Dysphoria

Chapter Twenty Four

"Why not, it'll buy us time to step up and move this shit." Ash said, tearing open something and picking it up with a tweezer.

"Y'all are thinkin too short term about this shit. If I pay Mouse for all o'this next month, what you think he gonna do? He's gonna want more and he's gonna give us more product that we can't sell." Fez said, his usual calm demeanor becoming frustrated.

"Hey. It'll be okay, we'll figure this out and get this sorted. I promise." I reached out to hold his hand.

"Aight you all good." Ash put some antibacterial gel on the area and a little piece of protective gauze for the night.

"Now get yo ass to bed and I'll check it again in the morning." He said gruffly tidying up his kit box.

"Thank you Ash. You're the best." I smiled at him, and for the first time since I'd known him, Ash put his arms around me and hugged me. He was almost as tall as me now, and his Adam's apple gave a funny little bob when I held onto him.

When Fez and I finally got into bed, we sat and smoked a joint.

"I'm sorry if my face scars up." I sniff pathetically. I wasn't trying to be vain but I didn't want Fez to lose interest in me either.

"You ain't got nothing to be sorry for. You's beautiful to me no matter what. We all got scars. An besides, it's only a cute lil baby one." He kissed the side of my head tenderly.

"How did you get the scar on the side of your head?" I asked him, I had always wondered but was a little scared to find out. I knew his childhood had been rough.

He scratched the back of his head and sighed. "My Grandma."

"She did that to you?! What the fuck?" I said with so much shock and anger in my tone, for a split second I wanted to march down the hall and rip her machines out of the sockets.

"Woah not like that! It was an accident." He reassured me. "She was beatin on this guy with a crowbar and I came up behind and caught it right here." He traced the line with his finger.

I sat up in bed and started to kiss along his scar.

"Girl what are you doin?" He chuckled. "It don't hurt no more."

"I know it doesn't. But I know it must have been awful when it did, and no one probably kissed it better then so I'm making up for lost time." I said giving him one last kiss.

He wrapped his arm around me and as tired as both of us were, neither of us found it easy to sleep that night. So much had happened...and so much more was still to come.

The next day I called in sick to school. I hadn't slept right at all and I wasn't ready to deal with people asking about the new stitches on my face. Fez grabbed my books and laptop from home and brought them over so I could do some work from here.

I worked on a book report and did some reading in Grandma Marie's room. I don't know if she wanted the company but I heard reading aloud is good for people who are sick so she's fucking stuck with me.

I thought she probably wasn't interested in me reading "The Tempest." So I got on my laptop and started researching other more potentially important shit like search warrants. I got in the habit of telling her things about Fez and about Ash, things going on in our lives. I knew Fez really missed her, and after finding out she split his head open with a crowbar that says a lot.

Meanwhile Fez was standing outside the store when he saw Nate Jacobs pull up in his big ignorant silver truck. He was unusually stressed at the moment and this was the last person on earth he wanted to deal with.