Welcome to Gaia! ::

Meanwhile Ashton's holiday season had been non stop modeling jobs and advertisements, which wasn't all that glorious. He wasn't too well known, not at all, so he hardly got paid scratch. Still, it was more than he had on him in a long time and he was going to treat himself, even if was something cheap. He had enough for a good dinner and maybe a nice outfit for his next set of head shots. The rest would be put into savings for time at a recording studio so he could professionally make himself a demo. (He was getting tired of singing in smokey bars.)

As he crossed the street to the shopping center, he squinted at the music he heard. Fast and furious in places and it was almost something he recognized. Still, Ashton scrunched up his nose in distaste and just tried to avoid whoever was pandering for money on the streets. (He had no room to do this, honestly. He did it often, and sometimes paired with violinists to do pop songs.)

Then he caught sight of a familiar head of blue hair and he paused in mid step, turning on a heel (four inch heel thank you) and stared.

Oh great. Zoe.

He ducked down and just tried not to stand out.

It was all for naught. Trying to sneak around her was probably a bad idea. He heard her near him and her music shifted to a pop song he knew fairly well and his face flushed before he turned on a heel and stared at her. Were you really? Really doing this, Zoe?

A hand came up and he rubbed his face before shaking his head and tried his hardest to just take a deep breath and calm down. And so, he went around her and headed the opposite direction, just trying to get away. His good mood was almost instantly gone, replaced by embarrassment and a slight annoyance. Of all the times he could have picked to relax, it had to be when she was here, trying to get money or something or other.

Ashton's thoughts on Zoe were complicated. He remembered her, but he had been drunk. Was she as bad as he remembered?

Apparently.

This violinist was like a flea, he just couldn't seem to shake her. Slowly he ran a hand through his hair as he side stepped suddenly and then just rounded a table of a cafe, trying to put some distance between them and shove his hands in his pockets. If he didn't talk...?

No, she wouldn't stop. He remembered that much. And so Ashton spun on his heel one more time, only this time his ankle decided to be a b***h and go one direction and meet the ground. Unceremoniously, he fell into an empty chair and ended up going backwards, feet sticking up in the air, managing just barely to not have his head bounce off the cement and he just stayed like that. People were gathering around him and so he closed his eyes and just laid there a bit more.

"Perfect."

"Perfect," came his famous one word reply. Sighing, he just let himself flop to one side, got to his feet, and proceeded to dust himself off. From there, Ashton pulled the chair back up and stared at her long and hard. He could tell she was trying not to laugh, and honestly, that fueled his already boiling rage.

"I don't need your help. Go back and do whatever it was you were doing and leave me alone." His voice was firm and he tested his ankle then, balancing on one foot to roll his ankle around, making sure he didn't snap or sprain it. No? It just had a moment of weakness? That's great. Perfect, even. He walked way to perfectly most of the time. Ashton's face was bright red right now and he looked like he was starting to get teary eyed.

Ashton was panicked because he had embarrassed himself so bad in front of so many people. He could even feel his throat starting to close as the tears threatened to spill. So he sniffled and quickly turned away from her to drag his hand over his eyes.