UNEDITED
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Chapter 4: I'm Veronica Williams
I stared out the window of Dev's old Jeep as a sign that said "Welcome to Florida" in big bold letters came into view. Summer was just about over and thanks to John I now had enough money to pay for my car. Sure eight-thousand dollars wouldn't be enough to pay for a nice new car but a nice used one would be just as useful.
There were six of us and only one car. Kayla and Ethan might not be able to drive yet, but we should still have something other than Dev's beloved Jeep to drive all of us around. If I had a car then Carter wouldn't need to find a job within biking distance of our new house. I could just drive him to work after training, go home, get ready, and go to school. It's as simple as that.
"Are we there yet?" Ethan and Kayla whined in unison. I wonder how long they'd been practicing to be able to do that?
"No and we aren't any closer then we were the last time you asked." Carter groaned.
Carter, Jer, and I played "rock, paper, scissors" earlier to see who had to ride in the Jeep with Ethan and Kayla and who got to ride in the moving truck with Devon. Guess who lost? Go ahead I'll even give you a hint: their names rhyme with Barter and Rabigail.
"You two are going to drive Carter insane." I chuckled "Why don't we play 'I'm thinking of an animal'?"
They both nodded their heads up and down vehemently. We usually played this game when we went on road trips or long drives. It wasn't that complicated. You just thought of an animal and then proceeded to say where it lived and a few other things about it. The people playing would ask you yes or no questions about it and then try to guess what it is.
I had always loved playing it when I was younger so I figured that my younger siblings would probably like it as well.
"I wanna go first!" Ethan shouted. "Okay so I'm thinking of an animal: it lives in someone's home, it has blonde hair and blue eyes, ooh and its breath really stinks and-"
"Are you describing Kayla?" I cut him off while turning around in my seat and raising my left eyebrow. I was sitting up front with Carter while Kayla and Ethan sat in the back.
"Yep! You got it Abs! Your turn!" Ethan yelled out as he tried his best to look innocent.
"Hey! That isn't nice!" Kayla whined "You have blonde hair too!"
"Yeah but my eyes are green and my breath doesn't smell bad!" Ethan retorted. They both began shouting at each other.
I glanced at Carter and he looked at me. We had one of those silent conversations that are only possible to have with someone you've known for a long time. I widened my eyes considerably and tilted my head to the right. For some reason he knew exactly what I meant and pulled over at the next gas station.
Carter cut the engine and turned around in his seat to glare at our bickering siblings. I followed suit and before long the car was void of any and all sound. Ethan stared down at his shoes while Kayla twiddled her thumbs. Ethan mumbled a "sorry" to Kayla and Kayla mumbled an "it's okay" back.
Devon didn't really like us yelling at them but even they knew that we would. Carter and I both had that shut-up-or-else look on our faces and both of our younger siblings understood what that meant.
An orange and white moving truck pulled up next to the Jeep. Devon rolled down the window and I did the same.
"Why'd you guys pull over?" Dev questioned sounding both confused and suspicious.
Carter answered before I could.
"We needed to get some gas" He lied straight through his teeth. The tank was still half full and we wouldn't have needed gas for a few more hours.
"Yeah and I kinda wanted some gummy bears" I added sheepishly, hoping Devon would buy our act.
Dev rolled his eyes and hopped out of the moving truck to pump some gas into it. I let out a sigh of relief along with Carter. I might not always like my younger siblings but I was not a snitch and no one, I mean no one, wants to see Devon in "daddy Dev" mode.
"Anybody else want some gummy bears?" I called out. There were consecutive yeah's from everyone as I jumped out of the Jeep.
I might as well ask because there was no way in hell I was letting anyone come near my gummy bears.
I entered the small green gas station and was greeted by a stout old Hispanic man with a greasy mustache. Mr. Mustache-man smiled at me warmly as I walked by him. I gave him a small smile back before grabbing six packages of gummy bears and six Gatorades (two blue, two red, one orange, and one yellow). Just to be safe, I also grabbed some red licorice and a few bags of chips.
After paying Mr. Mustache-man for my large quantity of junk food I headed back to the cars. I evenly distributed the snacks between the two cars and just like that we were back on the road and I was in gummy bear heaven.
**;-;**
A few hours later we were parking in front of a large light gray house with a white roof and red door. It was mid-afternoon and right now it was hot as hell. Why would anyone want to live somewhere where you could fry eggs on the asphalt?
