Ash’s POV

It was a couple of days after the party, and Luke and I kept contact. To be honest, I actually really, really liked him. Not only was he super -- and when I say super, I mean super -- hot, but he was also funny, and really kind. And oh my god! He was such a great kisser... but that also sort of made me feel even less experienced. He was a master, while he was literally my second kiss. Luckily, though, he didn’t really seem to notice, or at least he didn’t mind. It didn’t stop him from kissing me.

Mostly, we just send cute and flirty messages to each other, oh and you can’t forget the occasional funny selfie. No nudity, though. I would never be stupid enough to send a nude picture, or even take one for that matter. I just- just all the cute things he said to me, made me feel so happy. I really liked this guy, and that’s why I immediately said yes to him when he asked me out on a date. Some people might say a 17 year old dating a 20 year old was weird, but I really didn’t care, and it didn’t seem like he did either.

But, for now, the time leading up to the date, I was in Alex’s room. He had turned a bit cold towards me again, but also just seemed a bit different in general. The bright smile I had gotten used to, was no longer used that often anymore. He was mostly in a constant daze and just wouldn’t socialize that much anymore. Not even with his best friends! Instead of hanging out with them, like he nearly did every day, he would just drive us home and immediately lock himself up in his room.

Did that stop me from trying to hand out with him, though? No, it definitely did not. It would be the last thing I would even do in a situation like this. Having a brother with bipolar and anxiety disorder, I knew you should never do anything like that ever. It will only make things worse. So, I made sure that Alex knew he had at least one friend, even though he might not have been planning on telling me what was wrong. And I didn’t mind. If he wanted to stay quiet about it, he could, but if he wanted to talk to someone, he had to know I was there for him.

Oh, and, by the way, I thought I’d catch you up with the whole brother in the hospital situation. They eventually got him talking… after he got to call me, though. So, he did take the extra dosage on purpose, but it wasn’t a suicide attempt. His thoughts were going all over the place again, and he was starting to hallucinate. In his panicked state of mind, he thought taking more medication would help, and get rid of all the evil. But that obviously didn’t work. I was just happy he was ok and that he wasn’t actually having suicidal thoughts outside of his attacks.

Now, back to me sitting in Alex’s room. I was just keeping in company while we were both doing homework. It wasn’t a group project or anything, but, like I said before, I didn’t want Alex to be alone. He was my friend, and I wanted him to know that. All we were doing was listening to music while doing completely different homework. But, he didn’t seem happy or pleased, nor annoyed or angry that I was here with him. When I knocked on his door to ask if I could join, he just walked back in, keeping the door open, and went back to his laptop. So, I was just sitting on his bed, trying to do some math problems while he was typing up some essay or something.

The album playing was Folie A Deux by Fall Out Boy, it definitely wasn’t their best album, but it did have to song that got me into them on it. And that song was totally playing right now. I just couldn’t resist moving along with it a bit, but I could contain my terrible singing. Ok, no. I couldn’t. I had to sing along very quietly with the chorus; it was more like a mumble, though.

“Give me a pen, call me Mr. Benzedrine, but don't let the doctor in, I wanna blow off steam and Call me Mr. Benzedrine, but don't let the doctor, don't let the doctor in,” I went along with the music, but stopped when the next verse started. I wasn’t going to make a complete fool of myself. But Alex noticed a noise coming out of me.

“What are you doing?” he laughed, the first thing he actually said to me since I came in.

I shrugged and looked at the sums on the paper, “homework, math homework to be exact.”

“No, the murmuring,” he pointed out.

“Nothing,” I chuckled, hoping he would drop it before I embarrassed myself, “I was probably thinking out loud.”

He smirked and threw a pencil at me, “you liar! You were totally singing along!”

“So what!” I didn’t care about my humiliation, all that mattered was that Alex was smiling again. So, I threw the pencil back at him, “you do it all the time, I’m allowed to do it as well once in awhile!”

“Well, I actually sing loud, so that everybody can hear, “ Alex did a faux hair flip, acting like he was the best thing in the world.

I scoffed, “not everybody can sing as amazingly as you can!”

“Oh, so you’re admitting I have the best voice ever?”

“You sneaky little bitch!” I jumped up from my place and started attacking him. He quickly grabbed my arms before I could try anything, and got an ever greater advantage by standing up as well. I tried getting my arms out of his grip, so I could get him back, but he was quicker. He let go of me, and in a split second started tickling me: my weakness. I couldn’t help but scream out and jump while laughing. You could make me do anything if you started tickling me. I just couldn’t deal with it.

