by Asia Marquis
“Jesus,” Troy said.
“I know. I'm fucked up. I'm awful and disgusting and this is why I didn't want to get close to you. Now that you know, you can save yourself the trouble of putting up with me.” She covered her face with her hands.
“What the hell are you talking about? Ashanti, the only fucked up person is that Elliot kid. He was abusing you, and he's obviously seriously narcissistic or something. Nothing you did was weird or wrong, okay?”
She had started crying. It was uncomfortable, to watch her be so miserable. He wanted to scoop her up, be her knight in shining armor. “But it gets worse! I thought he was gone, but now he wants me to pay him! A lot of money, and I don't know how I'm going to get it to him! I can't ask you for help when you have every right to hate me.”
“Ashanti… Jesus. He sent me something, trying to toy with me, too. A box of those nudes, but only the top part. He didn't show me anything scandalous. Don't you see? This is not something I could hate you for. You've worked yourself into a hysteria, so you're not seeing clearly.”
“I am seeing clearly! I'm damaged goods! Maybe you got my virginity, but I was hardly innocent when you took me!”
He grabbed her then, pulled her in for a harsh kiss before pulling back and staring into her sad, moist eyes. It was impossible to understand her, but he loved her. He loved her so much. “I don't give a damn about virginity. I don't give one fuck about innocence. I care about you, Ashanti. And I'm going to help you take care of this piece of shit, without draining your bank account.”
“He told me that if I asked for help, everyone would find out how much of a whore I am,” she choked, gripping his shirt and sobbing into his shirt. She was shaking against him.
“You're not a goddamn whore. Stop.” His voice was commanding, but gentle. Slowly, her cries turned to sniffles. He held her until her body was still.
She was quiet for a long time. “I don't deserve your help,” she finally said, quietly.
“Of course you do. You're my wife. What kind of husband lets his wife get into so much trouble without helping her?”
She laughed. “I'm such a shit wife.”
“Nah. Not anymore than I'm a shit husband.”
She swayed as she pulled away from him. “I don't feel so great, again. Hungry and sick at once. Can I sit down?”
“Yes.” He looked at the box in his hands. “We'll burn this later,” he said as he set it down, then helped Ashanti to the couch. “I'll bring your soup out here, okay? Then I'm going to call my grandma and see what she says about how you feel.”
“Why would you call her?” Ashanti asked. God, the way she looked at him made him feel… whole. Normal.
“She used to be a nurse. She has all kinds of home remedies.” He took the soup to Ashanti, then stepped into the hallway to make the call without disturbing her TV show. “Hello, Grandma?”
“Oh, Troy! It's good to hear from you. Listen, my computer is acting funny, do you think you could come by later and try to fix it?”
Troy chuckled. “I'm not great with computers, but I know Ashanti is. But she's actually why I'm calling.”
“Oh? Is everything alright at home?” Grandma Ina sounded genuinely worried. “She seems so reluctant about you. I'd hate to think that we made the two of you miserable.”
Now is not the time to argue with her about that, he reasoned. “She's sick, actually. I was wondering if you could give me a remedy.”
“Sure, tell me the symptoms,” she said. Solving medical puzzles always made her excited. It was one of her favorite things to do.
“Well, she was complaining that she was tasting metal at the back of her mouth, and she's been throwing up. I think it's the flu, but I wanted your opinion.”
There was a quiet pause. “I see. Could you ask Ashanti if she's had a headache? Strange fatigue?”
“Ashanti, Grandma wants to know if you've had a headache or fatigue,” he called out to her.
She thought for a moment, then nodded. “Yes on the headache, for about a week, but the only fatigue started today.”
“Yes to both, Grandma.”
“I knew it. It looks like you need to head to the drugstore and pick up a pregnancy test.”
Troy laughed out loud. “You're joking, right?” He looked to Ashanti, who quirked her head to listen in. She's joking, right?!
“Well, when did you two last have sex?”
