"Ashley, Ashley... Wake up." I hear someone whisper in my ear. I turn over, not looking, trying to fall back asleep. Suddenly, I feel ice cold hands hold my ankles and before I even process what's going on, I'm swiftly pulled off my bed onto the floor.
"What the hell?" I yell, I open my eyes, feeling rage, and see a smiling Julian.
"You have to get up sunshine." He smirks and I glare.
"Don't touch me ever again." I say, my tone low.
"Oh what are you going to do about it? Is that some sort of threat?" His voice becomes snooty and I take a deep breath.
"Maybe. It. Is." I smirk.
"Ooo, and what are you going to do? Hurt me? By the look of you, I doubt you could even closely hurt me." He chuckles, taking a look at me.
"You don't want to be the one to find out, jerk." I stand to my feet and push past him, harder than I would normally do.
"Oh, c'mon, Ash! Why are you so upset?" He laughs, I don't dare look back.
"You." I mumble and walk through the open doorway, I immediately smell breakfast and I hear my stomach growl, I can always rely on food to make any bad day better.
"Mmm, pancakes, bacon, and eggs." I manage a small smile, looking forward to the meal. I take a seat at the table where my parents were and Julian takes a seat right next to me, I roll my eyes.
Dishing up my food, I decide to eat in silence. I don't want to give him another opportunity to make fun of me, or start something once again... After we pray, I begin to eat my food, listening to the small conversations between the three of them. It wasn't too hard to tell that Julian was just as cold to my parents as he was to me. Hopefully, I won't see him at school, and he won't try to talk to me, at all. I hope he gets lost on campus and I leave and he doesn't find his way home; yeah, that sounds like a great day.
"Honey, you need to take Julian to school today. Make sure you show him around and introduce him to a few people." Julian leans back in his chair, and by the way we both changed our reactions, both of my parents clearly knew that we did not enjoy each other.
"Why?" Our voices mingling together as we ask at the same time.
"Julian, as long as you are here, you need to do the same exact things as Ashley, that means that you have to go to school, and you have to do chores. You have responsibilities, son, welcome to the real world." My father smiled, standing to his feet to rinse off his plate. Julian doesn't respond to my father, I study his face and see that he doesn't grumble or roll his eyes. I guess my father must scare him a little, plus, if he messes this up, then I don't know if there is another place for him in the system.
"Today, you are going to go out and help Ashley to start off, she will show you the ropes around this place. Once you get home from school today, you are expected to do the same thing, understood?" My mom spoke to him sternly, but still kind.
"Well, what do I need to do?" Julian looked at us, and I chuckled, he is not going to like this.
"Come on city boy!" I smirk at him and stand to my feet. I pull on my boots, and Julian follows me out the door, he is silent during the walk, and I don't care to start a conversation with him anymore. What's the point, he is always going to be like this, I should just enjoy the fact that this isn't going to be some vacation to him.
"Every morning, and late afternoon the horses get fed." I inform him, showing him where the food is, and what to do.
"This is nasty." Julian complained, rolling his eyes. He crosses his arms and watches me do the work.
"Oh, what? A guy like you from the great city can't get his shoes a little dirty? I'm oh so sorry Julian, but looks like you're going to have to step in some of the dirt." I fake a concerned and caring look, and he glares at me. I will admit, his glares and cold stares are very intimidating, but it isn't going to stop me from giving him a hard time about this.
"Easy for you to say, you practically live in a pigsty." He smiles, I look back, surprised that he said that.
"Well now you live in it too, so I guess you should speak for yourself." I shrug my shoulders, he doesn't respond, and we sit in silence while I get a few things ready.
"Okay, so you need to get Grace's bucket and walk over and fill it with this food. I normally put an apple or two in each." I inform as I was doing the task for Spirit. I walk to the stall and attach the bucket the the fence.
"You need to make sure that the becket is completely attached to the fence, or the horses may knock it over and spill it all over the ground." He nods his head, listening.
"Okay, now you go do Grace's... So that I know that you were listening."
