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8 - Ainsley

"I'm tired."

"You've said," replied El.

"So we can go to the pub?" I asked hopefully.

"Fine. but only because I'm getting thirsty."

"Ugh, yes, thank you!" 

I squinted out the window trying to see if I could find Ashton in the dark car park. The few cars that were here when we arrived had mostly gone. I'm guessing one of the cars had belonged to the wolves from before. There was now only one car left which probably belonged to the worker in the coffee shop. I turned around to look out of El's side of the car to see an old vintage motorbike come from round the back of the service station.

"Oh no. This guy is not good. Had a leather jacket, got attacked by wolves for what seemed like no reason and has a fucking motorbike." El raised an eyebrow at me.

"I thought you disagreed with stereotypes."

"I also make money appear in front of us daily"

"We'll be fine. It's a public place where we aren't allowed to show ourselves, you can protect us and I can grow a flower to try peace if anything goes wrong. Now hurry up and follow him before we lose him." 

After a while Ashton finally turned off the motorway and shortly after we were in a smallish village full of cute cottages. The type to have wooden beams in the walls and ceilings and siders hiding in every corner. Despite not loving spiders they are an insect I should put up with considering I'm meant to be all naturey and stuff. I'm not really though.

 People have to bear in mind that I was brought up by seasonal fairies. They're basically a slight upgrade of me. Can do more, tell other people what to do more and believe they're superior. Just because they can do more doesn't mean people appreciate them. I'm a general boring nature fairy and my specific season is spring. Like I said. I make things grow and that's about it.

"You look so in love with these houses." EL interrupted my trade of thought. 

"Going to that cottage just outside town was my favourite part of every year as a kid. I hated my parents even more when they sold the house."

"I remember. You snuck out and came to sleep at mine." 

"They never came looking for me," I laughed knowing it was because they knew exactly where I was.

"Oh my gosh that was a nice cottage though, I wonder who owns it now."

"Who knows, maybe we should go after finding my real parents. If it's not being used as a holiday home anymore we could always ask to just have a quick look." 

The smile on my face grew as I thought about when we used to go there and it was one of the only places where I felt far away from my mum and dad whilst only having one wall between us.

"Remember when you came with us that one tim-" I laughed not being able to finish my sentence.

"When they didn't know?" El started laughing too. That trip had taken a lot of complicated planning, but looking back that was the last time we went. Maybe they did know and sold the cottage after finding out. "That poor woman though. Do you think she ever found the dog or not?"

I tried to hold in a laugh thinking about the dog floating in the air.

"I haven't done a levitation spell since."

"Honestly, I kind of miss that woman. She was always there at the same time as us."

"She is how I imagine you in the future. Normal woman knocking on the edge of being a hippie with a dog that can sometimes float if it hasn't eaten enough, hair up in a really loose bun that still manage to stay up and hold the freshly picked flowers."

"I totally see it" I laugh again. Tiara was such a kind woman and it was a shame the last time they saw her was when her dog was floating away towards the nearest forest. Whenever the family would visit, Tiara would be in the cottage over the road and we often wen to barbecues with each other. We started going when I was very young so Tiara had seen me grow up, but to me she's always looked just under thirty.

"Shit, I just missed the turn off." El said with a bit of happiness.

"Oh, it's fine we can just do U turn in there," I pointed to the left. EL rolled her eyes and realised if it came to it I would just take the wheel off her. 

"Lovely of you two ladies to finally join me." 

I pushed El forwards as she tried to turn around back to the car. 

"We missed a turn, " I sent him a smile as I waited for El to step through the open door in front of us. "Elvira daaaaarling, go through the door."

"Why?"

"Because the sometime lovely gentleman is holding it open for you and his poor arms are going to get tired if you just stand there."

"Oh don't worry! These arms won't get tired any time soon." Ashton replied winking at me.

"Elvira come on, Look how small those arms are. Spaghetti doesn't hold very well." I giggled seeing Ashton give me a glare out the corner of my eye. His arms weren't spaghetti, they were quite big and I could see he had muscle even through his jacket and T-shirt. The muscle kept going too because further down his abs were on show now that his T-shirt had lifted up a bit.

"I won't lie, my arm is getting a bit tired now." Jumping,  quickly looked in front to see EL waiting inside and Ashton still holding the door open. Oops.

"Sorry," apologizing, I quickly stepped in behind El.

"It's fine. I completely understand that I'm just simple too unbelievably looking for you to stop looking at."

He's not wrong. "No, I'm just in disbelief at how unbelievably similar you are to your wolf." Before I finished he have me a smile, "I mean, the big sticking out nose, the hair absolutely everywhere possible, is that some in your ears? Oh and the smell. Wet dog for sure." I smirked as I turned back around towards the bar, Ashton following in behind me.

"I don't think he's going to serve me." I whispered to El next to me.

"It's fine, what do you want?" asked Ashton. My eyebrows pushed together as I looked at him confused. 

"Well, I can't have anything cause I'm driving." El pointed out.

"Have I just met a witch who never stops herself from getting drunk."

The defeated look on El's face said it all, "scratch that, I need a drink if we're staying with you."

"Good to know we're on the same page. What you having Lee?" El was the only person who had ever called me that before. 

"It's fine. I'll just have a J2O."

"If you're sure," he smiled at me again. He had a nice smile. I liked it. 

Dodging around a few men I went towards a table in the corner of the pub and shuffled along to the end of the sofa. After a few minutes Ashton walked over, El following behind him. He put two glasses down before pushing El back and taking the only space next to me on the sofa. In front of me was a tall glass next to an Apple and Mango J2O. The only acceptable flavour in my eyes. Ashton reached for the bottle and poured the drink before pulling it to himself at the same time as pushing what I'm guessing was summer fruits cider. Honestly, I didn't know if I would rather have the cider or not.

"El said this is one of the only drinks you'll have."

"But what about you?" I said deciding to take a sip anyway. 

"I don't drink on the job." 

"What job?"

"Driving."