On our wedding night, but I'm not telling her that. That was like 2 weeks ago. “What? We haven't had sex, Grandma!” Ashanti's eyebrows perked up. She stopped slurping on her soup as she listened in on the conversation.
“Hmm,” the old woman considered. “If you say so. Well, if it's the flu, all she really needs is soup and rest. Let me know if she gets worse, okay?”
“Alright,” Troy agreed. “Thanks.” He hung up, and felt like he was about to break into pieces until he looked to Ashanti.
She was watching him curiously. “What was that all about?”
“She was just being weird. Anyway, rest and soup for you. When do we have to go meet that asshole and beat his ass?”
She grinned. “2 AM!”
“Perfect. That gives us enough time to watch some TV together.” He collapsed onto the couch, not sure if he should bring up that she might be pregnant.
He could not believe that she might be pregnant.
Chapter 13
Ashanti
The night with Troy was nice. Mostly because he was kind to her, and let her be emotional when she needed to. Telling him the truth had been uncomfortable, and she fully expected him to check out and let her deal with her own problems.
He had surprised her. She really misjudged him after that first day they met. Sure, he had been rude and lewd, but ever since then he had been nothing less than a gentleman.
“Do you think we should dress in all black?” He asked.
She laughed and shrugged. If he knew about her past, she was less afraid of the future. If her grandma found out about the photos, if she was kicked out of the house, if she lost everything, at least she would have him. “I don't know. That seems a bit silly. We aren't breaking in or anything.”
A sudden and unwanted sadness overwhelmed her, then. It wasn't right to put her future on his shoulders. She had to stand on her own two feet, too. “Why are you even bothering to help me?” She asked, though she hadn't intended to. The words just came out.
They were true to her thoughts, though; nothing inside of her understood his motivations. Why he thought she was worth saving from a mess of her own creation.
“Because I love you,” he answered. When he said it, itshocked her, though deep down she already knew. “I love you.” The words were like music to her ears.
She stepped closer to him, unsure of herself. “Really?” She twisted a lock of her hair.
“Yes, really. I thought that would by obvious by now. I've loved you since that first disaster of a date night. I didn't know it then, of course.” He laughed, running a hand through his thick hair. “But I did.”
“So it doesn't bother you that I was creepy in high school?”
“Not particularly. Everyone had their issues. I smoked pot when I was a teenager.”
She mocked a gasp, and then giggled. “I've never done drugs.”
“I figured. Maybe we'll try it one day.” He got serious for a second, out of the blue. “But maybe not for a while.”
She realized she hadn't told him that she loved him. She was about to, when he pulled her into his arms and pressed his hungry lips to hers, devouring the last reservations she had about him in one passionate kiss. She licked at his lips, which he opened to deepen their kiss. His hands held her ass.
Letting go of her, he left off a deep growl and adjusted himself. “We don't have time to get too into that,” he said with a quick shake of his head. Ashanti just giggled in response. She loved the way he touched her.
He stopped, and looked like he wanted to say something. “What is it?” She asked,
anxiety threatening to creep in. “You keep getting serious. It's scaring me.”
Softening his demeanor, he turned to her. “I'm sorry. I don't mean to scare you. Can I ask you a weird question, though?”
“Sure,” she said, leaning back against her bed.
“When's your next period?”
She thought for a second, then checked her phone. “I track them on this app, Ovuview. It lets me know when I need to stock up on chocolate.” She giggled as the app loaded. “It looks like I'm supposed to start today or tomorrow. Why do you ask?”
Troy cringed, then ran his fingers through his hair. “Do you think I could get you to take a pregnancy test before we go? I… I need to know before I put you in any danger.”
“Oh, no. You don't think…?” That anxiety ebbed into her stomach, making it harder to breathe.
“Grandma does,” he nodded, refusing to meet her eyes. Obviously, he was close to panicking.
In all honesty, Ashanti should have been freaking out, too. She should have been pulling out her hair, screaming, terrified of the possibility of being pregnant.
