz, standing rather casually in front of her, tapping absently at her phone.

The proximity of the girl caught Ash off guard – she’d never seen Finn up close before. She somehow managed to look beautiful even under the florescent lights of the dorm hallway, something Ash felt she’d never really been able to master. Finn was beautiful in an unconventional way; her sea green eyes were piercing, sharp cheekbones to match, but full lips that kept her face kind.

“Hey,” Ash greeted reproachfully, raising an eyebrow at the girl texting away in front of her. Finn’s eyes darted upward and her eyebrows raised to match Ash’s, almost as if she was surprised to see her hallmate standing in front of her.

It came to Ash that she probably was surprised to see her hallmate standing in front of her.

“What are you doing tonight?” Finn asked in that commanding tone she always seemed to speak in – when she chose to speak, that is. From what Ash had noticed in passing, Finn was more of a listener.

“Uh,” Ash mumbled, floundering for words. “This.”

She gestured back to the room behind her, where a Skins re-run was playing on the TV. Finn pursed her lips a little in what seemed to be a gesture of pity and disapproval.

“I was wondering…” Finn began, leaning against the door and crossing her lean arms across her chest. “I think you should come out with me tonight. I’m keen to get to know you a bit better, if you’d like.”

Ash couldn’t help but stare blankly at the red head while the thoughts ran wild in her head. Finn wanted to go out with her? Finn was keen to get to know her? Finn took time out of her perfect life to reach out to her?

“To that party in Cartwright Gardens?” Ash asked, and Finn nodded, seeming almost surprised that Ash knew exactly what she was talking about. “Aren’t you going with the others?”

Finn pursed her lips again. “I asked you to go, didn’t I?”

Ash undulated her tongue against her teeth, not entirely sure what to say. She’d yet to go to a party in the city, fearful she’d manage to lose her way on the walk home, which she would surely make alone. And she was practically relaxed enough to go to bed, despite it not even being ten yet. Not to mention even just walking next to a goddess like Finn made her want to shrivel into a raisin on the floor beneath them.

“Well,” Finn sighed after a moment of silence. “I suppose I’ll go alone then.”

She turned to leave and as she did so, Ash felt a tug on her heart, as though she were tied to Finn by the spine. And before she knew the words were coming out of her mouth, there they were dangling in the air.

“I’ll go!”

Finn turned with a coy smile playing on her lips, a slight shrug of her shoulder sent in Ash’s direction. “Only if you want. I’ll be back in fifteen and we can leave from there.”

And suddenly, Ash was in a whirlwind around her room, desperately trying to pull herself together in such a short period of time. She threw on an outfit and decided she hated it, then tried on another only to decide the same thing. Finally she decided on a pair of jeans and a black tented vest top, a bright necklace slung around her neck. In the final moments, she ran a brush through her hair and slicked a coat of gloss over her lips. Before she knew it, Finn was back knocking at her door.

Except this time, when Ash answered, she wasn’t alone.

Finn, standing in a gorgeous dress, was with Harry and Niall, the boys from Ash’s biology lecture. Her heart stopped in her chest. Harry. With that gorgeous head of brown curls, bright green eyes, drawling smirk on his lips at the sight of her shocked face.

“You ready to go?” Finn asked, snapping the spell that befell Ash. Ash nodded, grabbing her satchel from the back of the door handle and slipping the door closed behind her. She smiled weakly to the boys beside Finn, trying her best to be as charming as possible.

“Niall, Harry, this is Ash,” Finn announced, gesturing between the three of them. Niall tipped his snapback and Harry simply kept his smirk. They began to walk down the hallway toward the elevator, Finn leading the way. She couldn’t help herself from letting the words tumble out of her mouth as they came to her.

“I sit behind you lads in Biology, Professor Bains’s section,” she blurted, causing both Harry and Niall to glance over their shoulders at her.

“Do you really?” Niall questioned in that lilt Ash had grown familiar with while overhearing their conversations. Ash nodded solemnly, instantly regretting that she’d even said anything. Harry didn’t seem to be reacting favorably, or really even at all. He simply watched Ash as she replied.

