Ashley groaned and stretched, turning over in her bed, only to drop to the ground with an audible thud!
Well, she wasn't in the bed... that backfired, a little bit...
She whined under her breath and opened her eyes blearily, only to groan again in exasperation. There was popcorn everywhere... Fuckin' Nate, man. Maybe she should ban him...
Staggering up to her feet, she shuffled out of the living room and over to her room to change, which was really just changing into another shirt.
Once she got there, though, she quickly decided that she didn't feel like going into her closet, and just pulled off her recent one, settling with just going around in her tank top again, today. Yawning and stretching, she walked over to her pets cage and opened the hatch, reaching in to lightly stroke the snoozing rats while she checked their food and water.
Good to go... cool.
Grabbing her phone and turning on the screen, she let her head fall back and huffed. It was almost three in the afternoon... "Shit... I'm too mo-fuckin' tired for this bull. Need... coffee... too lazy to make it myself." She grumbled to herself, stumbling over to her desk and grabbing a sticky note, scribbling in pen, 'clean up and play with the boys for a bit before you leave, please and thank you -dip' before trudging out and walking to the couch, where Nate was leaned back and snoring quietly. She stuck the note to his forehead and grabbed her keys before stepping into her combat boots and lacing them up.
Once she was done, she stood up with a heavy breath and stepped out, locking the door behind her. Breath billowing out, the girl squinted at the bright light before walking over to the first of four floors of steps.
"Today's gonna suck..." She yawned before hopping down of the first set of stairs. "I can feel it."
Ashley took a good, long drink of her pumpkin spice latte, not taking notice of her burning throat. When she was good and somewhat more alert, she put it down in her cup holder and started up Bumblebee, listening to him purr and running her fingers over the wheel before backing up. She put on her 'wake the fuck up' playlist on her MP3 player, which was full of the loudest, heaviest metal she could find.
She only got a few blocks down before taking note of the traffic. Her brows shot up into her hair in mild surprise, until she glanced at the clock. Then, her shoulders drooped and she heaved a sigh. Three-thirty in the afternoon... God, she was becoming a lazy ass.
Veering to the left, she turned to take a different route, heavy metal screaming at her all the way.
And that was how it went. She had a lit cigarette in her mouth and drove for a while (not as fast as she would have liked, but hey, progress was progress, and speeding in this area was a no-no). It was all hunky dory... until she noticed the kid.
Or teen, but really, whatever. He was being tailed by three people, and did not look particularly happy about it, either.
As she was hoping that someone would go and help the kid out while nearing them, she realized that the kid looked familiar. And the reason why he looked familiar was because he was Emma's brother, and suddenly, helping him became less of an entertained thought and more of a reality as her protective instincts kicked in.
She punched the gas, giving a short burst of speed and pulling the car to a stop as she pulled over a bit in front of him while turning off her music.
All but shoving the door open, she hopped out and walked over, shoulders squared as she pulled herself to her full height. "Hey, there you are! I've been lookin' all over for you, Jack!"
The brunette looked a bit confused for a second, before his eyes flashed with realization and he quickly played along. "Yeah, sorry," He walked a little too fast towards her for her assumption that he was uncomfortable to be wrong. "You were a little late, so... sorry."
She met him halfway, boots stomping with force as she threw an arm around his shoulders, suddenly glad she hadn't put on her heelies instead (because as awesome as they are, they just aren't that threatening) as she chewed on her cigarette. Eyebrows drawing together as she did so, she jerked her head towards the other three teens before cracking her neck with a loud pop! "These guys givin' you trouble?"
"No!" The smallest of the trio cut in, visibly sweating as she dropped her arm and walked closer to them. "Of course not!"
The tallest one nodded visibly. "Yeah, we were just going; see you, Jack!" And then, the three teens just took the Hell off, with her glaring at their backs all the while.
Smart kids. Ashley knew she was already intimidating on her own without even trying, with her toned arms, tattoos, and scars... but when she was trying... forget about it.
Once they were gone, the girl harrumphed before looking back at Jack questioningly. "You okay?"
"Yeah..." He heaved a breath and ran a hand through his already messy hair. "Thanks."
Her hands twitched with the urge to fix his hair, but instead she just shoved them in her pockets after waving him off. "Not a problem." She strolled back to the driver's side and hopped in, glancing over, only to raise a brow as she realized he'd already started walking again.
The fuck, man...? Did he think she was gonna leave him, just like that?
Rolling up to his side, matching his speed, she rolled the passenger side's window down and looked over. "Hey!" Jack jumped, head shooting to the side in surprise. Once his eyes met her, she gestured to the passenger seat. "Aren't you getting in...?"
