In His Eyes//Fez & Lexi Howard

Chapter Four

Saturday had come by sooner than Lexi was hoping for. Whenever they weren't together, Lexi and Fez texted every single chance they could. They would also call eachother, talking about anything and everything, mostly Lexi but Fez didn't mind. He loved her voice.

"Wait Ash! You need sunscreen before you!" It was too late, the boy had already belly flopped into the cool, blue water. "Dang it, I don't want him to get sunburned."

Lexi turned towards Fez and held the spray up invitingly. Fez groaned.

"Fine, make this shit quick bro," Lexi made quick work, spreading the sunscreen all over Fez and used a cream to apply it around his face.

Her hands held a mind of their own as she traced his features slowly, getting lost in his freckles, trying to connect the dots.

'What is this girl doin to me?' Fez wondered as he stared at Lexi. She looked down at him with pure admiration. Like she wanted to remember every detail about his face and who he was.

A sudden cough from behind the pair erupted as the two broke their trances in a quick, awkward break away.

"Hey, can you pass my frisbee?" A young girl asks, pointing to a bright purple frisbee laying just a foot away from Fez. Lexi reached for the frisbee and tossed it to the girl.

"Sorry! Here you are!" She quickly says, the girl ran away in delight from retrieving her toy.

"You dunbasses gon get in the water or make a porno?" Ash yells right before he got tackled by a wave. Lexi had immediately reddened from his sly remark.

"This bitch," Fez shakes his head and stands up grabbing Lexi's hand. Lexi wore a cute, light pink one piece. The back wasn't fully covered by the material, instead there was a cute cross pattern and the front's neckline scooped a little, the stomach area had a circle cut out, because that's what the trend is now according to Cassie.

The three of them played in the water, mostly Ash and Fez. They were tackling each other, cussing each other out while Lexi waded, finding cute shells and such to keep for herself. Every now and then, one of the boys would get too close and splash Lexi with the cold water. While Fez did it to be annoyingly cute and wanted to see her smile light up, Ash did it so she would hopefully want to go back to the towels.

After they had taken a lunch break, which consisted of homemade sandwiches and chips and drinks from the shop, the boys went back to the water and Lexi decided to sunbathe. Everything was going great. Lexi had gathered enough seashells, the sun was blazing and there wasn't a worry in the world, that was until she heard a blood curdling scream.

Lexi immediately sat up, her maternal instincts quickly being raised. She scanned the beach for Fez and Ash and saw as Ash was laying limp on the ground with Fez near him. Her feet carried faster than her mind did. Lexi grabbed the first aid kit that she brought along because it was the beach and a lot of dangerous things could happen here.

"What happened?" Lexi asks with major concern. Fez is only slightly panicking as Ash is withering in pain. His face was contoured in pure pain and hurt as he held onto his leg.

"A damn jellyfish fucking stung me!" Ash cusses angrily. "If you hadn't told us to come here this wouldn't have happened!" He needed someone to blame and Lexi was the easiest target.

"Yo, quit that shit Ash, she ain't do shit." Fez states firmly. He didn't like how quick Ash was to be rude to Lexi.

"No, it's alright Fez, he's right." Lexi turned towards her first aid kit and pulled out tweezers. "Can you grab the bottle of vinegar in my bag for me please?" Fez looked at Lexi in confusion. Why hadn't she reacted poorly to Ash's bitching? And how did she just have a bottle of vinegar on deck?

"Thank you," She said as she began to work. Lexi poured the vinegar on Ash's leg which he didn't react to. It wasn't until Lexi had barely rested her hand on his leg when Ash flinched. Ash didn't like when people touched him, especially people he didn't know. She had ignored this part as she went in with the tweezers to remove any tentacles that were left in his leg.

"I'm gonna apply this cooling, relief gel Ash." She murmured, not really paying attention to anything but the task at hand. "It should help with the burning sensation, we're gonna have to apply it hourly, maybe more often considering how big of a surface this is. When we get back, I want you to take painkillers, it might help with the discomfort too but if we don't see any progress by tomorrow, I think we should see a professional." Lexi applied the cool gel onto Ash's leg and his head dropped on the sand in relief. It felt really good.

By the time they had gotten back to Fez's place, the three were worn out, tired and desperately all in need of a shower. Lexi, gratefully, was allowed to shower first as Ash was acting like the sting was as bad as an amputation and Fez didn't want to leave those two together in fear that Ash would bite her head off.

Their bathroom was definitely a men's bathroom. While it was kept clean and tidy, there were only men's care products. Lexi tried not to smell the body wash as she recognized it to belong to a certain someone and focused on getting rid of all the grime and sand left on her body from hours before. She temporarily leaned her head against the cool tiles of the shower as she scrubbed her body. Trying not to focus on her stomach or thighs was a struggle that she's fought against since she was in middle school.

Lexi had changed into a shirt that Fez had given her, it was clearly too big and despite her shorts coming to about mid thigh, the shirt still hung over it. She was just about to walk out of the bathroom when she could hear angry whispers from down the hall.

"I don't give a fuck Ash!" Fez said. "She helped you and you didn't even say thank you or nun!" Oh shit, they were definitely talking about her.

"So? It was her idea to come to the beach!" Ash muttered angrily. He knew he should've said thank you, or at least gave her a smile but Ash ignored her the entire ride home, even when Lexi reapplied the cooling gel.

"I ain't raise you to be disrespectful bro," Fez replied with a sigh and went down the hall. He locked eyes with Lexi who slipped past him, despite Fez's attempt to stop and talk to her, maybe to explain why Ash is the way he is. So Fez took this time to shower while Lexi quietly entered the living room.

Growing up, Ash knew how much respect meant to Fez. As a young dealer, Fez was constantly looked over, people never took him seriously and he had to earn his way to be where he was at now. He was nowhere near the top nor did he want to be but in their world, they had to earn respect in order to survive or else they'd be stomped on. Ash knew he was in the wrong. Lexi did take care of him and helped him feel better so when she sat across from him, Ash took to his new plan.

"Listen Lexi," He began trailing slowly. Lexi waved him off immediately.

"I heard, you don't have to thank me or anything of the sort Ash," Lexi avoided eye contact. She was a tad upset. She didn't want to be the thing that caused the two brothers to have a small argument. She didn't feel that important. "It was my idea for the beach plus, I helped you because I wanted to."

"Besides all of that shit, uhm I just wanted to say that I appreciate it." Ash mumbled, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. He was so not good at expressing himself but Lexi didn't want to make him even more uncomfortable.

"It's no problem Ash," Lexi replied with a smile and that was the end of that conversation. Fez had come out of the bathroom, freshly cleaned and switched places with Ash who nodded his head towards Lexi as a sign of 'thanks again'.

———

Yea, Ash is kind of standoffish but what do you expect from someone who has his kind of past?