"Fine." He reaches over the fence to unhook the bucket and Spirit bucks up and frightens Julian. As he steps back, he slips and falls right into a huge pile of horse poo. I bursted into laughter; tears in my eyes, I cannot even look up, this was too good.
"Stop laughing! You know what? Do it yourself." He throws the bucket on the ground and stands to his feet, his back being completely covered.
"Oh my gosh! You feel into poop! Ha!" I still cannot control my laughter, until I see him start to walk off in an angry fit.
"Where are you going Julian?"
"To change!" He yelled.
"No, you need to at least finish what you started." I spoke, he kept walking.
"No, I don't need to do anything. It's your job, you do it!" Anger ripping through his voice.
"Excuse me? But starting today, it is your job too." I cross my arms, he still keeps walking, I catch up to him and grab his shoulder and he turns fast on his feet to face me.
"You have to finish this job, Julian." I say, he gets closer to my face, and suddenly I feel like slipping into a hole somewhere.
"No, I don't, it isn't like your dad will send me off somewhere else. Don't talk to me, don't even look at me. It is bad enough I have to be away from my life, but now I have to be closer to this white trash family." He yells, as much as his voice sets my nerves on edge, I choose to fight back, there is no way that I am going to let him get away with him calling my family that.
"Look! As much as I would absolutely love for you to be back at your apparently luxury life. I cannot send you back, so I have to deal with you, just as much as you have to deal with me! Never disrespect my family like that again! I knew all you rich spoiled brats would be like this, but you need to shut your mouth while you're here." I growl at him, my chest is pounding and all I can do is wait for him to blow a fuse.
"Whatever!" He throws his hands in the air, causing me to flinch, and he turns and storms back to the house. I walk back to the stalls and finish up the chores, slowly calming down.
💮
I walk through the door and see that my parent's door is shut tight, which most of the time means that they are talking about something serious. Which I would assume to be Julian's stay here; I hope they send him home. He has no care for anyone but himself, he should be appreciative that my dad cared enough to let him stay here. I checked the time and we had to leave in about ten minutes, I hear the shower shut off and figure that he got cleaned. I go into the room and change into a simple t-shirt and jeans, I pull on my converse and after braiding my hair to the side, I hear Max's truck pull up to the house, forgetting that I already asked him to pick me up before Julian showed up, now I have to figure out what to say about Julian. I knock heavy on the door, and don't hear a response.
"Julian! Our ride is here, and you have to go school." I say just loud enough for him to hear me, hopefully we can just ignore each other and be at least civil.
I scoop up my back and sling it on my shoulder, I shut the door and give Max a look to not mess with me today. His eyebrows raise and I open the passenger door, sliding in the passenger seat, I slam the door.
"Woah, what happened to you?" Max speaks, low, and careful.
"Him! I'm sorry Max, but he's going to have to come with us." I point to Julian as I see him walk out of the house with his hair placed perfectly, I watch as I notice his leather jacket, and his hand in his pocket.
"Who is he?" He asks, I open my mouth, but close it. Remembering that I cannot spill the real reason why he is here.
"He is the son of my dad's best friend. They decided that they were going on a trip that Julian couldn't go on, so he has to stay with us for a long while." I fake explain, and take a deep breath, calming myself down.
"Oh, that really sucks Ashley. It'll probably get better though." He shrugged his shoulders, Julian opened the door and I slid to the middle seat, Julian shuts the door gently.
"This isn't a sports car Julian, it's an old truck and you need to shut the door harder for it to close." I reach over him and open the door, slamming it shut, I look over and notice how calm Julian is, and I roll my eyes, keeping my arms crossed.
"Hey man, I'm Max, nice to meet you dude." Julian looks up and smiles.
"Nice to meet you too, bro."
I take a deep breath; today is going to be a long day.
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A/N
Thanks for sticking around to read Chapter Three! I appreciate everyone so much for reading and I hope you are enjoying it. Julian seems to really get under Ashley's skin, huh? Maybe he'll go too far, or maybe not. ;) Looks like you'll have to keep reading to see! Feel free to leave a vote on the chapter or comment anything you'd like to say, I love reading all the comments below! Alright Alright! I'll let you get back into the story!