I tried escaping by running towards the bed and falling onto it, but that just made it worse. He was now able to tickle me, and I had literally nowhere I could go to. Alex had a major advantage, and was totally winning this thing. I could not make a come back… unless I tripped him, causing him to fall. Yeah, great idea in my head, not so great when actually done. I pushed Alex’s legs away with my feet, but it made him fall forwards and on top of me. Now we were both laughing at the entire situation… until we looked each other in the eyes. Suddenly everything went silent, and I thought it was so awkward. I leaned up and pecked his nose, giggling while he blushed. But it didn’t make him move, nor did he look away-

My phone beeped with a notification, and I reached for it while Alex rolled off me. It was just Harper sending me an image. But what caught my attention was the time. Shit. I didn’t have enough time!

“I have to get ready!” I exclaimed and shot up straight.

Alex kept lying down, just looking up at me with a confused face, “ready for what?”

“My date with Luke!” I got all my stuff together and rushed to the door, “and I haven’t told your parents that I won’t be here for dinner! Shit! I won’t have enough time to get changed!”

“Oh,” Alex’s mood changed completely again, but he still felt kind enough to give me a compliment, “you look good though, don’t worry.”

“No, you don’t understand,” I looked at him with wide eyes and shook my head, “I really like this guy. It doesn’t work like that!”

He didn’t say anything anymore, and just returned to his laptop. I thought I had offended him, or maybe made him upset by leaving, but I liked Luke so much. I could make it up to Alex later, but now I needed to get dressed nicely, and had to tell Isobel that I wasn’t going to come home until later. So, I rushed into my room, threw my stuff on the bed, ran downstairs to the kitchen where Isobel was starting to make dinner -- there was no point in getting changed and then have her not give me any permission -- and told her my plans. Luckily, she said it was fine, so I sped back to my room and looked through my closet. There had to be something that would look good enough.

Never had I ever rejected so many outfits, and never had I ever thrown so many clothes around my room. It was like a bomb had exploded in here, but cleaning that up was going to have to wait. Right now, I first had to put on the outfit that I finally found: a simple white skater dress with blue stripes, and dark blue wedged sandals. There was no time to lose for my makeup either. I actually wanted it to look good, and not like some toddler put it on. And let me tell you, you either do blue eyeshadow well, or you just don’t do it. Luckily, there was eyeliner and mascara to make it look a lot better.

But, ok. I actually thought I looked pretty good. All I needed now was Alex’s confirmation. So, I ran to his room and span around. He nodded and smiled, but didn’t say anything, before returning to his laptop. Well, that gave me a great confidence boost… not. But I wasn’t going to let him bring me down.

The doorbell rang, so I shooted towards the front door, and opened it. Luke was standing there, a big grin on his face when he saw me. I gave him a quick kiss, laughing at the lipstick I left on him before rubbing it off with my thumb. Just as we were about to go, Isobel joined us to see who was taking me out.

“Isobel,” she shook Luke’s hand, “Alex’s mom.”

“Oh yeah, I met Alex before,” Luke nodded and gave her a warm smile, leaving out the part that he had been here before. Isobel did not need to know that I came home with some random guy one night after being really drunk.

I clarified it a bit, looking in between them, “Luke doesn’t go to our school, he went to Zack’s school and was a Junior when Zack was a freshman, so they don’t know each other.”

“Oh, well,” Isobel gave me a look, probably doubting the age difference and if it would be acceptable, “don’t let me hold you up.”

“I’m sorry for stealing her this evening,” Luke apologized politely, “I hope you don’t mind.”

“Oh no,” she brushed it off, “it’s all good. Now go have fun!”

“Thank you,” I told her, before we said our goodbyes and Luke and I rushed to his car.

I was so excited for this date!

Notes

So, you might have already read this on my other story, but if you haven't, I'll say it again. I'm sorry for not updating in so long! School was very busy the last couple of days. I had planned to write a lot, but that didn't exactly happen. But now I've got 2 weeks of vacation to catch up... I hope... I get distracted pretty easily because internet.

Anyway, how do you guys feel about this chapter? It looks like Alex and Ash had a moment there, but she's now going on a date with Luke! How will that date go? And what is Alex thinking right now? Tell me what you think!