Staying Grounded [BXB]

Rude Awakening

SEBASTIAN:

The pounding of feet descending the stairs has Dobby spooked from his basket to my side, a soft growl thrumming through my leg as he presses protectively against me, floppy ears pricked.

"So, what, now I have my own room here?" Craig storms into the kitchen, yet again interrupting Ashleigh's breakfast.

"Oh, good." She drops her spoon in her bowl and swivels on the chair. "I'd started to worry the alarm wouldn't wake you."

I'm glad she doesn't add that I'd been moments away from tromping upstairs to drag his sorry butt out of bed. Enough of my valuable time has been misspent already, waiting on him, but no doubt he'd take my impatience to be some further deliberate infraction upon his life. And it's only for Ashleigh that I'm bothering at all. A glance over my shoulder finds him standing just inside the door, shoulders rigid. Dark shadows rim his blazing eyes. "Looking fresh this morning."

He turns his sour look on me. "Least I haven't been forced to wear someone else's hand-me-downs today."

Those clothes still haven't been returned. I shift my attention back to the kitchen sink and the soaking pots I've busied myself with. My hands have a distinct issue with being idle. "If you want breakfast before we go, you best hurry up."

"We? Go where?"

"College, Craig. It's Friday, and Ashleigh's of the mind that the world may very well end if you miss a class."

Dobby relaxes, looking up at me as if expecting a treat for his diligent guard, and I hear Craig cross the room at my back. Then, there's the screech of a chair's legs dragging across the tiled floor. "And that involves you, how exactly?"

"I asked him to take you in," Ashleigh says.

The silence that follows her response draws my gaze back around. Craig's staring across the wide table at Ashleigh while patting down his pockets and becoming noticeably irate. She's holding his eye, looking no more ruffled by him than she ever seems to be about anything.

"Why?" He finally asks, giving up on his futile search for the car key that's tucked away in my coat, hooked up several feet away from him by the back door. "I can...I can drive myself, Ash."

"Not after the skin-full you had last night, you can't," she rebuffs him.

"I'm good."

"You're not."

"Got to be kidding me!" Slamming a hand down on the tabletop, he bolts to his feet. The dog immediately retreats to his bed. "This is such bull. Why am I even here?"

"Well, Craig, you—"

"I am not your newest charity project."

Now the humour falters in Ashleigh's tone. "Sorry?"

"This is, what? Momma Bear's halfway house for messed-up strays, yeah? You're thinking me a good fit for the display of saved souls in the lounge?"

"Wow!" It takes a lot to upset Ashleigh. The sharp pinch to her face is a clear warning of how dangerously close he's come to overstepping. "Just. Wow."

Seems, however, that Craig is fully intent on crossing that generous line. "I'm not one of Judy's outcasts," he shrugs, flicking a look to the kitchen door as if the mere mention of my aunt's name might summon her. "And I don't need shepherding into her freaky fold."

The scourer is crushed in my fist, my spine stiffening.

"That's not—" she starts, defensive."Then why am I even here?"I field this one. Reaching for the tea towel, I dry my soap-sodden hands and move, as calmly as I can manage, to properly face our ungracious guest. "Because you were beyond useless last night. Because you wouldn't or couldn't unlock your damn phone. And because Ashleigh refused to let me take you home, worried about landing you in more trouble after last time."