“Yeah, it was okay. You finish work early?” I ask, grabbing a soda from the refrigerator.
“I’ve got the week off for the funeral, actually.”
“Ah, makes sense,” I mutter. “When are you going?”
“Our flight is at six a.m. Shouldn’t be an issue for you as you’re used to getting up that early, but it’ll be a shock for the rest of us.”
“M-me?” I stutter, not liking where this is going.
“Yeah. You’re coming to Seattle too.”
“I-I can’t. I’ve got cheer. Nationals are the weekend after next. I can’t miss practice.”
“This isn’t up for discussion, Ruby. We’re going as a family to support Ashton. I’ve already informed school that you’ll be missing the rest of the week.”
“But—”
“His mom died, Ruby. I expected more of you.”
My lips part to argue more, but what can I say to that. She’s right. No matter how I might feel about my stepbrother. He’s just lost his mom and he deserves the support of his family.
Letting out a sigh, I spin and head out of the kitchen. “I’m going out.”
“I’ll plate up dinner and you can warm it when you’re back.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
I don’t even bother taking my bags up to my room, instead, I dump them back into my car and drop down into the driver’s seat.
Resting my head back, I close my eyes and blow out a calming breath.
I don’t want to miss practice so close to nationals. I don’t want to go to Seattle, and I certainly don’t want to spend any more time with Ashton than necessary, but it seems I have little choice in any of it.
Pulling my eyes open, I intend on starting my car and getting out of here, but the second I open my eyes, they find his in the window I was standing at the day he arrived.
Jesus, how was that only a few days ago? It feels like he’s been here forever, terrorizing me.
Ripping my eyes from his haunting stare, I put my car in reverse and fly from the house.
I don’t really have a destination in mind. I could go to Harley’s, but I don’t really want to talk, I just want silence. Something that’s been eluding me since he arrived.
In the end, I pull up in the parking lot by Aces and walk down to the beach.
The sun is starting to set and there’s a chill in the air, but I pull an oversized hoodie from the back of my car and wrap it around myself before I find a secluded spot on the dry sand and sit down and pull my knees up to my chest.
I sit there for the longest time enjoying the peace and quiet, lost in my own thoughts just watching the waves crash up on the beach.
“Hey,” a familiar voice says, dragging my eyes from the ocean.
Looking up, I find Stella staring down at me.
“Mind if I join you?”
Part of me wants to say yes, that I came here to be alone, but there’s something about her sad expression that makes me say the opposite.
“Sure, although I should warn you that I’m not much company right now.”
“Me either,” she says, dropping down beside me.
“Want to talk about it?” I offer, thinking that someone else’s drama might just be what I need right now.
“Yes and no. I don’t know,” she sighs. “I think we might be moving again.”
“Again? You’ve only been here like—”
“Two months, I know. I’m so sick of moving around,” she groans, dropping her head into her hands.
“Where to this time?”
“I don’t know, I stormed out the second my dad mentioned it. I just want to stay somewhere and graduate, you know?”
I nod, although, really, I’ve no idea. The farthest I’ve moved is three blocks when Mom and I moved out of the house we shared with Dad and into the house we now live in with Stephen.
“What about you? You want to talk about it?”
“Just family stuff. I’ve got to go to Seattle for a funeral in the morning.”
“But practice...”
“Yeah, exactly. I didn’t really think I’d have to go, but I can’t really refuse. I’m just being selfish and sulking.”
“How long are you going for?”
I shrug, realizing that I probably should have asked that question. “The funeral is Friday so all week I guess, I don’t know.”
“You’ll be fine. You know what you’re doing. You kill the routines every time.”
“I want to be here though.”
“I know, but you’ll be back in time. Don’t sweat it.”
“I’m sure you’re right.”
We sit there a while longer before the cold starts to get the better of me.
“You hungry?”
“Uh, yeah actually.”
“Aces?”
“Burger and fries? Sounds perfect.”
Before I know it, my alarm clock is going off even earlier than usual, but unlike every other day, there is movement in the house as everyone else gets up ready for our flight.
I didn’t see anyone when I got in last night, but I did find that Mom had forwarded me the flight itinerary so at least I know how many days I’m packing for.
“Ruby, are you ready to go?” Mom calls through as I’m zipping up my case.
“Yeah, I’m coming now.”
I wait until the very last minute to emerge from the safety of my bedroom.
Mom and Stephen are waiting for me with tense expressions on their faces, but Ashton is nowhere to be seen. I could have sworn I heard him moving around this morning.
“Where’s Ash?” I ask, looking between the two of them.
“In the car. Are you ready?” Mom asks.
“Y-yeah.”
“Great. Give Stephen your case and get in the car.”
“I-is everything okay?” I ask, feeling uneasy about the tension crackling around both of them.
“Yeah, I’m sure everything will be fine.”
“Okay,” I mutter, turning my back on them and doing as I’m told.