Instead, she just knew. She knew that she was with child. It was a strange sort of premonition, a fluttering in her stomach now and then. Of course, it couldn't possibly be the child kicking, as it would have to be tiny if it existed at all. Just her body reacting to its presence.
“I'll take a test. Do we have time to go pick some up?” She was shaking, but less from anxiety and more from excitement. She was excited to know the truth of her situation.
“I went out already, while you were upstairs puking up all that soup. I went to the corner store. I, uh, did some research and the internet says the digital ones are pretty sensitive, so I got a three pack of those.”
“You were googling, huh?” She asked, smiling in spite of herself.
“Yeah,” he laughed, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.
“So you want me to test now?” She asked.
“The tests are under the sink in the bathroom,” he said.
She nodded, and stood. “I'm still going tonight, even if I am. I want you to know that. This is my problem, and I can't let you try and solve it without me. Elliot needs to know… he needs to know that we're a unified force. Okay?”
His eyebrows stitched together with worry, but then he nodded. “Got it.”
“Good,” she said, then pecked a kiss to his lips once more before going into the bathroom. She peed into one of the small plastic cups that Troy had stashed under the sink with the tests, then held the stick in it for 5 seconds.
The box said it could take up to 10 minutes for the test to calculate, but her answer came up almost instantly. Pregnant. Positive. There was a baby in her.
“Troy!” She shouted. “Troy, come here!” She emptied the cup and threw it into the trash by the toilet just as he burst into the room, showing the whites of his eyes. She held up the test. His breath caught in his throat.
Troy
He expected it. He knew it was a possibility.
It still scared the everloving shit out of him. “Should you take the other two?” He asked. “Can't they have false positives?”
“It came up immediately,” she answered. He held back a curse. “Which means the test is 100% sure. I'm pregnant. Even though it was unexpected, I'm kind of excited!”
He stared at the test that she was still holding up. It undoubtedly did say that she was pregnant.
I'm not ready to be a dad. I'm not ready for any of this. I'm not even ready to be a husband. What the hell am I supposed to do now?
“Troy?” She asked, setting the test down on the counter. “You look upset.”
Shit, I have to hide this. She's happy, and I love her, right? If she's happy, I should be happy. But babies change everything. They change absolutely everything, and I don't even know if she loves me. She didn't say she did when I confessed my love to her. She just accepted it.
“Hey. Earth to Troy! You're stuck in your head. What's wrong?” She asked, taking his hand. When he didn't answer, her eyes widened. “You don't want the baby, do you?”
His despair turned easily to rage. “Of course I want it, Ashanti! I goddamn love you, and I hope you'll love me too, one day. I'm just scare,” he admitted. His face scrunched up. “I'm so fucking scared that I'm not cut out to be a dad.”
“Troy, with the way you've handled me, with patience that I never deserved, I think you'll be a great dad.” She smiled reassuringly.
“I've never even held a baby before,” he admitted. “I never babysat or had a sibling.”
She nodded. “Well, a lot of dads haven't. You'll figure it out.” She sighed and touched her hand to her chest. “I'm so glad you didn't ask me to, you know. Get an...”
“I would never,” he cut her off, aghast.
“Well, I was worried for a second. Thank you.” She wraps a hand around the back of his neck and pulls him down for a kiss. “And by the way, I love you already.”
It felt like a weight had lifted off of his shoulders. “Really?” He asked. She nodded and kissed him again, which once again made his package stir in his pants. “Quit that. We have to leave soon.” As if on cue, the alarm he set on his phone went off. “See? Time to go.”
Knowing that his child was on the line if anything went wrong set Troy on edge. According to Ashanti's plan, he would lay in hiding while they talked, and would only come out if Elliot tried to make a move. That plan sucked, in Troy's opinion, but he knew she wouldn't accept anything else.
He drove Ashanti to the Chamber of Commerce on the back of his bike, then they both looked around. They were there early enough for Troy to hide himself, and his bike, in some nearby bushes. There were no lamps or other lights that hit the spot where he was hiding.
