west side, ashtray; season one

11

valerie

--

two and a half weeks have passed since the whole drug situation and my life currently only consisted of, going to the store, talking to ash and fez and sometimes attending drug deals that i would get dragged to by my brother.

i've gotten a lot closer to fez and ash but mostly fez since ash has gotten a lot quieter to me for some reason. i didn't want to question it because im sure he had his reasons but i would be lying if i said i wasn't disappointed.

i would sometimes start conversations with him that would go on so well until he would randomly become dry with me halfway though. after a while i stopped trying to put in effort because it was tiring trying to force it.

--

'why have you and ash stopped talking?' fez
asked while placing a uno card on the stack of cards from our previous game. i shrugged not really wanting to go deep into it. 'he's been more serious and quiet, and he's never quiet with me.' fez said placing his last card on the stack before smiling. 'i won,' he said laughing. i smiled hoping he forgot about what he asked.

'you didn't answer my question.' fez said taking the cards from my hand and shuffling the rest of the cards. 'i don't know,' i said but i knew damn well why. he nodded but still wasn't satisfied with my answer.

a few minutes pass in silence but we were now used to it and neither of us complained because it was nice to just sit there in each other's company without talking. i saw fezco like a brother.

summer was coming to and end and i was not happy. i liked doing what im doing right now, the idea of going to school was just annoying me.

atleast now when i go to school i wouldn't be completely alone and have ash. hopefully  he won't ignore in school like he does right now or i'll end up having no friends.

'ion want to go to school,' i said to fezco. he looked up at me and shook his head, 'it's better to stay in school kid, don't be like me or ash.' he replied. oh wow. so now i won't have anyone? not even ash?

'yeah but when i do go i'll have no one,' i said shrugging ignoring the fact that fez just said that him and ash don't go to school. 'that's better than not going at all, you can go college or sum and get a well paid job in the future,' he said passing seven uno cards to me before doing it to himself. 'it's fine anyways, you'll make a lot of friends,' he said before starting a new game of uno. i hope so.

--

after a few long games of uno fezco stood up and walked to the back where ash was. i could barely hear them but i heard fez saying something about leaving for a bit.

fez and ash both walked out the freezer looking down at me. 'i need to for a bit kid, stay here.' he said before he walked out the door and left. that left me and ash together. alone.

ash sat down infront of me where fez was sitting before and picked up fezs cards placed face down on the table. 'whose turn is it?' he said looking at like he hasn't been ignore me for the past few days. 'yours,' i said.

we played uno until i won a bunch of times which made him become extremely salty. 'ahha i won. again,' i said laughing, he scoffed and slammed the cards down. 'do you have normal cards or just uno?' i said ignoring his action. 'i don't know, want me to check?' he asked. i nodded to which he got up and went behind the counter to pull out a regular deck of cards. i smiled and actioned with my hand to come here. he sat down and looked at me confused.

as a child i used to play all sorts of card games with my brother before i got gifted a phone for my 7th birthday. 'i know so many games,' i said kind of giddy now. it's been ages and oh how much i wanted to play cards with someone.

--

two hours pass and fezcos still not here, but honestly i didn't mind. me and ash played continuously until we both got too tired to play anymore. these two hours made me realise that ash wasn't as tough as he made up to be.

we talked about life in general, our past, our future and anything we could think of. there was not one moment of silence during it. and none of what we said was awkward. ash would sometimes throw in some flirting which would just make me too flustered to give the same response back.

'when do you think fez will be back,' i asked ash who was sitting on the counter eating a bag of lays. i watched him as he shrugged. 'hey there's a party on the last weekend of summer, wanna come?' he asked still looking at me. i wasn't a big party person, even back when i lived in georgia but maybe this will be good for me, i can make friends before going to school. 'maybe,' i said getting up from my chair and sitting in the counter next to ash. 'i can ask fez to drive you if you want to come,' he added. i nodded and watched the door in case fezco came.

'hey ash,' i started off still looking at the door. he looked over to me, 'what?' he said still munching on his lays which made me smile a bit. 'why'd you air me,' i said forcing myself to drop my smile to show that i was being serious.

he looked at me and his face softened a bit. he put the bag of lays down next to him and looked down at the floor. 'iono.' he said shaking his head. 'were you mad at me?' i said trying to understand. 'no val.' he said seriously. 'ok... so why?' i said still trying to know why. 'i was scared.' he said still looking at me. 'what do you mean?'

'i mean that when i saw you at that drug deal i panicked, i thought you wouldn't want to talk to me anymore,'

i was not expecting that. why would i not want to talk to him when i was the one at the drug deal too? i sighed and looked at ash. 'why would i stop talking to you? i was there as well.' i said moving a little closer to him. 'i mean yeah i know but...' he stopped half way not knowing what to say. 'im sorry,' i said and leaned my head on his shoulder. i wasn't thinking at that moment and wanted to show him that i wouldn't stop talking to him because he was a drug dealer.

i felt his head lean against mine and we both just sat there for a bit until we both heard the door open. i jumped up from the counter to get away from ash and laughed awkwardly as i saw fez walk in. ash headed back to the back and i just stood there.

au
val and ash sitting in a tree😭
i didn't proof read btw sorry

1250 words