Ashton is in the back of the car when I pull the door open, but he doesn’t so much as flinch when I climb in the other side of him, let alone look my way or greet me. The only thing I get is a lungful of stale, second-hand weed. I guess that answers my question about how he’s feeling about all of this then.
In only a few seconds, Stephen has my case in the trunk and Mom has locked up the house.
The atmosphere in the car is horrendous as Stephen backs out of the drive. I crack my window a little despite how cold it is outside in my need for some fresh air.
The journey to the airport is only about forty-five minutes, but with the tension pressing down on us, it feels like a lifetime later when we finally pull up in the parking lot.
I have no idea that anything is wrong until we get to the front of the check-in line.
“There are going to be long delays on your flight to Tacoma, have you been watching the news?”
“Yes,” Mom and Stephen say simultaneously.
“The news, what’s going on?”
“There’s been a terror threat.”
My eyes almost bug out of my head. “At Tacoma?”
“Yeah.”
“And we’re still going?”
“It’s Leanora’s funeral, Ruby. We have to.”
“It’s not until Friday. Surely there are other flights, other airports?”
“These were the only seats I could get.”
“Jesus,” I mutter to myself. Could this trip actually get any worse?
“How long are they expecting the delays to be?” Mom asks the lady behind the desk.
“Right now, we have no idea. It could be nothing or it could be hours.”
“Well, let’s keep everything crossed that it’s the former.”
I want to protest, but much like when I found out about this trip, I can’t.
We check-in and Ashton—who’s been silent this entire time—and I trail behind our parents as we go throu
gh security and go to find somewhere to eat breakfast.
I keep an eye on the news app on my phone, but nothing seems to change, just that there’s a bomb threat but at no point does the status of our flight change.
“How long are we really going to sit here waiting?” I finally ask almost three hours later and an hour and a half after our flight was scheduled to take off.
“As long as it takes. We have to get to Seattle,” Stephen says.
“I appreciate that, but there has to be another way. Can’t we get a transfer somewhere else or something? This is crazy.”
“Just give it a little while longer, sweetie. I’m sure it’ll all be sorted soon.”
I roll my eyes at Mom’s positivity and order myself another coffee, although I’m not sure any that are on offer are going to be strong enough for what I need right now.
“This is bullshit.” It’s the first thing Ashton has said all morning, aside from ordering food and drinks. I was starting to think he’d taken a vow of silence or something.
“I couldn’t agree more,” I mutter, much to my mom’s horror.
“If you want to sit around here wasting time, then be my guests, but I’m done.”
“Ashton, you can’t go. The funeral,” Stephen says in a panic.
“We’re going to miss it if we keep sitting around here wasting time.”
I refrain from pointing out that it’s still days away, I’m not sure he’d appreciate my input right now.
He pushes to stand before locking eyes with Stephen.
“Car keys,” he demands, holding his hand out.
“Son, what are you—”
“Can I have your car keys?”
“What—”
“I’m going to fucking drive, okay? I’ll get there quicker than you all at this rate.”
“Y-you can’t drive all the way there on your own. That’s crazy,” Mom points out.
“Why? I drove here alone. I’m more than capable.”
“I know, but you shouldn’t have to.”
“Are you going to volunteer to come with me?” Ashton asks, but exactly like I’m sure he was expecting, Mom’s lips slam shut. “No, I didn’t think so.”
“Just sit down, Ash. You’re talking crazy.”
“No, I’m going. I can’t just sit here.”
“You can’t go alone.”
“Fine, I’ll take Ruby.”
“Um... w-what?” I almost spray a mouthful of coffee across the table.
“You’re coming with me.”
“Uh... I really don’t think—”
“I wasn’t asking,” he warns me, his voice low and quiet enough that our parents can’t hear over the noise of the airport. “You’re coming with me.”
I look to Stephen and Mom, but they just stare at Ashton like he’s lost his mind, which of course I agree with.
“Keys,” he demands of Stephen once more and this time, he reluctantly hands them over.
“Great,” he says, grabbing my hand. “Let’s go, enjoy your long wait.”
I just have time to grab my takeout coffee cup as he drags me from my chair and pulls me toward the exit of the airport.
“Ash, what the hell are you doing? This is freaking crazy,” I shriek behind him.
He abruptly stops and turns to me. His eyes are cold and hard like usual, but there’s also something else in them, something that I’ve never seen before.
He sucks in a breath and looks away from me for a beat, but whatever he sees clearly pushes him to say whatever it is he’s thinking because his eyes come back to mine and his expression softens.
“I was a disappointment all her life, I can’t fuck this up and miss my last chance to say goodbye to her.”
12
Ashton
I watch the fight drain from her as the words spill from my lips, and despite being glad I got her on board—kind of—I also regret them instantly.
I don’t want her to understand me, to see the level of pain this is causing me, but I couldn’t fucking sit there staring at our parents’ positive faces. I couldn’t deal with the fact that I put my chances of attending my own mother’s funeral in the hands of some airport staff and some possible terrorists at the other end.
There is no question about me being there on Friday. I’ll make damn sure of it.