After Troy settled in, Ashanti stood in the parking lot under the one light that didn't flicker. He watched her, intently, and guessed how long it would take for him to be by her side at that distance. Too long, in his opinion. Too damn long.
“Hello, Ashanti,” he heard the voice before the body materialized out of the dark. He had short blond hair and a mean grin. “It's good to see you, with clothes on, again.”
“Elliot,” Ashanti said. Troy was proud that her voice did not waver, though she was obviously afraid. “Why are you back? I thought you left.”
“Oh, I'm just taking a year off of school. To relax and rejuvenate myself before I graduate, you know.” He stepped closer, and Troy's body tensed to prepare to pounce. “And I knew that I just had to catch up with my favorite slut. How are you? I hear you got married. I wonder how you managed that, when you're not even good enough to masturbate to. Those nudes you sent me are so disgusting, you know. They revolt me.” His horrid grin grew. “You revolt me.”
“Why?” She asked, her voice trembling then. “Why are you doing this? I haven't done anything to you. Nothing to deserve this punishment.”
“Oh, you know. I saw the news about you getting married, and then I heard through the grapevine that you had come into a lot of money.”
“What news?”
“Didn't you know?” He asked, shrugging and shaking his head like she was an idiot. “Your wedding was in the newspaper. Since I heard about your inheritance, I thought I would come to you to help me pay down my student loans. So what do you say? You did bring the money, didn't you?”
He stepped forward, holding out his hand.
“Hang on,” Ashanti said. Troy couldn't figure out why she was stalling.
“Oh? Did you have something else you wanted to discuss?”
Ashanti stumbled over her words, mumbling. It was like she wanted to insult him, but didn't want to make the situation worse. Troy wished he could step in, then, but knew she would be angry if he acted too soon.
“You seem so unsure of yourself, but I think I know what you want. You want me to use you before I take your money. Well, we're all alone out here, aren't we? Why don't you strip down. Let me take a few more photos before I cum in y
our mouth.” She gasped, and the sound made him laugh. “I know! I've never let you touch me before, but I'm feeling charitable today.”
Elliot moved closer to her, touched her face. Ashanti stood completely still, but Troy had had enough. He couldn't touch her, he couldn't speak to her that way. Not without getting his ass handed to him.
Letting his anger take over, Troy decided that whatever happened to Elliot, he fully deserved. If that upset Ashanti, then let her be upset. He couldn't let that scum make her feel like shit anymore.
He lunged forward, his left fist ready to make contact with Elliot's face. It did.
Chapter 14
Ashanti
A rageful scream drowned out Ashanti's own shout, an attempt to get Troy to still himself. Troy was the one shouting over her as he ran towards Elliot, anger like she had never seen before on his face.
The shout seemed to paralyze Elliot, who would have normally be able to avoid the blow before it connected with his face. It snapped his nose into grotesquerie, blood falling freely from it down Elliot's face and into his mouth.
Troy got another punch in, close to the temple, before he backed off.
“Troy, please stop!” She cried. “I told you to wait!”
He spun on her, the venom in his eyes turning to pleading. “He was about to attack you. Can't you see that?”
“No, he wasn't...” she tried to protest.
“Wake up, Ashanti! Not everyone has goodness in them. This piece of shit? Deserves to feel some pain. After all he's done to you, after all he's put you through, he deserves some pain. He'll be fine once his nose heals.”
Ashanti hadn't seen Elliot stand back up, but she saw the sudden gush of pain across Troy's face as a fist connected with the back of his neck.
“You brought your husband? I warned you, Ashanti,” he clucked, watching Troy crumple to the ground. Ashanti fell with him, searching him for permanent damage, but she couldn't tell. She just couldn't tell. “Now I'm going to have to send those photos to your grandmother. You're such a whore that I bet you were hoping for that. You get off on humiliation, don't you?” He sneered, taking out his phone.