"Gimme some truth..."

[themiraclekid]

Who? Angela and Ainsley Ashwood
What? Sibling intervention
When? Wednesday after school
Where? Ashwood home

Ainsley had been terribly disappointed when Harry hadn't shown up to school today, or responded to his Facebook friend request. Maybe it was a silly thing to be upset about, but the teenage ego was a fragile thing, and it was hard not to ask himself if he'd done something wrong or somehow made Harry upset. What if he hated him? What if he'd actually decided that he didn't want to go to their school because he didn't like Ainsley and didn't want to be around him? He had spent the whole day going back over the two conversations they'd had and trying to figure out what he'd said or done to so upset Harry that he wouldn't come back to school or want to be friends on Facebook.

The only problem was, he couldn't think of anything, and by the time he got home, he was exhausted just from running his mind around in circles trying to figure it all out. Ange was home -- it was her day off -- and Ainsley walked into her office, not at all his happy go lucky self. She was on her computer, apparently doing something important, but Ainsley's first words were, "Hey, sis... Do you think you could do me a favor and ask Nick where Harry is? He didn't come to school today." He paused, thinking it over for a moment before he added. "And ask him if he hates me. I don't want him to hate me... I'm not even sure why he would, but if he does, I'd like to know."

Comments

[themiraclekid]

Ainsley leaned close to the monitor, grateful to see Harry, alive, but looking tired and like he was feeling pretty damn poorly. "I'm glad he's not dead," he confessed. "And I'm sure his brother can take really good care of him. You always take the best care of me when I'm sick and shit. And I don't really know Nick, but I hear he's a really great guy, so I'm sure he takes epic care of Harry when he's sick, too. He is cute in glasses, though," he had to agree. "Really fucking cute, actually. But he's cute in pretty much everything I've seen him in so far, and it's really kind of not even fair how hot and adorable he is all at the same time."

"I know that I don't know him, but I want to," Ainsley replied. And that much was very true. he did want to know Harry better. He remembered things like his favorite animal (dolphins) already, and that he loved the beach, and he did ballet and ballroom. But those were facts. He wanted to know more than just facts. "I'm chilled," Ainsley lied. "Totally chilled. At least, mostly. I just eventually want to get to know him better. That's all. I thought maybe I'd ask him out, but I won't do it in a text while he's home sick."

[americanskin]

"Cute and not feeling well, so are you going to get off the 'HE HATES ME' train now? He doesn't know you to hate you. Wait until he goes back to school or switches Facebook back on, but that's all you can do for now. I don't think he'll be randomly lying there thinking, wow, I feel like hell, I wish that dude I met two days ago was here holding my hair back for me," Angela said with a small shake of her head. "I've never seen you crush like this before. I can't decide if it's cute or terrifying."

She snorted in amusement. "You need a cold shower, Ains. I know you want way more than just getting to know him better. But he's young, and there's a chance he hasn't dated or slept with anyone or has even developed that much yet, so just hit that brake for now until you know more about him or you'll find yourself coming on strong before you realise you're doing it, and then you could well scare him away if he realises you're way more advanced in this stuff than he is. I know you're all channelling Clint and glad you're not a virgin anymore and like to throw that fact around, but if you do that with Harry, you might well turn him off and even friendship won't interest him."

[themiraclekid]

“Yeah, you’re right,” Ainsley agreed, though he didn’t sound fully convinced. There was really no reason that Harry could justifiably hate Ainsley that he could think of. He hadn’t done or said anything stupid that he could remember that would upset Harry. “If I was sick right now, I’d be wishing he was holding my hair back for me… except the whole thing where puking in front of someone is really freaking embarrassing. Nobody really wants to do that when they haven’t even gotten to the dating part.” He looked at his big sister giving his best attempt at a bitch please look that probably fell flat when he couldn’t stop laughing. “It’s not cute or terrifying. It’s just a thing.”

