Little Sanchez // USWNT

Chapter 22

"So what? Tara's here I can talk through her. Get out and drive the car a block over, please. I'll call you if I need you." 

"I'm coming-" 

"No." 

"Yes, I am." 

"No, you're not." 

"Yes, I am." 

"No, you're not Ashley. Please. Trust me, this is not somewhere you want to be! I have no idea how your stupid little sister ended up here but I can't let you go in. Look. There's a fight on the lawn." 

"Ugh. Fine." 

"This is a bad neighborhood. Lock the doors and hide my wallet, please." I said, getting ready to walk away. 

"Okay." She jumped into the drivers seat and headed in the direction I told her, and I walked towards the house. 

I snuck in past the fight and the people watching. Every single person inside had a cup in their hand, so I grabbed one and filled it with water to fit in. 

I scouted the place for Ainsley and Tara, and it was way harder to find them than it should have been. The house wasn't very big. 

I looked out the back door and saw Tara playing beer pong, so I figured Ainsley must be nearby. 

"Hey Tara!" I said, walking over to her. 

"Hi! What are you doing here?" She giggled. 

"I didn't think you would be here! I just came for fun!" I lied. "Where's Ainsley?" 

"I don't know...last I saw her was with some guy." 

Oh wonderful. 

"How long ago?" 

"Like probably only like maybe 2 minutes." 

"Thanks." 

Who knows how accurate that timing is. She drank so much she wouldn't be able to tell her left shoe from her right. I wasn't even that close to her and I could smell the alcohol on her breath. 

I thought logically and went upstairs to poke around. 

"Dude stop it." I heard someone say. "Enough. Stop." 

"But-" 

"No. Get away from me." I realized then that it was Ainsley's voice, and I went bursting in there. 

"I'll knock the shit out of you if you don't leave her alone." i said from the doorway. 

"Who are you?" The guy asked. 

"Trina!" Ainsley moved off the wall where I assume she was stuck. 

The guy reached for her, but I grabbed her arm a little bit quicker, pushing her behind me. 

"Who the fuck are you?" He asked again. 

"I'm Trina, bitch. What the hell makes you think this is okay? How low of a person do you have to be to take advantage of a drunk girl?" 

"She start-" 

"He did it! I was scared and I tried to leave!" Said Ainsley from behind me. "He's a liar!" 

"Is that true?" I asked. 

"She's drunk. She doesn't know shit." He replied. 

"I assume you are too?" 

He was quiet as I walked across the room hesitantly to grab Ainsley's shirt from the floor. 

"I wanna go home!" Ainsley said. 

"I'm gonna take you home." I said, looking at the crying girl in the doorframe. 

I don't know what the hell's wrong with this guy, because I'm obviously not drunk, but he still tried to make an inappropriate move on me, and I slapped him right across the face. 

I should have just left the stupid shirt, it was my own fault. 

"Though I shouldn't, I can leave you problem free. So do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way?" 

He just looked at me. 

"Easy way?" I asked, slowly backing to the door. 

I stuffed the shirt into Ainsley's arms, making sure not to take my eye off this guy. 

Why would anything ever be the easy way? 

This guy came at me, ready to swing, but I caught his slow punch and hit him across the face again. 

"Clearly you wanna do this the hard way. Are you sure about that?" 

Then this drunk guy started swinging at me again, and I could stop one hit but not the next. He hit me right in the jaw, making my mouth bleed. It wasn't a terribly hard hit, I'll live. 

I hit him twice more, his drunk reflexes too slow to stop anything. 

I looked at his bloody lip and nose, not feeling even the slightest bit bad. 

"Don't do that to a girl ever again." I said, and backed out the door, pushing Ainsley with me. 

I grabbed her hand as I headed for the backyard to gather Tara. 

When we got outside, she was nowhere to be found. Of course. 

I sighed and walked out the front door, hoping maybe she'd be out there, which she was. 

And so was Ashley, in a yelling match with some guy. What the hell kind of fever dream is tonight? 

I dragged Ainsley, who seemed to be in fucking lala land, over to them. 

But before I got there, this guy started swinging too. 

What the hell kid of party did Ainsley find? 

"Damn it leave her alone!" Ainsley shouted, shaking from my grip and running full force at this guy. 

Little Ainsley Sanchez took out this big guy who was probably 6 foot. 

Ashley pulled her off of him, shoving her away. I caught her and she started sobbing into me. 

"He can't hurt Ashley!" She cried. "He can't touch her!" 

"Calm down, Ace. Calm down." I said. 

Then I looked around, the place was full of crazy people. 

"We have to get outta here before the cops come." I said. 

"What did you do?" Ash asked, using her shirt to wipe off the blood from her lip. 

"Nothing bad." I said, letting go of Ainsley who jumped right into Ashley. "Tara I need your keys." 

"No." 

"Yes give 'em." 

"No." 

I sighed and looked at her to make sure she even had her keys and her phone, and when I saw she did I just reached and took them from her pocket. 

I tossed them to Ash and told her to drive Tara's car to her place and we'd figure it out from there. I helped shove both drunk girls into that car and then ran to mine, desperate to get out of that area.