The house was bigger than anything I had ever lived in and I was definitely getting first pick on my room. Ladies first right? I raced out of the car and pulled a silver key from my pocket.
Scurrying into the house, I locked the door behind me and took in my surroundings. The walls were a warm beige color with white crown molding across the top and bottom. I was about to look around for awhile longer when I heard the sound of feet hitting the pavement outside.
I rushed throughout the entire house searching for the perfect bedroom. I had no idea how many rooms there were in this house -or even how we could afford it for that matter. This place was like a palace compared to the small cottage-like houses that my family and I were used to. Sure our previous house had four bedrooms but the master bedroom at our old house was about the size of one of the regular sized rooms here.
I had to think about this carefully. If the room I picked was too big then I would have to share, but if it was too small then I would be disappointed for the year that we stayed here. The front door swung open revealing the rest of my siblings. I bolted into the only room that I hadn't seen yet and closed the door.
It was the room at the back of the house but right now I didn't give a flying fuck. The room wasn't beige, like the rest of the house, but a light purple. It had a closet on the wall to the left and an average sized window on the wall adjacent to it. The window showed a small garden out back and right then I knew that I had picked the best room in the house.
**;-;**
After a lot of sweating, lifting, whining, and complaining, we had finally finished moving everything into our new home. It turns out that this house had four bedrooms just like our old house, but this one was obviously a lot bigger. Dev explained to me that the only reason that we could afford this house was because of his and Carter's new jobs.
As I sat on my bed and thought about this, a wave if guilt hit me. Dev has been bouncing from job to job every year. He had wanted to be a neurosurgeon so badly. He had gotten scholarship offers and admissions officers calling to meet with him everywhere he went. Dev would have become a neurosurgeon too, a damn good one, if it hadn't been for me.
Carter was getting scholarship offers just like Devon was. They wanted him to play on their football teams. He could have made it to the big leagues if he really tried. He could have, he really could have, if it weren't for me.
I bet Jer would have been a video game designer just like he wanted if I hadn't screwed up. If mom and dad hadn't been killed, if the masked man or Michael would have just taken me, then they would all have been able to live out their dreams.
No matter how many times they've tried to tell me what I'm saying is wrong I just can't come to believe them. After everything happened I kind of just shut everyone out. I put up my walls that no one seemed to be able to break down.
I never even let Cameron in, he didn't know about my past. Though maybe it was because I knew that I never truly loved him -but that didn't stop me from having my heart smashed to smithereens. Apparently I had "trust issues". All because I'm not an open book, it doesn't mean that I have issues with trusting people.
I had gotten the room that I wanted and since Kayla was the only other girl, Dev didn't want her to have to share a room with a boy. Apparently she was "that age" and she didn't need to be seeing Ethan getting dressed. So you can see my dilemma when Dev tried to get Kayla and I to share a room.
I had refused profoundly and he finally gave in. I really didn't want to share a room with my younger sister. So now Dev and Carter were sharing the master bedroom, Jer and Ethan were sharing the second biggest room, and Kayla and I had our own rooms.
I wasn't too thrilled about school being just around the corner, but I had promised mom and dad that I'd go to college and that's exactly what I planned on doing.
With that thought in mind I was soon overcome by darkness as I fell into a sleep filled with dreams of dad and the masked man.
**;-;**
Dev had tried to let me sleep this morning since he hadn't found a place for me to train yet. It was a nice thought, but the truth was that I enjoyed training. It took my mind off of everything and it was sort of a bonding type of thing for Dev and I.
Despite the fact that training was cancelled for the day, I was still waking up at five in the morning. I hated sleeping so I woke up as early as possible. When I slept it meant that I dreamt and when I dreamt terrible thoughts plagued my mind.
Every memory came rushing back, reminding me of everything that had happened. Reminding me of the masked man and what I could have done. Reminding me of Michael and how I could have saved mom. I didn't sleep much anymore -just a few hours here and there. Six hours is the longest I've slept in years and I'm perfectly okay with that.
Sighing I pulled myself up and out of bed. I make my way to one of the small boxes in my room that's labeled "workout clothes" and grab a shirt and some shorts from it. Instead of lazing around I had figured that I should probably go for a run -maybe look around a bit.
