You're my goal

Chapter 11

*Sal's POV*

My palms are sweating as I wait impatiently for the rest of the guys to shoot the intro of my punishment. What are they going to make me do? Oh man I need to start doing better on these challenges. I feel like I'm the one who gets the punishment every other time!

I pace back and forth looking over to the makeup station frequently to see Q and Murr still getting ready. Joe is lurking by the snack table in the mean time.

I need to sit down. I can't keep stressing myself out. There will be plenty of time to do that during the punishment.

I walk over to a crowd of chairs set up for the rest of our crew, but everyone is too busy setting up to use them. I pull out my phone hoping to take my mind off of the frustration of not knowing what I have to do today.

"Usually I listen to music to take my mind off things."

I look up to see Ashlyn standing there with her hands in a light blue zip up jacket. She flashes a smile at me when I meet her eyes.

"This is going to be harder with you here."

"I could leave?" She gestures with her thumb over her shoulder.

"No! No. Just make sure to pick me up after I fall to this punishment."

"Don't worry I'll catch you before that happens." She winks at me. My head bobs up and down a little as I let out an inaudible laugh. She throws up her hands, directing her eyes away from me. "Have to return that favor sometime."

"I'm sure I'll think of something."

"Better not leave it too long, you might forget."

"I really doubt I will." I look at her directly as she meets my eyes again.

She rolls her eyes and runs her hand through her hair, pulling back the pieces that keep falling into her face. I didn't notice this before, but she's wearing an accent of blues that compliment her eyes. Her pale blue zip up matches her eyes exactly and her dark wash jean shorts corresponded. When I see she's wearing white vans I can't help but smile to look down and see me wearing my black pair.

"What are you smiling about?" She asks with an innocent look on her face.

It drives me crazy when she uses that expression; or more accurately, sexually frustrated.

"Nice shoes."

Her eyes dart down to her shoes, and then look to mine.

"Wow Murr must be right, you get those new this week? A new pair of shoes each week?" She smirks, and I realize that she's having her fun with me. I don't mind in the slightest, it's pretty cute when she does it.

"Maybe I wouldn't need to replace them every other week if he quit kept stepping on them."

"Touché." She looks over to the makeup station.

Q is the only one left other there. Her eyes linger there for a moment longer; she couldn't merely be glancing in his direction. She must be staring at him. I clench my grip on the chair I'm sitting in. This is annoying me more than it should.

Suddenly her attention snaps back to me, surprising me a little.

"I know Brian told you, but I wanted you to hear this from me. I just didn't know when I'd get the time to tell you. What happened the other night, that wasn't your fault. Not in the slightest. I'm sorry if what happened put you to any distress. That wasn't my intention, I'm sorry."

A huge flood of relief swept over me. Q didn't tell me any of this. Actually, he told me the exact opposite earlier. He said it was my fault. Was he lying to me on purpose? The relief I felt overpowered my anger for Q knowing that I didn't cause what happened with her.