His eyes widened as he stuttered. "I-I... It's okay, you don't have to-"
"I want to." She cut him off curtly. "So... you comin' or not? I'm not gonna abduct you or anything, man, I'm just gonna give you a lift to your place. You in?"
There must've been something in her eyes, because he faltered mid-step, and she eased on the brakes to keep pace. He studied her cautiously for a bit before pulling the door open. "You aren't gonna offer me a free bike or candy, are you...?"
Ashley snorted and laughed, making the teen follow suit and chuckle. "Well... I think I've got a lollipop in dash somewhere. That count...?"
"Nope." He grinned, hopping in and throwing his book bag to the floor. As he put on his seat belt, Ash put her cigarette out on her pants leg, ignoring the teen's audible wince before stuffing it back into her pack.
Once the door was shut and he was safely buckled, she took off at a slower-than-usual pace. She glanced over at the teen occasionally for the longest time, before finally sighing and asking quietly, "Those kids didn't hurt you or anything, did they, kid...?"
He nearly jumped out of his skin. "I-no! They weren't..." He trailed off and shook his head, shooting her an odd look. "Why would you think that...?"
She shrugged. "I call 'em as I see 'em." Her hands rubbed the leather-covered steering wheel as she cleared her throat awkwardly. "You, um... I don't suppose you wanna talk about it, do you...?"
The teen gave wry grin. "There's not really much to talk about, so... nah, I'm good. Thanks, though."
She breathed a sigh of relief, pretending to wipe sweat from her brow. "Whew... Oh, thank God... between you and me, I'm not all that eloquent with words..." She cracked a smile as Jack sniggered, and reached over to grab her cup, taking a sip before moving it towards him. "Want some?"
Jack gave her an odd look, lips twitching up as he glanced at the offered cup. "What is it...?"
"Pumpkin spice latte."
His face screwed up as he staved off a smile. "No offense, but... that sounds terrible."
The auburn-haired girl huffed. "Yeah, well... I'm offended." She snickered and glanced over at him, waving it under his nose until he finally grabbed it from exasperation. "It's good. Just try a sip, would ya...?"
Moving the cup to his lips only to falter, he looked over at her. "Drink it with my lips...?"
She tried not to look condescending while fighting back a smile. "That's usually what people use to drink things, so... yeah, with your lips. Unless you're secretly an alien that has a bendy straw for a tongue and you usually use your tongue to drink stuff; in which case, go ahead and do whatever makes you comfortable. I don't judge, and I'll do everything I can to keep any shady government guys away from you."
He bit back a snort of laughter and shot her an amused look. "Erm, no... I'm not an alien... I was just checking, in case you wanted me to take off the lid. Germs and all... some people don't really like them."
"Well," Ashley said dryly, "Those people are squeamish, germaphobic little ass-hats." She winked as he laughed. "I don't have mouth herpes or anything, and I'm hoping you don't; and we haven't been giving out blow jobs or anything, I think. I haven't- don't really know about you..." She turned away from the road briefly to wiggle her eyebrows at him, only to yelp as a balled-up piece of paper bounced off of her face, purposely veering the car slightly while crying out, "Driving, here!"
The teen deadpanned at her, and she chuckled at his expression.
Now, naturally she would never admit out loud for a number of reasons (for one, it could be considered pedophilia, even if she didn't like him like that, and she didn't really like to speak of her affection for anyone other than Zach), but she was starting to really like the kid. He was a little goofy, and a real smart ass sometimes, but he was sweet when it was appropriate; and she had yet to see him look at her face like she was horribly disfigured or mutated...
So he was pretty okay in her book. Which also meant that she would tease him without any mercy.
"Y'know, you never said haven't been blowing people... I'm all ears with arms wide open if you ever wanna confess anything-"
"Shut up." He cut her off, face turning pink as he covered his face with his hands. "No, I haven't... what's wrong with you?"
She waved him off with a snort. "Oh, lots of things... but this isn't about me, is it?" She lightly nudged him. "Quit stalling and drink the damn latte before I remember that I hate sharing."
Jack gave a laugh as he took a sip. "Whatever you say, crazy lady."
Author's note~
Bear with me guys ʕ´ᴥ`ʔ I've got a million and a half stories I've started and have yet to finish, and now I'm helping my friends write/draw a manga. FFFFFFFFFffffffffffffff-
I need to learn time management D:
Also, I hope my dumb little tale made you smile a bit :)
, Blue
