Dysphoria

Chapter Fourteen

I went downstairs feeling refreshed and decided I need to get my head back on track, take my head off what happened at Fez's place, and the easiest way to do that was clean the house.

I threw open the windows and started blasting music from the speaker in the living room so loud you could hear it through the house. I vacuumed and scrubbed, really feeling better as the house got more organized.

There's was an unexpected nock on the door.

"It's me, open up."

I knew that voice. What the fuck?

"Ash? What are doing here? Is everything okay?" I asked opening the door.

"Yeah we all straight. I just came by to do the grass an stuff like you said." He said with his hands in his pockets.

"He's not here is he?" I ask searching the street for Fez's car.

"Nah. He dropped me off." He shook his head, trying to hide his feelings about something.

"Oh okay." I don't know whether I feel relieved or sad not to see him. "Ash you don't have to do that, I'll manage it."

"Nah nah we had a deal bruh. You can't back out now and fuck with my bottom line."

I knew he wasn't going to listen to my awkward excuses.

"Come on in, things are a mess but I'm just trying to clean up in here." I sighed.

Ash walked around the house with his hands on his pockets taking it all.

"So this is how the other half be livin huh."

I had to admit I was growing fonder of the place. The hard wood floors were one of my favorite features, and the big old windows let in lovely evening light. It needed some paint and tlc but it was a gem.

"So where's the mower at?"

"I think the realtor said there was one in the shed but I haven't gone back to check. Let's go." I led him out the bad door.

When we open up the shed door it's clear this 'mower' wouldn't cut shit.

Me and Ash looked at each other in grim determination.

"Where's the nearest Home Depot?"

We jumped into the Audi and started drivin, Ash had a million questions about the car as we blasted music, went through Starbucks and got to the hardware store.

I had to drag Ash away from the bolt cutters and we made our way to the area with lawnmowers, hedge cutters, and electric tools.

We were looking at the push mowers, they were all pretty basic, around $300 to $400.

Ash walked over to the ride on mowers. An assistant came over, he was in his 20's and was very eager to chat with me.

"Hey, I'm Steven. Can I help you? With...anything?" He smiled at me.

"Hi Steven. Can you tell me the spec on this one?" I point at a cherry red ride on Craftsman with manual gears.

He starts listing off a bunch of shit I really didn't care about. "This beauty is $1699.99"

"Ash, can you drive manual?"

He looked at me like I was dumb as a rock.

"Okay okay I was just checking." I turn to look at Steven who was straight up flirting with me now, asking me about my accent and that bullshit. He was also completely ignoring Ash who was scowling at him.

"Steven, do you have any John Deere's ?" I ask him with an easy smile.

"Um yup right around here. This one is our most expensive model in store, the S100 side by side." He ran his hand along the impressive machine.