“Yes,” she mumbled, feeling out of place already. “I don’t know anyone in that class so I’m not very vocal or anything… you both just talk pretty loudly.”

Niall looked at Harry with surprised eyes before they both broke out into laughter. “And all this time I thought we were being discreet, Haz,” Niall sighed sarcastically as they marched out the front door of the building and into the streets.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Harry responded in that delicious, raspy voice. “Discreet is my middle name.”

And then he looked over his shoulder and winked right at Ash. That shut her right up for a while, the nerves shivering up her spine. Instead, she listened while the boys bantered between each other, having apparently pre-gamed and already looking a little drunk. Every once and a while, Finn spoke, and it was usually directed towards Niall. Ash could gather from the way they talked that it was the two of them that were the friends in the group - Harry and Ash were the plus-ones.

“This walk is brutal,” Niall complained after ten minutes. “I don’t know how anyone can live all the way out in Cartwright Gardens.”

Finn turned her head and Ash was able to catch a glimpse of the redhead rolling her eyes before doing something unexpected. She reached into her purse and retrieved a silver flask, unscrewing the cap and handing it to Niall.

“Don’t be such a daffodil,” she stated with a smile. Niall shot her a teasingly dirty look before swiping the flask from her hand and taking a long pull. Then, he turned around to Ash and raised it in her direction, as if to ask, ‘you want some?’

Ash, not wanting to be behind or come off as prudish, took the flask from his hand and took an even longer swig that Niall – not to be outdone. However, she soon found that Finn was drinking pure Scotch, and that the liquid trailing down her throat tasted something akin to a raging fire. She resisted this urge to gag, her eyes watering a little, and wiped her mouth before handing the flask back to Harry.

Harry. He looked inhumanely good, as always, in a loose white button down folded at the sleeves with a pair of navy shorts, his hair mussed in that trademark way. Ash couldn’t help but watch as he walked with starry eyes, his gait having a certain ease about it. His laughter was intoxicating. She felt drunk even just being near him. And holy shit, she was somehow heading to a party with Harry, the boy she’d been admiring from afar. This was really happening.

Not to mention the girl she’d been admiring from afar had reached out to her. Finn Watz, the coolest girl on the floor in Ash’s opinion, wanted to get to know her better. The whole night was becoming surreal.

When they reached the third floor of Cartwright Gardens, Ash realized this wasn’t an average apartment party. Every door on the floor had some straight of bass pumping out of it, each door decorated to suit a different country, with a sign on the door stating which country they were meant to be if it proved to be ambiguous. People were running about the halls with what appeared to be a different drink in every hand that passed.

“What is this?” Ash asked before she could stop herself, again. It seemed that word vomit was the theme of the evening.

“Shots around the world!” Niall exclaimed, not missing a beat before high fiving someone he knew passing by and scoping out the rooms around them. “Come on, there’s a Compton room over there. I love a good gin and juice.”

Harry was already schmoozing with a group of people he knew standing outside a room decorated like a tropical bar, girls leaving with blue hued drinks. Ash was reluctant to leave him but as they walked down the hall to follow Niall, he insisted he would catch up.

Standing next to Finn, Ash didn’t exactly know what to say. What does one say to a girl like Finn, anyway? She moved with a steady grace, greeting people as she went. It seemed like Ash’s company that night knew just about everyone. And in contrast, she felt like quite the small fish.

“Thanks for inviting me out with you tonight,” she said finally as they set to enter the room blasting Tupac from within. Finn turned to her with that same unnerving smile, one that caught Ash off guard every time she saw it.

“Are you enjoying yourself?” she asked coyly, as if to invoke a specific response.

Ash nodded. “Yeah. It’s nice to get out and have some fun.”

Finn looked a bit proud of herself then, placing her hand on the door handle so they could follow after Niall. “Well, I’m sure it’s about to get even more fun.”

And then the music was too loud for Ash to ask Finn what she meant.