Ashton abruptly froze in his tracks, as it suddenly clicked just where they were going.
Never had the sight of a men's room given him pause before. But then, he'd never kissed a guy before the other night either, had he? Nor tried to follow him after to do… whatever. And now here he was, following after Dylan for reasons he still couldn't quite work out, and —
"Not that one," Dylan called over his shoulder from up the hall, not breaking stride.
Wait, what?
Confused on far too many counts, Ashton jogged to catch up. A long corridor, two lefts, and then Dylan brought them up short in front of an elevator, an awkwardness growing in the space between them as they waited for the doors to open. Even when it arrived, it was as if Ashton wasn't even there as Dylan got on the elevator and pressed the button, not looking over once as they rode up in silence.
Ashton didn't know how he did it. It was as if there were ants on his hands. He had no idea what to do with them; crossing his arms then uncrossing them, sticking them in his pockets, before crossing them again.
What are you evendoinghere, man?
Ashton scowled up at the little line of numbers above the door, at a loss for anything like an answer.
You should ask him about your MassComm assignment.
You should ask him about his hair, or his piercings, or the patches on his jacket, or his classes, or – orsomething.Tell him about the house, or the 4P3$ concert you went to last week. Anything would be better than this silence.
Opening his mouth for a second, Ashton then shut it immediately on the question that'd almost come spilling out.
Notabout kissing. Or…or anything else.
Geez, there wasn't even any elevator music to distract himself with.
Where are we going? I just thought we could, I dunno, talk about the other night. See if he was coming out to Luke's party, ask if he wants a ride or something. Could go hit up the bars and pre-game first.
Maybe then his hands would lose this itchy, twitchy feeling, his throat not feel so dry. Certainly would make Ashton feel less awkward, having this talk with a bit of a buzz going. Notdrunk;he didn't getdrunk. Just, y'know — something to take the edge off.
It was fine.
Gnawing on the inside of his cheek, Ashton willed the elevator to go faster.
What if he's planning something? Do Iwantthat? Where would we even —
The doors opened before Ashton finished chewing on the questions whirling round and round in his head.
Leading them immediately to the right, Dylan headed down another slightly shorter hallway before ducking into amen's room that, to Ashton, looked no different from the one downstairs. It came complete with that same blend of staleness and yesterday's bleach that was baked into all the others on campus, making Ashton wrinkle his nose at the sullenly clinical scent.
Dylan continued to ignore him, their silencestretching out uncomfortably long while he scrubbed at the ink covering his fingers.
"Why are we all the way up here?" Ashton grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned against the cold, grey tile.
"Well,Iam up here to get this stupid mess off my hand," Dylan growled, reaching for more soap from the dispenser on the wall. "And I figured if you're going to follow me around like a lost puppy, then maybe you'd prefer the bathroom that’s always empty this time of night, instead of the lab's downstairs that's busier than Zócalo on the Day of the Dead."
Breath stilling in his lungs, Ashton shifted back as Dylan leaned perilously close; shouldering his way into Ashton's personal space far more than was strictly necessary.
Is…is he…? Is this it? Is this where we'll —
Ashton flinched as Dylan yanked the paper towels free of the silver box mounted on the wall just beside Ashton's shoulder. His face flamed, fanned even brighter at the self-satisfied smirk curling Dylan's lips.
Damn it.
No, Dylan hadn't missed Ashton's reaction one bit.
"The question is — " the damned devil purred. "Why areyouhere?"
Ashton was quiet for a long while. All night, he'd been trying and failing to come up with an acceptable answer to that question himself. All night, and all week, and…
