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Ashley's +1

~Emily's POV~
Attending classes was a lot easier knowing that Chris was taking care of Andy. They seemed to be taking a lot of road trips and sending crazy pictures randomly throughout the day. Andy said he felt like he could finally be himself again without the stress of Olivia and I was trying to leave Andy alone and accept that he probably didn’t want to rush into another relationship.

I couldn't help but feel a little bit left out. I've been able to understand what Andy is probably feeling by listening to Ashley talk about his break up. I’ve been spending a profuse amount of time with Ashley working on our sociology project, the other people in our group project turned out to be pretty awesome. Jake is here on a football scholarship, he’s a bright eyed athletic type that takes ideas and mulls them over until they become masterpieces. I’ve learned that, like Ashley, he’s quietly brilliant and always thinking. Josie is the outgoing one of the group, when we did class presentations and another group had chosen the same topic as us she got them to pick another one. At first I thought Ashley picked her to be part of the group because of her gorgeous hazel eyes, platinum hair and the fact that when she speaks everybody listens. We’ve all learned she’s unstoppable, not afraid to speak her mind, and has taken over the student’s association.

Our group had been experimenting with print media ideas for hours in an empty classroom when Josie decided to leave me alone with Ashley. After talking about sexual revolution and knowing we were both single and stressed out from school there was an unspoken magnetic tension between us. I found myself biting my lip and catching his eye every other minute, twirling my hair around my finger as he bounced his leg against his chair. When he put his notebook in his bag I did the same, ready to free myself as soon as possible before I said or did anything stupid around him.

“Are you going to the annual masquerade ball?” He asked, digging in his backpack as I set my sights on the doorway.

“It’s invite only.” I shook my head. “I don’t have an invite.”

“My band’s playing there.” He flashed a smile. “I could put you on the guest list?”

My heart fluttered. Was he asking me out? “Really?” I sounded way too eager. “That’s awesome!”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “I’ve never been to one before.”

“I’ve always wanted to go to a masquerade.” I sighed and smiled.

“Here.” He handed me a gold envelope with the handwritten words, “Mr. Ashley Purdy (Guest)” scrawled in perfect calligraphy.

Did he just make me his +1 to an invitation only dance?

I opened the envelope. The invite was gold and black, spilling out flecks of green, gold and purple confetti when I opened it. I stared at the words ‘Black Tie Masquerade’ and ‘Mask required’. What did I just get myself into?

“Sweet.” I said stupidly as I clutched the invite to my heart.

“Now our whole group will be there.” He beamed proudly.

“I wonder if we’ll recognize each other.” My mind trailed off to imagining what it would look like. It'll probably be in a giant ballroom with streamers everywhere.

“That shouldn’t be too hard.” He chuckled. “I play bass violin, Josie is running the guest list and Jake is hosting the evening.”

I had a flashback to the day I first noticed Ashley looking around the classroom in Sociology, then to the moment he called me a dreamer. I thought of his speech on revolution, the way he’d changed my outlook on life in one conversation. A feeling came over me suddenly that he’d chosen me above everyone else in the class to be in his group.

His palm against my forearm broke my train of thought. “You feeling okay?” He looked me in the eyes. “You look a little pale.”

I was doing the tilted head widow’s gaze thing. “Thank you.” I said, breathlessly.

He nodded slowly and bit his lip. “See you there.” He glanced at the door and back at me. I was still clutching the invite to my heart and thinking of what that evening would look like. Neither of us had moved. He was looking at me with concern. I was staring blankly at him. “It’ll be fun.” He said, reassuringly. “You could use a night of fun.”

I smiled and laughed lightly. “You can say that again.”

He clutched the muscle of his arm with his other hand. “I’d pick you up but I ride a motorbike and it would wreck your hair.”

I laughed. He smiled. “Made ya laugh.” His smile made me smile more. He started walking toward the doorway, stopped and turned back to glance at me. “You’ll be okay.” He said quietly.

“Thank you.” I looked at the invite again, the tops of my cheekbones rising into view as a smile overtook my face.

“No problem.” He waved as he left the room.

I ran my thumb over the embossed filigree of the invite, dumping the confetti into the envelope and staring at Ashley's name. I pulled my phone out of my bag and noticed it had been twelve hours since Andy last texted. We were barely talking anymore and it felt like we were a million miles apart.

Notes

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