Still, he arched an eyebrow, not at all amused at that. “I don’t need a cold shower. I’m not about to dry hump him as soon as he gets back to school. And he’s 15. It’s not like that much younger than I am. I’m only 16. I don’t know about his dating history or anything, but if I asked him out, I wouldn’t be expecting for him to just hop into bed with me on the first date. I’m not a total slut, Ange. I like Harry. If I’m going to date someone, it’s gonna be a lot more special than just jumping into bed with someone. He’s sweet, and I do know he’s younger than me and we might not be on the same level with stuff like that. That’s okay with me. I don’t want to just get all up in his face all, ‘I’ve had sex! Have you?!’”

[americanskin]

Ainsley was all over the place right now and it was giving her a bit of a headache. One breath he was wishing Harry would be there if he was sick, and in the next, trying to point out he wasn't head-over already. "You haven't even really gotten to the friend part yet, Ains. Slow down. And I will keep saying that to you even if you're not listening to me. Slow down, or you'll get yourself hurt. He's adjusting to a whole new environment. You're going to be one friend of many he makes, and you're not automatically going to be the one he wants to date, if he dates, just because you decided you like him and have a crush on him."

She just gave him a Look at this, because she knew if it was socially acceptable to hump Harry as soon as he got to school, Ainsley would probably be doing it the way he was talking right now. "Just fifteen. Four weeks ago, he was fourteen," she pointed out. Now that she had spoken to Nick about this, she felt like she had a duty of care to him to make sure her little brother treated his right. Ainsley could be excitable and like a bull at a gate sometimes. If Harry was in any way the opposite to that, it could still feel like Ainsley was coming on too hard and too fast for his liking. Then he could have something to worry about. "Every conversation you have with him, every time you spend more time with him, it's going to flare up the crush even more. Respect what you don't know about him yet, not just what you do."

[themiraclekid]

"Okay," Ainsley said, as he settled into a chair, trying to calm himself a little bit. "I'm trying. I don't want to overwhelm him and freak him out and make him think I'm a weirdo freak. I know I go in like a bull at a gate sometimes. I don't mean to, but the next thing I know, I'm armpit deep in a fuck up, and trying to figure out how I got there. I don't want to do that with Harry. I mean... overwhelming him and freaking him out and shit. Pouring it on too thick. Do you think he wouldn't like me or want to date me?" he asked.

Ainsley gave Angela a Look of his own, because he was almost sure what his sister was thinking. The realization that Harry had only just turned 15 was an important one to make. Ainsley hadn't been 16 for that long, but 14 was really young, and it hadn't been long since Harry had been just that. "I've never crushed like this before," he admitted to his sister. "I mean, I've thought guys were hot before, obviously, but... This is different. I don't really know what to do about it. I want to spend time with him, but I don't want to develop some kind of scary uber crush that makes him not want to be around me because I'm overwhelming him or something."

[americanskin]

"Just don't take liberties, Ains. That's all I'm saying. You might want something, he might not. Or he might, and you might not be it. If you're going to fuck up, fuck up on someone who isn't Nick Matheson's little brother, but he's very protective and if you hurt his brother, you'll know it. If you're pouring it on too thick, you're trying too hard and that's never going to end well. Don't force anything. It would probably be the first way to turn him off. No nice guy wants to be taken advantage of, and I know, I know. You're not trying to take advantage, before you start arguing that point. But you are if you him too quickly into something he's not interested in," Angela insisted. The thing about going in like a bull at a gate was that it would be Ainsley who got hurt too, just as much as Harry if Harry didn't want, or wasn't ready, to act on Ainsley's crush.

She looked at him pointedly again. "How do you know it's different? You've got your heads in the clouds. You don't know him to know anything's different. I highly doubt it, but there is just as much chance he likes to sleep around as there is of him being a virgin. You don't know enough to know either way. You're filling in an awful lot of gaps for him before giving him the natural time to fill them in himself."