As always, many thanks to Bookreader525 for her amazing beta-work! ^^
Ash sings the last tunes, playing the accompanying chords on her guitar. She likes how it sounds. Well, she liked how it sounded last night at her apartment, too, but singing it in the rehearsal room is different. It was a test, and her song passed.
Yes, her song, her very own song!
She spent all night working on it, getting the words right, finding the perfect melody. And she succeeded! She has no idea if it actually is good, but she thinks she did an okay job.
She looks over to the door of her rehearsal room, realizing just now that it has been opened and Mr. Moon stands there, holding a clipboard and a pen and looking at her.
"Wow, you wrote that?" he asks, looking at her with a raised brow, pointing at her with his pen.
Ash can't really place the look on his face. She doesn't even know if that was the good or bad kind of wow.
"Uh, yeah," she says, her eyes avoiding him for a second before she forces them to look back at him. "Do you like it?"
"Are you kidding?" the koala replies, his face suddenly lighting up with a little laugh. "It's fantastic! You gotta sing that today!"
And then he rushes off, probably preparing something for the big show for Nana Noodleman later.
Relief washes over Ash. Her song is good! No, it's fantastic! He even wants her to sing it in front of Nana Noodleman today, so it has to be amazing!
The thought makes Ash's heart beat a little faster with joy and a smile spreads across her face. She's in such a good mood, it doesn't even bother her to put on that stupid dress Mr. Moon picked out for her days ago. She still hates it, but she couldn't care less. She is going to sing her own song today, so really, what does the dress matter?
She simply flies out of her rehearsal room, looking forward to her performance.
She is going to sing her song, her own song! Ha!
Crap! Ash thinks as the massive wave of water grabs her and carries her off.
Her good mood went from annoyance and desperation when she found out the truth of the prize money - as in non-existent prize money - to absolute survival instinct when the water tank broke. Still, she couldn't get away fast enough. None of them did.
Ash tries to reach for something to hold on to, but fails. She's carried into the foyer, the moving mass of water making it harder and harder for her to keep her head over water. And then the water rises, higher and higher until it reaches the ceiling of the foyer, forcing Ash under water in the process.
No, no, no, no, no! Ash thinks. I don't want to die here! And even more importantly, I don't want to die in this stupid dress!
Suddenly, the water moves faster, and Ash can get her head over water again, quickly grabbing at some wooden plank before she's swept out onto the street. Some debris stop her and she's buried under the wooden plank that probably was a desk before and other junk.
She takes a moment to take in a few deep breaths before she forces herself to sit up with a moan, making the wooden plank and the junk fall from her body. She feels a bit dizzy and her hand moves to her temple where a murderous headache is starting to build.
"Is everyone okay?" she hears Mr. Moon ask, but doesn't have the energy to reply. She can't even keep her eyes open.
Suddenly, an arm wraps around her and a hand takes hers, helping her to her feet. She doesn't even know who it is, she only knows it feels nice. And okay. And right.
But she at least has to look at her helper and forces her eyes open, although it leads to a blaze of pain in her head.
The pain is dampened a bit by the concerned and worried brown eyes she looks into. Johnny's eyes. And no matter how concerned and worried he looks at her, there's still so much warmness and kindness in them, it makes Ash feel a bit better.
She wants to thank him, but her energy level is still too low for talking, so she tries to smile at him instead. But even that is impossible because even thinking of smiling leads to another blaze of pain. She only hopes her eyes show how thankful she is.
That's the moment she hears the rumble, she even feels it, and so does Johnny because he turns away from her to look at the theater. Ash turns her eyes to the theater, too, trying to place what that rumble could mean, but somehow her brain is still too slow, because the next thing she knows the theater comes tumbling down.
Johnny falls down on his knees, placing his arm in front of her in some sort of protective gesture and out of instinct, Ash grabs it, grabs it really tightly and holds on to it. A wave of dust hits her and she closes her eyes. It's not as bad as she thought it would be, but that's probably because Johnny took most of the impact.
When the dust clears, he's coughing. Ash opens her eyes to look at him, wants to ask him if he's okay, but the sight before her makes all words leave her. Her jaw drops as she looks at the pile of rubble that had once been the Moon Theater. All strength leaves her, making her hands fall from Johnny's arm which - she realizes just now - she's still been holding on to. Her brain is still too slow processing what has just happened, so she can only watch how Mr. Moon walks into the ruins. She just stands there, looking, and has no idea of what to do next.
She watches Ms. Crawly go after Mr. Moon, she watches how he kneels down and picks up something from the rubble.
And her brain kicks back in.
My guitar! she thinks as she runs over to the pile of rubble as fast as her hurting head allows it. It has to be somewhere! No, no, no, I can't leave it here!
She starts looking around the rubble, moving a little piece here and there, but given the fact that she left her guitar in her rehearsal room, it could be anywhere right now. Maybe it's even broken.
No, Ash doesn't want to think of that. She put it back into its case, so it should be fine, right?
She starts searching a little more frantically. It has to be here somewhere!
If Moon can find some stupid bucket - she saw what it was when she ran past him - she can find her guitar! Period!
She keeps looking and looking, moving farther into the ruins. No, please! Please!
"Ash…," a gentle voice addresses her, and she is so not in the mood for gentle right now!
"Not now, Johnny!" she replies, not even looking up from the rubble.
"Ash," he says again, but she decides not to react and keeps up her search.
"Ash!" he says more loudly, a little more urgent.
Ash lets out a groan, turning to him.
"Johnny, I said-" The rest of the sentence gets stuck in her throat as she realizes that Johnny holds up a guitar case. Her guitar case. She takes in a deep breath and rushes over to him.