Squeezing Dad’s keys in my hand so tightly they bite into my skin, I take Ruby’s hand once again in my other and resume pulling her back out of the airport, assuming that she’s now on board.
Do I want to drive all the way to Seattle with her by my side? No, not really. But if we’re going to make it, then I need someone else to be able to take the wheel for a bit. And as much as she might drive me crazy, she’s the lesser of the evils because there is no way I’m spending that many hours with my dad or Lisa.
At least Ruby isn’t delusional. She knows how I feel about her, and she doesn’t shy away from her own contempt for me.
We don’t have to talk, we don’t have to even look at each other. We just need to co-exist for a few hours without killing each other. I’m sure that’s totally doable.
Thirty minutes later, we’ve both got a fresh coffee and a bag full of snacks and we’re climbing back into Dad’s car, only the front this time.
I look around the dash. Safe to say I’ve never driven anything this fancy before.
“Please tell me you know how to drive a car.”
“Yes,” I hiss through clenched teeth. “Yeah, I even have a license.”
“Somehow that’s not as reassuring as I was hoping for.”
I turn to look at her but immediately wished I hadn’t. Her hair is pulled back in a messy bun with tendrils falling around her clear face. All the makeup has been washed away, leaving her with flawless pale skin and a smattering of freckles over her nose. Her eyes look greener without the distraction of the makeup and if it’s possible, her lips fuller.
“What?” she snaps, dragging me from my trance.
“N-nothing.”
“Ash,” she sighs. “I don’t want to be here, so if you’re just going to be a dick the entire time, tell me now and I’ll find my way home.” Her brow quirks in defiance and it has something igniting inside of me.
I bite down on my bottom lip in the hope of squashing it, or at least not allowing her to see it.
“You’re going nowhere, little one.”
She sits back with a huff and folds her arms over her chest. “As I expected. We doing this shit then?”
“Sure are. Hold on, little one. You’re in for a wild ride.”
She rolls her eyes at me as I start the car but she doesn’t say anything else.
It’s probably a good thing because the thought of getting her in the back seat of this car to shut her up could be the distraction from reality that I need right now.
With the GPS set to my old home, I floor it out of the parking lot before we hit the highway.
She silently sips her coffee beside me as my synced cell works its way through my favorite playlist. One I think she hates, based on the fact she tells me to turn it down every single time it’s on.
I smile to myself at the thought of her standing in my doorway with her hands on her hips.
“Something funny?” she asks, making me realize that she’s more aware of my presence beside her than I gave her credit for.
“Yeah, you.”
“And here I was thinking you couldn’t stand the sight of me.”
“Oh, I can’t.” She flinches at my harsh words and it only makes me smile wider. “It doesn’t mean I can’t laugh at you though.”
“Yeah, I bet you were fucking pissing yourself while I was picking up condoms from our parents’ bedroom floor.”
“Yeah, I never know quite how to dispose of those things...”
“Ugh, you are so gross,” she complains. “I used gloves just in case, but please tell me you hadn’t... you know...”
“Used them to fuck Krissy seven ways from Sunday?”
“Oh my God,” she mutters, dropping her face into her hands. “You know, you two suit each other. She’s a slut and you’re a dog. Match made in heaven.”
“Aw, you think I’m cute.”
“W-what? Where did you get that from?”
“You called me a dog, and there is no one on the planet who doesn’t think dogs are cute, so...” I trail off, gesturing to myself.
“There’s something wrong with you. It was a fucking insult.”
“Meh, she was worth the insult from you.”
“I bet she was, she’s had enough damn practice.”
I can’t help but bark out a laugh at Ruby’s muttered words.
“Jealous, little miss virgin?”
“Of Krissy Motormouth Venter? Absolutely not. I know exactly where she’s been.” She runs her eyes down my body, lingering on my crotch for a few seconds too long.
My body heats at her attention. “You seem a little too intrigued for someone who’s not interested.”
“You’re wearing sweats. It’s like inviting women to stare.”
“Maybe I am. Maybe I planned this whole thing just so we could drive together, and you could stare at my cock.”
“Right. I think I preferred it when you were ignoring me.”
“That can be arranged. You should probably get some sleep anyway, you’re going to have to take over at some point.”
“I never agreed to drive.”
“You never disagreed. If we’re going to get there in time, then we need to drive through the night.”
“I should be at school right now.”
“Nah, little one. I think you’re exactly where you need to be right now.”
“Pull in here,” she says, speaking for the first time in about three hours.
I look up at the store and hit the indicator. Pulling to a stop, I climb out of the car after her and stretch my back.
“Nice of you to wait,” I say, jogging to catch up with where she’s almost at the entrance.
“I didn’t want to.”
Her tone amuses me. It must be the hours in a confined space because I know it should piss me off really.
“Are you really going to follow me?” she snaps, shooting me a death glare as we enter.
“Uh… no. I need to pee.” I point to the bathroom sign.
FURY: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Rosewood High Book 6) Page 9