west side, ashtray; season one

33

valerie

i stared out onto the streets as i heard the door behind me open. 'cmon, let's go.' a low giggle came from behind.

i turned around and saw jules and rue, their hands interlocked, pulling each other out and towards the road.

'oh. hey valerie.' jules said, giggling while turning back to rue who gave me a weak smile.

'are you ok? you left for like a good 30 minutes,' rue asked, moving closer to me. 'yeah im fine, don't worry. im just waiting for someone to pick me up.' i responded, pressing my lips together.

'ah... ok well, goodbye valerie.' she said before turning around and pulling jules with her.

as they disappeared in the distance, the well known and familiar black car rolled slowly in front of me.

'yo.' ash said, rolling the window down. this was the first time ive ever seen ash driving. alone too.

i walked towards the door and opened it, letting myself drop onto the chair. 'hey,' i sighed, turning my head to ash.

'you good?' he asked as he started to drive off. 'yeah, no, im fine.' i responded, buckling in my seatbelt.

'im hungry.' i said as he drove onto the main road, paying full attention. he laughed and looked at me, 'you're always hungry, we can stop somewhere if you like.' he nodded which made me smile and nod back.

'mcdonalds?' i asked, hoping he would say yes. 'anything for you.' he said, a little too serious.

i looked around the car, it felt weird sitting in the front seat since i always sat at the back. my eyes ran to and fro the bumps and curves around the car, my eyes soon focused on the cup holder where a folded piece of paper sat with what i think is my name on it.

i furrowed my eyebrows and looked towards ash. 'what's that?' i asked pointing to the paper.

he turned his eyes to where the paper sat before grabbing it quickly and putting it into his pocket.

'nothing.' he responded, reaching his hand towards the radio. 'connect your phone, play something,' he said, obviously trying to get me to stop asking any further questions about the paper.

i pulled out my phone and connected it to the car. i opened spotify and started to play 'excitement' by trippie.

'i fuck with yo music heavy,' he said, smirking. 'i do too.' i laughed.

as we pulled up into the mcdonald's drive through, ashtray turned to me. 'what you want, ma?' he asked as we sat stationary, waiting for the car in front to move.

'20 chicken nuggets, a chicken legend and uhm, a mcflurry, please.' i responded, looking at him.

he laughed and shook his head, 'you gon eat all that?' he asked which honestly quite offended me. 'of course, what would you like?' i asked. 'iono, im not too hungry, a burger maybe?' he said before looking down at me, his eyes wondering my whole body.

'fuck, ma. ion even see you wearing that. you look... so good.' he drooled, pretty much mesmerised.

i felt my face heat up and i looked towards my phone before skipping the current song, trying to seem like i was doing something.

well, the song i skipped went to 'poison' by brent faiyaz, which, was probably the most sensual song i could put on right now. i wasn't complaining but i was really hungry was i wasn't thinking of anything like that.

as the car in front of us finally moved, we rolled in saying our order to the machine.

--

as i ate my last bite of the chicken legend, i saw ash taking out the the pickles from his burger. 'you don't like pickles?' i asked. 'nah, they gross.' he said pulling a weird face before taking his own bite from his burger. 'you're so weird, pass them here.' i said. he passed them to me and i put them in my mouth, just the pickles with nothing else.

ash looked at me with a disgusted look. 'im weird?' he asked, shaking his head. 'nah, how do you not like pickles?' i said, opening my nugget box, eating one at a time.

'they feel weird, plus they taste like straight up ass.' he responded. 'nah, now that's where you're wrong, they're good, iono what you're on.' i said, shaking my head in disappointment.

'nah, they just bad, ma.' he said before biting down on the last bite of his burger.

--

'where do you wanna go?' ash asked as i grabbed all the extra paper to throw away. 'hm, i don't know.' i responded before opening the door to throw the paper away.

gladly, we were parked in an empty mcdonalds parking lot with no one around.

i walked out and threw the garbage away before walking back to ash who started to drive off slowly.

'ash! ashtray! you fucking dick!' i called as he kept going. i heard a loud laugh come from the car, obviously from ash. fucking mums life i was going to kill him. 'im not fucking running, ash!' i shouted as he made a very rough and fast u-turn back to me.

as he stopped in front of me with a bright red face due to how hard he was laughing, i leant on the window with a still expression. 'die.' i sneered. 'cant do that, you'll miss me.' he responded, cockily.

'fuck no, i'll forget your ass in less than a week, relax.' i scoffed. 'yeah sure, sure. get in, ma.' he said, leaning over to open the door for me.

i shook my head before getting back in.

without any reassurance or anything, he sped off in the parking lot towards the exit to the main road which made me sink back onto the chair.

'where are we going?' i asked as he turned the complete wrong way to where our houses were.

'i want to take you somewhere.' he said, turning his head towards me before placing his hand on my thigh.

au
short one mb
not proof read

1001 words