Ashley has been different this week. Well, we’ve both been different. It’s been a role reversal, and it’s kind of understandable.

I was so unsure of myself before.

Before our moment. Before we kissed.

But now I knew what I wanted, and I was closer than ever to understanding who I was.

But Ashley thought she knew who she was before, a player, cool as ice, always level headed. And I know that I’ve made her feel something she didn’t realise she could. I can see it when I catch her stealing glances at me, hear it when she trips over her words, feel it when she shakes as she’s handing me my textbook.

‘You wanna come over to mine tonight and order in a pizza and get a movie or something?’ Ashley speaks so quickly the sentence merges into one long word. I laugh at the change in Ashley’s character since the kiss, she’s shy, she’s scared, she’s nervous. It boosts my confidence, I feel obligated to be the stronger of the pair and look after this new seemingly vulnerable Ashley.

‘Yea’ I nudge Ashley, trying to shake the words out of her. She’s been so quiet around me. ‘Are you ok?’ I ask this knowing she will lie, expecting to receive some blaze generic response.

‘Oh yea, I’m fine’ She doesn’t look at me, and it tickles me that I can read her so well.

The bell rings, interrupting the amusing silence between Ashley and myself, but we both just sit watching the groups of teenagers disperse and walk towards their respective classrooms. Ashley begins to make the first move and puts her hands on the table to push herself up, I glance around quickly to see that the quad is empty and stand up next to her placing my left hand on top of her right hand. She looks down towards our layered hands and then slowly brings her face up towards mine until we are but centimetres apart. As she stares intently into my eyes I feel giddy, my breath catches in my throat and the new brave, strong, confident version of myself vanishes with the breeze. The hand I can feel beneath mine moves, turns over and our fingers interlace tightly.