After all the dreams, and daydreams, Ashley had involving Jess, she decided to put the effort into avoiding her friend. It wasn't easy, as the two lived together and were in some classes together, but Ashley found a way around spending a lot of time with the other girl. That even involved spending a lot of time in public places, where she thought she'd be safer from the thoughts. After all, it was far more difficult to drift off into her own thoughts when there were numerous people around.
That day was no exception, though it was harder to stay focused when there wasn't a lot of background noise to keep her from zoning out. Instead of spending a lot of time at home working on schoolwork, Ashley opted to hang out in the library and work on her school assignments there. It was going well, which was a surprise to Ashley. She only had a short paper to write and then she'd have finished every bit of schoolwork she had to do, but as she was pulling the requirements for the paper out of her bag, she noticed Jess standing nearby with her boyfriend.
When she noticed the other girl, Ashley tried to avoid meeting the other girls gaze. It was easy enough, as the paper she was working on was enough to maintain her interest. It was going fine until Jess laughed, and the sound sent chills up her spine. Letting a sigh out, Ashley left her things at the table, heading to the stairs that led up to a separate section of books.
Most of the books on this level were for majors like Psychology and Sociology, and most of the people majoring in those did most of their research online. Ashley always preferred being able to flip through the pages of a book, finding it was easier for her to focus that way. It was also nicer going through the books as hardly anyone went through these rows, so Ashley had quiet as she looked through the books, her fingers running over the spines of random books, reading the titles as she tried to find one that would help her with her paper. She didn't even hear the shuffling behind her until a hand was brushing hair off her shoulder and a soft pair of lips were pressed to the skin of her shoulder, making her close her eyes briefly, her grip on the book loosening and her hand falling to her side, the book falling to the floor next to her as she leaned into the figure, a small hum slipping out.