Charlie's P.O.V.
"You think I'm joking around Aston, but I need to fucking pee!" I say, crossing my legs together as he speeds down the highway.
"Hold it in Charlie, I'm almost at the gas station." I grab his hand and squeeze it tightly, trying my best to hold it in. I forgot to use the bathroom before I left, something they teach us in elementary school, so I'm about to burst a pipe in this car... right now.
Aston's tires screech as he stops the car next to the gas pumps and I instantaneously jump out of his car, running to the gas station. Heading at a full sprint, I bust open the doors, the small bell tied making a loud clanging sound. The employee sitting at the cash register jumps in fright, looking at me with wide eyes. I had my legs pressed together and hunched over and barely manage to say, "Bathroom.. please."
He urgent grabs the bathroom keys-- tied to a yard long stick and passes it over the register. I run out of the gas station, but not before saying, "I'll come back to buy something, I promise!"
As I run out of the gas station I victoriously lift the stick in the air, making sure Aston sees it. He cheers from the car, honking his horn in celebration. With trembling hands, I unlock the door and slam it shut, taking off my pants and relieving myself.
Finally, I can breathe.
Aston had woken me up-- in an interesting way, around four a.m. to complete our final mission. Before I had the sudden urge to pee in the car, Aston was explaining why we need to trash Mr. Francisco's house. It's no secret that Mr. Francisco had a thing against boys like Aston, the carefree type. So on graduation day, Mr. Francisco spoke his mind about Aston and how he'll never succeed at life after the ceremony. Personally, I thought Mr. Francisco was a mediocre teacher, but this completely changes my perspective on him.
Sure, Aston has an 'I-don't-give-a-shit' attitude in school, but he's so capable of succeeding in the real world; he has a bright future ahead of him and Mr. Francisco has no right to judge him. So without hesitation, I complied to the mission, making sure to complete it.
I flush the toilet and zip my pants up, then washing my hands and leaving the bathroom, making sure to not touch the doorknob. I thank the employee and buy two drinks of water, heading back to the car, where Aston just finished filling the tank.
I release a sigh of relief as I sit back down and open the cold water bottle, chugging down about half of it. Aston enters the car and turns on the ignition.
"Ready for the mission?"
I nod my head. "Ready big daddy," I say teasingly.
"... You have to call me big daddy for the rest of your life."
• • • • • • • • • • • • •
We finally got to Mr. Francisco's house-- his address was online, and silently step out of the car, popping Aston's trunk to take out the tools for our mission. After pulling out the toilet paper, trolley jack, shaving cream, and eggs, we place the on the hood of his car and grabbing the tools for our assigned roles.
I was in charge of throwing toilet paper rolls on his giant sycamore trees, whereas Aston's suppose to lift the car off the ground with the trolley jack. I silently open the pack of toilet paper rolls and lift the first piece of paper off, making sure it drags down. I then throw it and watch the tail of the roll flutter in the air and elongate into the tall trees. Roll after roll, I threw them with all my might, making sure to aim correctly and evenly spread out the white lines onto the branches.
After finishing my second pack, I look over to Aston who's still working on the car. He's got the trolley jack under the car, and slowly lifting it, pushing it up with a lever. You can tell he's also putting all his might into lifting the car, his arms flexing as he forcefully pushes the lever down little by little. You can also make out the beads of sweat dripping from his forehead, his neck glistening as well.
Hot.
I quickly turn my attention away from Mr. Hottie Lamottie with a Swimmer's Body and continue to throw the last of the rolls. Once I was done, I picked up all the plastic trash and put it in Mr. Francisco's recycling can. You gotta take care of our planet, ya know?
I softly jog over to Aston to see how he's doing. It seems the car is lifted as high as it can go and probably won't touch the ground for a good while. With trolley jacks, for it to keep the car off the ground it needs to be locked in place, but it could easily be unlocked with the little key; so the only logical thing to do it completely break the key.
Aston comes back with a rock the size of a kitten and throws it on the key, breaking half of it off so the rest of it is stuck within the trolley jack.
"Wow, you're so strong!" I say with a fake valley girl accent, stroking his sweaty arm with my fingers. He looks at me with a puzzled expression, his chest heaving up and down and his hair sticking to his face from the labor he just endured.
"Do that again and big daddy is gonna have to punish you." He says, flirtatiously winking at me. My expression changes to a disgusted one and I retreat my hand from his arm, wiping the sweat on my jeans. "I regret calling you that."
