Till the end || Ashtray

012.

!NO SILENT READERS PLEASE!
(Word count: 1015)

"Dude! You almost ran into a car, I'm never riding with you again." I complained while Rue ignored me, setting her bike up against the wall. "Bruh wait for me! My legs are fuckin short." I called after her as she strode over to the entrance of the shop. I walked up to Faye who was sitting on the ice-cream freezer. "Hey Faye!" I grinned, pulling her in for a hug. "Hi Hayden!" She replied just as enthusiastically. "Baby Howard, what's good?" Fez spoke up, blowing smoke out of his mouth. I rolled my eyes as I tried not to laugh at the new nickname. "I'm going to the back." Is all I said.

I swung open the door and waltzed in like I owned the place, causing Ashtray to give me a strange look. When he realized it was me his face softened for a split second before going back to his normal rbf. "Asstray! My least favorite person." I joked, sitting down on the table. "Oh look it's the one and only dumbass. Get off my shit!" He motioned to the pile of money I was sitting on. I gave him a pouting face before standing up. "Well then where's my chair? I wanna roll around and annoy you." I looked around the small room, my chair nowhere in sight.

"That's rough, guess you gotta sit on the floor." He gave the slightest smirk, I almost didn't notice it. I flipped him off and then pushed some useless crap off the table, sitting on the table so that I was facing him. "Oh I'm sorry! It's just the floor is so uncomfortable ya know?" I teased sarcastically, to which he just gave me his dirtiest glare. He went back to counting money and I took this time to watch him, not in a creepy way of course!

I was kicking my legs back and forth as a way to keep from being bored. I guess at one point he got annoyed because abruptly shot his head up with a dirty look. "Can you not?!" He huffed, changing his gaze to my legs. "Geez sorry cigarette eater." I stopped all the motion with my legs. "I thought you missed me?" I put my hand over my chest in a dramatic, sarcastic way. "Yeah well usually you're not this annoying." He stated and I have to admit it kinda hurt. I hid my emotions though, something I had gotten quite good at as of the late.

He went silent then and gave me a look I couldn't unmask but it wasn't anything I had seen from him before. He took the lack of conversation to go back to counting his money. I noticed a mistake he had made, seeing as he was quietly stating the numbers to himself. "You counted that one wrong." I mentioned his error. "What?" He asked, stopping his movements to look at me. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to say you're doing your 'job' wrong but you said 100 when it was supposed to be 102." I smiled shyly. "Oh... thanks." He mumbled. Quickly looking at his lap and avoiding eye contact.

-

The sun started setting and I thought it best to get home. I closed out of TikTok and texted my mom that I was on my way home. I hopped off the counter and walked around the small table, making my way to the door. About half way there I turned back to Ashtray. "Ash." I called out, him looking up at me. "Yeah?" He asked. "See ya later, I gotta get home before it gets dark." I said, giving him a tiny smile, one he probably didn't even notice. "Oh, well bye then." He answered. I watched him put a rubber-band around the stack of cash without looking, instead he was looking at me.

I turned back to the door and opened it slowly, getting one foot past the threshold before I heard his voice. "Hey Hayden?" I heard. "Uh huh?" I sounded out, turning my face over my shoulder. "I- I'm glad... glad you're ungrounded. And it was cool getting to see you." He said quietly, looking a little bit flushed even. I couldn't help but smile, feeling the heat rush to my cheeks, but I didn't care. "Thank you Ash, Im happy I could see you again." I replied with a noticeable rise to my mood. "See you later, ma." He finished.

I got instant butterflies. "Bye... ASStray." I couldn't help myself from saying it. Although this time he didn't give my dirty look, no, instead he let himself smile. It was something truly beautiful if I do say so myself, and for not doing it often it sure was pretty perfect. I finally got myself to turn around and get my other foot out the door. I gave both Fezco and Faye a hug and went on my way. Fez informed me that Rue left and told him to tell my bye for her so I just walked.

-

I let the front door close behind me as I walked into my house. "Hey momma." I said sweetly when I saw her and Lexi lounging on the couch. I kicked my shoes off and shuffled over to her. She opened her arms for me to lay down in her lap. "Come on Lexi-bear." I told her, to which she walked over and cuddled up to mom and I. We laid there for the remainder of the movie they had started and when it was finally over we all made our ways to our rooms.

As usual I couldn't sleep but it wasn't for the common reasons, no this time it was because I couldn't get Ash off my mind. He had made me so happy without even knowing it. I did want sleep though so I did indeed find myself in Lexi's bed. I fell asleep eventually and I was happy when I did. My night had zero freights, and it was all because of him.