~~Ashley's POV~~
Panic set in, and I raised my hands actively to try and flap it. A chill air grazed over my palms, providing a shimmer of hope; it meant I wasn't far off from the water's surface.
Hold on a sec.
I was lying against a hard base, and I could stick my hands out. This could only mean…
"Ashley!" I heard from a distance before a hand grabbed mine and pulled me up at once. I gasped for breath the second fresh air washed over my face.
"Ashley…Ashley… are you okay?" I heard incessantly but was still pretty much trying to pull myself together. I felt a hand rub my back to pacify my intense cough. My eyes were still tightly shut while my hands massaged my chest to regulate my hasty breaths.
"Ashley… are you okay?" The voice came through again, its warmth duly gracing my senses this time. "Are you okay?"
With great care, I parted my lids, opening my eyes to the washbasin's view paces away. I swept through, studying the space around me before meeting my mom's worried gaze. She was sitting down beside me on the tub.
"Mom," I breathed out of relief, encircling her waist the nearest to me, and resting my head on her thigh.
"Oh, poor thing." She snuggled, rubbing my head affectionately.
I'd fallen asleep in the bathtub after thinking too much about Makayla. Ever since my return from Amelia's, she was all that ran my thoughts over. Maybe that was why I was a bit skeptical about meeting her at first. I was probably afraid of facing my fears in another. Thanks to how adversely I was affected, I couldn't get anything tangible from her. Ultimately, I helped Carson's course in no way.
Being with Amelia made me finally understand a little bit of the look in people's eyes when they stared at me sometimes. It was difficult not to feel pity for her. And being in her shoes made it almost impossible. The fact that I broke into tears almost immediately was proof already.
"It's okay, my love," she whispered mollifyingly while tenderly rubbing my back.
Although considered bothersome, her constantly breezing in and out of my room proved useful at times; tonight for example. How long I would have stayed in that mess would've been uncertain otherwise.
'Oof, that was a close shave. Falling asleep in the bathtub should be added to the "One thousand ways to die".'
She helped me through the rest of the bath.
*Hair dryer whirring*
I was sitting before my dressing mirror while she dried my hair, standing behind me.
"Another nightmare?" I nodded meekly, looking pretty sullen. 'These nightmares that never end.'
*Beep*
She turned off the dryer and extending her hand over my shoulder from behind, dropped it on the table.
Through the mirror we exchanged silent stares for a while, the look on her face saying something I could not read.
"Is everything okay?" I had to ask because she looked like she was gonna say something important but was dragging the silence on purpose.
She heaved a deep sigh before proceeding: "Your dad is on his way here."
I broke free from her stare with an eye roll, pursing my lips in sarcasm. "What's the use?" I mumbled to her hearing.
"Honey, please give him a chance," she pleaded while rubbing my shoulders.
"What chance, Mom?" I flipped my eyes up to hers at once.
"Look, My love. I know he's not here as much as you want him to be. But he's trying the best he can for you," she tried to convince.
"Fine," I breathed with a tinge of sarcasm. I wasn't ready for this conversation right now. Anything to get her off my back for now.
"We were gonna eat out for dinner. But maybe we'll just have it here instead. I'll bring yours to you."
I did nothing but give her a lifeless nod.
"You'll be fine," she leaned in to whisper into my ears, now crossing her arms around my neck from behind.
"Thank you," I replied meekly with a faint nod, rubbing her arms close.
"See you later, dearest." With that conclusion, she left me alone.
I was lucky enough to have fallen asleep in the bathtub so I saw no need to try to force myself to anymore. Delving into my quiet, I pulled up my drawing book and with my headphones on, shaded my night away.
On getting to the eyes, I needed the blue color but was suddenly struck with a memory from not too long ago. I went over to my dressing mirror and sat before it. Pulling out the first drawer, I took out my phone.
^^"Watch this clip whenever you want to test yourself." Miss Antonia's words resounded in my head.
With a swift inhale, I held the phone up with slight tremors already squirming in my hands. I wasn't qualified to do this just yet; I just felt like giving it a try.
I sought out the clip, and only a button away from playing, I paused and drew in a deep breath to pull myself together. Shutting my eyes tightly, I recited a few things Miss Antonia asked me to.
"It's okay Ashley," I whispered to myself to ease up the bundle of nerves already making castles in my stomach. "You can do this."
*Clicks play*
Only five seconds in, and my head started to spin.
~~~
"Are you sure you're up for this?" Elle asked her husband setting the tray, leaning against the kitchen's door.
"Why are you making it sound like I'm going to war?" he replied without turning to her, preoccupied with setting the cutleries right. "Ah," he muttered on recalling something and walked straight to the fridge.
"Why not serve her breakfast tomorrow morning? She's a bit unstable tonight."
He added the final piece which was a glass of carrot juice before finally swerving to his wife. "All the more reason it has to be now. Wish me luck."
She huffed with a light smile on. "If you say so. After all, you both used to be so close."
Yes, the duo used to be two peas in a pod when Ashley was much younger. Now things had changed, he hadn't lost hope but considered it her way of saying she missed him. Since she was no longer the Ashley they all knew, he deemed this one of the limitations her new personality left her with – the inability to properly express herself.
"Ashley?" he called with a tender knock on the door for the third time but received no response.
Discreetly, he creaked the door open. "Ashley?" sticking his head through it and its jamb, he called out placidly. The lighting was dim and looked void of any presence so his eyes fell on her bed. When he could still see no sign of anyone, he opened the door fully and eventually got in.
At first glance, it appeared vacant in here until he took a closer look and saw a bowing head from over the chair sitting in front of the dressing mirror. "Ashley," he breathed with a warm smile stomping over his features.
Is she asleep? He thought, going on to place the tray neatly on the table. In the process, he caught a glimpse of something that piqued his interest on the drawing paper lying there. He then picked it up with eyes narrowed in a mix of scrutiny and awe as her drawings seemed pretty weird to him.
*Thud! Thud! Thud!*
His attention was immediately seized and tossed to Ashley who just disrupted the serenity with three loud thuds on the table.
"Aaaahhh!!" She yelled, sliding her hands violently across the table and effectively crashing everything on it against the floor.
"Ashley!" he hailed tensely, rushing to her. "Ash…" Just when he touched her shoulders…
"Get away from me, you son of a gun!" she brushed him off aggressively, leaping to her feet.
"Ashley… Ashley, it's me. Calm down, it's me!" Holding out both palms to her, he gestured while trying to call her to order. "It's me," he kept repeating to the hyperventilating figure retracing her steps slowly.
"It's your dad," he whispered again in a bid to assuage her raging nerves.
Only when her back came in contact with the wardrobe behind her did she stop moving away. Shutting her eyes, he watched her chest heave multiple times before she drew in one last deep breath. And then, she opened her eyes slowly.
"Dad?" she called, prompting a deep sigh of relief to exude her dad's lips. Pressing her hand on her bosom, sighs of relief emerged from her as well.