After getting dressed I threw my hair up into a messy ponytail (It's not like I had anyone to impress). Grabbing my iPod and my house key on the way out, I locked the door and slipped the key into my pocket. The first song that began blasting through my ear buds happened to be a Sleeping with Sirens song from their "With ears to see and eyes to hear album". I cranked the volume up a little more and just like that I was running and officially shut off to the outside world.
So you can imagine my surprise when some asshole had the audacity to bump into me. I was just rounding the corner of the block when I fell hard onto the sidewalk. The sky was still dark as the sun had not yet risen. Why someone other than myself was out at this time of day was beyond my comprehension.
I pulled the ear buds from my ears and glared at the stranger currently sitting on the sidewalk next to me. It was hard to make out their features in the dark, but I knew by the grunts of pain that I was currently hearing that, said person was definitely male.
"Hey jackass! Watch where the hell you're going!" I spat as I pulled myself up off the ground and dusted off my shorts with my scraped hands. The stranger pulled himself up off the ground and stood in front of me. He looked a bit taken aback by my outburst. Ha, serves him right for slamming into me!
"Your the one that bumped into me!" The stranger shot back as he took a step towards me. His initial shock had disappeared and now he looked furious.
"Yeah and I'm the queen of England! I think it's pretty obvious that you ran into me!" I yelled back, flailing my arms in the process. It was both of our faults considering I was going around the corner of the block as was he. There was no way that we could have seen each other, especially in the dark.
"Listen here you little-"
"Little what? Go one what were you going to call me?" I challenged as I took a step towards him. We were close enough so that I could finally make out his features.
The stranger was about six foot one -which was pretty tall compared to my five foot nine stature- but that didn't mean I was intimidated. He had lightly tanned skin, his muscles were well defined, and his shaggy black hair fell into his gray eyes. His right arm was bleeding pretty bad though. There was no way he could have gotten that from just hitting the ground. It looked as if a knife might have gashed it...
"You done checking me out?" He smirked.
Cocky bastard.
I rolled my eyes. "You're bleeding genius." I pointed to his gashed arm and his eyes widened.
"Shit." He mumbled.
"We need to get you to a hospital."
His mouth formed an "o" shape and he shook his head. "No I don't need a hospital." He insisted.
"But you need to have that looked at..."
"No." He replied sternly.
"Then go back to your house. Maybe your parents can-"
"I can't go home like this." He cut me off and he began walking in the direction that he had come from.
I sighed deeply and held the bridge of my nose.
"Come on buddy boy. That needs to be patched up." I said whilst tugging on his arm that wasn't oozing out blood. My hand felt kind of tingly when I grabbed his, but I just ignored it and began pulling him in the direction that I had just come from.
"Woa. If you wanted to take me home you could have just asked. I don't think I have a condom on me..." He trailed of while patting his jean pockets.
I dropped his hand from mine.
"You need stitches you pervert. I was bringing you to my house to stitch that gash in your arm which I'm not even going to ask how you got, even though it obviously wasn't from you falling on the sidewalk. You won't go to the hospital which I'm not asking about either. Now shut up unless you want to bleed to death." I almost shouted at him.
My blood boiled, the nerve of this guy. Well this is the last time I'm nice to someone. Come on Abby control your anger: Breath in, breath out.
His mouth opened and closed much like a fish out of water. He was at a loss for words. It's about damn time!
We walked the rest of the way in silence. Thankfully Kayla and Ethan were at summer camp and to my relief Jer was out of the house by the time I got back (job hunting most likely). The clock on my iPod read 7:30. They must have just left.
"Wait here. And don't touch anything." I warned. The stranger nodded his head and gave me a mock salute.
Rolling my eyes, I walked into Dev's bathroom and grabbed the first aid kit. Dad had been a doctor and a complete safety guru. He wanted to be sure that we could take care of ourselves so he taught my brothers how to stitch and patch up their wounds. When I was old enough Dev taught me, and eventually Kayla and Ethan would learn.
I walked into the kitchen with the first aid kit in my hands. The stranger was standing at the kitchen sink and wincing in pain as he washed his cut out with water.
Yeah I know what your all thinking: Abby your insane! Why would you bring a complete stranger into your home!? It's obvious that he had been in some sort of fight which included knives! What if he's a serial killer!?
That's exactly what I was thinking at the moment. I guess that it was my only option though since he had refused to go to the hospital or his house. Even I'm not going to let someone bleed to death -I'm not that evil.
I ran up to him and turned off the water.
"I told you not to touch anything" I scolded.