We walk back to the car, me grabbing the shaving cream and Aston grabbing the eggs. He signals me to go first and I start spraying the shaving cream on Mr. Francisco's small garden in front. This was a painful process to do since his succulents and flowers were and it was such a shame to ruin them with a chemical foam. However, in the name of Aston's dignity and pride, I close my eyes and start to spray them, making sure I get the top of the petals to the roots. Once I was done I throw the shaving cream in the recycling bin and walk over to Aston as he hands me a carton of eggs.
He silently does a countdown with his fingers and once he reaches to 'one' we start darting the eggs to Mr. Francisco's house. From the windows to the wall, we drenched his house with the sticky yolk. Obviously, the slamming sounds of the eggs could probably be heard from the inside of the house so the lights upstairs turn on.
We take this as our cue to run and dash over to Aston's car, starting the ignition and leaving; but not before Aston flicks off Mr. Francisco as he walks out of his bedroom, running onto the balcony.
"Hooligans!" Was the last thing we heard as we drive off into the very early sunrise.
• • • • • • • • • • • • •
"..And the look on his face was completely priceless! We did an awesome job!" I said with glee as I shove a piece of my pancake into my mouth. After the successful mission, we headed to a nearby IHOP that was surprisingly open.
It's currently five-thirty a.m. and we were the only ones eating right now, and talking about the mission.
"We make a pretty good team don't we?" Aston asks, taking a long sip of his coffee. "Bad Medicine" by Bon Jovi faintly plays over us.
Your love is like bad medicine
Bad medicine is what I need, whoa
"We do," I respond, smiling back at him.
Shake it up just like bad medicine
There ain't no doctor that can cure my disease
"To be honest," I start, putting my fork and knife down. "I'm happy that the missions are over because of the stress it comes with, but I don't want my time spending with you to be over."
I got a dirty down addiction that doesn't leave a track,
I got a jones for your affection like a monkey on my back.
There ain't no paramedic gonna save this heart attack.
Delicately, I grab Aston's hand from across the table and wrap my fingers around his. "I don't know what you expect out of this attraction between us, but I'd like to try it out. It's not every day you fall for the bad boy."
He flips our hands over, his on top and mine on the bottom, my palm exposed. He lightly feels the lines engraved on my palms with his pointer finger, dragging it up and down in thought.
"I'd be lying if I said I was doubtful about taking what we have further." He admits as my heart slightly drops. "The only relationship I've ever had was with Suzy, and it was initially for school popularity, but I ended up falling for her. The feeling of love was the craziest things I've ever felt, and feeling it for her wasn't right." I stare at him as his eyes focus on the food laid out on the table, but he continues.
"However with you, it's something real." Aston looks up at me and stares back with serious eyes. "When you got hurt at the bar, or when you stayed behind at the party, I couldn't help but feel protective over you, wanting to always save you." The grasp he has on my hand tightens.
"So to answer what you said, yes, I want to try taking what we have further because I want to be there for you. You are the most real thing I've ever had in my life and you make me feel like I can breathe and finally move on from the past of high school." I sincerely smile at him and feel a tear slip from my eye, running down my face. Embarrassed, I laugh and wipe it away, trying to compose myself.
"Why are you crying this time?" He says grinning, running his thumb over my hand.
"Because that was the cutest shit I've ever heard." Aston laughs, shaking his head and taking another sip from his coffee. A comfortable silence falls between us as we finish our early breakfast. I get a text from my mom reminding me that today my family was planning to go to the beach for two nights and three days and they were going to leave around seven a.m.
"Want to go on a little vacation with me and my family?" I blurt out spontaneously.
"Vacation?" He asks.
"Yeah," I answer. "We planned to stay at a hotel by the beach for two days with my family from Colombia before they leave."
Aston thinks long and hard about my proposal.
"You can sleep with me in my hotel room," I add, hopefully, to convince him. "I had to get a single room since there was no one else to room with me."
"Won't your parents not want me there?" I scoff and roll my eyes.
"My parents will be thrilled that I like someone and won't stand in the way of me developing a relationship. I've been isolated for too long." He chuckles in disbelief.
"Well fuck it," He decides, leaning on the worn-out booth chair. "Let's go to the beach, beach."
I shake my head. "'Starships' is so 2011. You're supposed to say, 'Vamos pa' la playa." (Let's go to the beach.)
He shrugs. "I don't know that song."
"Oh don't worry, with my Spanish family, you're going to learn lots of Spanish songs and words." I smile at him sheepishly.
"Let's head out, con calma."
• • • • • • • • • • • • •
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-evelyn. ☺