Carefully, Johnny hands her the guitar case, and Ash looks at it with wide eyes, then at Johnny who is smiling at her.
"How did you…," she begins, but breaks off.
"Ah, it doesn't matter!" she calls out before she grabs Johnny's arm and wraps her arms around it. She wanted to hug him, but given their size difference she has to make do. Her only other option would have been hugging his legs and that seemed a bit, well, weird.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Ash says over and over again, burying her face in the leather of his jacket.
"It's fine, Ash," Johnny replies, but something in his voice seems a little off, and Ash starts to think that maybe this sort-of-hug makes him feel a bit uncomfortable, so she lets go of him, but not without giving him another smile.
She then places the guitar case on the ground. She needs to check if her guitar is alright. Opening the case, her eyes fall on her regular clothes.
Oh yes, she remembers now. She put them in there. She doesn't even know why. Maybe she wanted her guitar not to feel lonely when she had to go on stage wearing that stupid dress. It's still a mystery to her how she managed to stuff her boots in there, though, but here they are.
Somehow, this makes her feel better. If she can find a place where she can change into her regular clothes, she doesn't have to go home wearing this ridiculous outfit she's wearing right now.
Thinking about her options, she remembers something. Johnny arrived at the theater for rehearsals in a truck a few days ago. Maybe she can get changed in there if she asks nicely. And she doesn't have to strip down completely, anyway. She's wearing her regular panties. At least Moon didn't change them for some colorful, glittering thong. But now that she thinks of it, that would have been inappropriate anyway.
"Hey, can I ask you for a favor?" she asks.
Being so small sometimes has its advantages. Today it is that she can use a truck as a changing booth. Still, Johnny insisted on standing guard at the passenger door. Ash looks up. His back is blocking the sight out of the car from the window, meaning that no one can look inside.
With an amused shake of her head, Ash pulls her shirt into order. There, she's back to normal now.
She's stuffed the awful dress into her guitar case. She could just as well have left it here. It's not like anyone would have realized, but somehow, that doesn't feel right. She has no idea what she is going to do with that dress now, but she can think of that once she's home.
For a moment she thinks of climbing out of the truck through the driver's door, but decides against it. Instead, she raises a hand and knocks on the glass.
Johnny jumps a little, but doesn't turn around.
"Johnny, I'm finished," she tells him.
"Ya sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure," she replies.
"Okay." Johnny steps to the side and opens the door for her in the process.
"Thanks," she says with a smile as she jumps down on the sidewalk.
"You're welcome," Johnny replies.
"D-do ya need a ride?" he asks.
Ash's eyes widen at his offer. First, he helped her up, even tried to block her from the dust, then he found her guitar, then he allowed her to use his truck as a changing booth and now he even offers to drive her home? Isn't that a little too much? Sure, she's realized a long time ago that Johnny is kind and nice, but she doesn't want to take advantage of this.
So she replies, "Thanks for the offer, but I'd prefer to walk. I need to … think a bit, sort things out, you know."
Johnny nods. "Totally understand."
A few moments pass in silence and Ash wonders if she should say anything. She doesn't understand why Johnny doesn't simply climb inside his truck and drives off, but there he is, still looking at her.
"Well, uhm, bye!" she says.
Johnny flinches a little at her words. "Oh yeah, sure, bye!" And with that, he pushes the passenger door closed, walks around the truck and climbs in through the driver's door.
Ash can't help but notice that his motions are a little too quick, a little hectic somehow.
Wait, am I making him nervous? she wonders, but pushes the thought away almost immediately, because that can't be right, can it?
She watches Johnny drive off before she sets into motion herself. Truth be told, she isn't in the mood for thinking, let alone walking home where she'll only find an empty apartment again. But she turned down Johnny's offer so she has to walk now. She doesn't have to like it, but she has to do it.
She's only managed a few steps before the full impact of what has happened hits her.
You could have died today!
It sends a cold shiver down her spine. She tries to comfort herself with the fact that she's still here, alive, breathing, but that doesn't really work. It only leads to a question she doesn't want to think.
What for? The competition was fake, the prize money was fake, all her chances of winning one hundred thousand dollars were fake.
Maybe even Mr. Moon's reaction to her song was fake, although she somehow doubts it. But it's possible that there's only her pride speaking. Well, the little bit of pride she still has left.
She keeps walking, though, and when she walks past the bar where she and Lance auditioned at a week ago, she looks inside. She doesn't know why. Curiosity? Reflex? Foreboding? She couldn't care less, because what she sees inside makes her stop, her eyes wide with surprise. There they are, Lance and Becky, performing on stage. They look so happy, and what's even worse, the animals at the bar seem to like their performance.
Ash feels a pang in her heart. She manages to draw her eyes away and just runs the rest of her way to her apartment. It's a long run and she arrives totally exhausted and panting for air. She can't open the door quickly enough, and once inside, she lets her guitar case fall to the floor. She leans her back against the closed door, trying to catch her breath. The good thing about the running was that she somehow managed to outrun her thoughts. But now they hit her with full force.
She and Lance didn't get that gig at the bar! They didn't get many gigs at all! And he starts performing with Becky and two days later he has a gig there? How is that even possible!?
She feels the tears well up in her eyes. All this time she tried to tell herself that Lance was holding them back, that it was all his fault that they didn't get many gigs and that she had just been too blind to see the truth. Well, she had been blind, that's for sure. But the truth her brain had made up for her, that convenient truth that it was all Lance's fault, that obviously wasn't the truth. No, the truth is that it was her and her alone! She was the one holding them back! It was all her fault!
Rosita's words come back to her, that she is way better off without him.
No, Rosita, you're wrong, Ash thinks. He's way better off without me!
Ash can't hold back the tears any longer, so she buries her face in her hands and cries.