"But-"
"No but's, I was going to clean out your cut with saline solution." I huffed as I cut him off.
"What? What's tha-"
"Never mind. Just let me see your cut." I cut him off yet again.
The stranger grumbled and held out his arm for me to see. It wasn't as bad as I had initially thought. The gash that I had originally thought I saw was just a cleanly cut slash. It was still pretty severe but it wasn't jagged, nor had a vein been cut. He was lucky, really lucky.
"Now don't move your arm okay? I'm not going to lie... this is going to hurt." I added honestly. I might as well tell him the truth right?
While opening the first aid kit I peeked over at the stranger. He was mumbling obscenities under his breath and he held his bottom lip with his thumb and index finger as he thought about something. He was attractive (this I had to admit), but I didn't go for guys with just good looks. He needed to have a great personality and so far this guy didn't.
But who was I to judge.
His wound had begun to bleed again so I quickly washed it out with the saline solution that I had in the first aid kit -saline solution has very little sodium in it and therefore makes it less painful. I washed my hands and added some antiseptic ointment to his cut.
"Do you have a lighter?" I questioned whilst pulling out what I needed to stitch up his arm from the first aid kit.
He nodded his head and handed me a black lighter with skulls on it.
How original.
"Okay I'm about to start. Looks like you'll need around thirty stitches." I stated.
"Can't you just wrap it up?" The stranger pleaded.
"Can't you just shut your trap and stop asking me stupid questions?"
"Feisty, I like it." He purred. He then had the nerve to wink at me and smirk. Damn I just wanted to wipe that smirk right off his face.
"I'm trying to be nice okay? I'm not usually nice."
He mumbled something along the lines of "I can tell".
Rolling my eyes I took his lighter and put the needle from the first aid kit over the flame. I threaded the needle with some surgical thread that looked kind of like fishing line and held down his arm as I inserted the needle. He clenched his jaw in pain as I began.
After about six stitches it looked like he was going to break something so I tried to take his mind off things.
"Talk to me." I insisted.
"What?"
"Talk to me," I repeated "it'll take your mind off of it."
"Well I'm looking for a quick bang if your interested..."
I stopped mid-stitch and gave him a pointed look. "I can easily mess up, you get that right?"
"You're no fun." The stranger pouted.
"Just make small talk. For example: what's your name? Your sitting in my house and I have no idea what your name is." I suggested as I resumed stitching his arm.
"You don't know who I am?" He sounded dumbfounded. Like I said before: cocky bastard.
"I wouldn't be asking if I did" I answered in a 'duh' tone.
"It's Ashton, Ashton Clarke."
Like hell if I was telling him my real name. He could still be a serial killer after all.
"Well I'm Veronica Williams. It's... Uh... Decent to meet you?"
Ashton chuckled. "Nice to meet you too. Your name's Veronica? You don't look like a Veronica..." Ashton trailed off.
Shit! My cover's blown!
"Yeah I get that a lot"
"What school do you go to?"
Rivercrest High. But he didn't need to know that.
"I don't remember the name. It's pretty close to here though."
"Rivercrest?"
"No I think it started with a D or a J." I was lying straight through my teeth. I really hoped that he wouldn't catch it though.
"Oh Darren High? I have a friend that goes there."
Damn I was on fire today! Must be the luck of the Irish.
"Cool," I replied as I finished with the last stitch and cut off the remaining thread. "All done."
I wrapped his arm up in an elastic bandage and put everything back in the first aid kit.
"Your going to need to take those out in about ten days. Try not to move it too much. And go to a damn doctor okay? I don't know how well I stitched it. Make sure you switch out the bandage everyday. Don't blame me if you get an infection, I don't need to go to juvy again. Dev would probably kill me if I did..." I rambled.
He cut me off by waving his hand and dismissing the topic.
"They look fine to me. And your one sexy nurse." Ashton winked at me.
I rolled my eyes and fought an oncoming blush. Yep he's a keeper. Note the sarcasm.
"Just get out." I huffed as I began pushing him out the door.
"But baby I thought you had fun last night." Ashton smirked as I gave him one final push out the door and slammed it in his face.
Pervert.
A/N:
Bam! Chapter 4 is done! Abby finally met Ashton, even if it wasn't in the greatest way. Sorry I didn't update yesterday. My computer is a complete pain in the ass.
FYI:
The next chapter should have some more "Veronica" and Ashton action ;)