Sprinkles {#Wattys2018} ✔

24 \ M E L T E D #2

24 [m e l t e d]

part two of two.

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It was nearing closing time for Jimmy's Ice Cream Parlour. Charlotte was still working, despite the fact it outside was becoming dark. She decided it was best to work a couple extra hours to help clean the store, to make a few extra bucks and to clear her mind.

She was cleaning tabletops one by one, and the only other person in the parlour left was Michelle, who was still presumably in her back office sleeping or lounging.

There weren't any customers that were left, so Charlotte was alone with her own thoughts again. She hummed a random tune in the back of her throat while she scrubbed the countertops.

All of the sudden, the door had rung, signaling someone had entered the parlour.

Without looking up from the table during her intense cleaning session, Charlotte simply shouted to whoever was at the door, "We are closing up the parlour and we aren't taking any orders. Sorry."

She didn't hear the person say anything, so she looked upwards to see who was at the door. "Excuse me, I said--"

She froze mid-sentence, her heart suddenly beating wildly in her chest.

"Charlotte."

She couldn't breathe, as the sight of who was lingering at the door knocked all of the oxygen from her lungd. Charlotte just stood at the table, a wet cloth tightly clutched in her hand. Her eyes widened and stared blankly at who entered the parlour. Water dripped onto the floor due to the wet cloth, filling in the empty silence.

"Ash." She barely could speak.

He looked horrible, to say the least. And drunk. He shifted his foot from side to side, his usually green eyes were red-rimmed from sleep deprivation, and his hair was greasy like he hadn't showered in days. Weeks maybe, Charlotte wouldn't know.

"Charlotte . . ." He repeated, swaying a little. He gripped onto a booth seat to steady himself.

She squinted her eyes and whispered, "W-What the hell are you doing here?"

"I came to see you. To talk to you."

He took a couple of steps towards her. She backed away instinctively, and his dark gem eyes filled with hurt. He reminded her of her father.

Ash lowered his eyes to the ground, shameful.

She didn't say a word, pursing her lips together and holding her head high, chin in the air confidently. He wanted to see her? She the began to unleash the anger she had towards Asher, and gripped the wet cloth harder. Turning her head back to the table, she started scrubbing the table vigorously.

"Oh, really? You want to talk, now?" She scrubbed the table harder, even though it was clearly clean.

Asher walked towards the booth she was scrubbing, sadness evident in his eyes. Charlotte ignored Asher's looming presence beside her and resumed her work.

He held her wrist to stop her from scrubbing the table.

"Charlotte, I know—"

She whipped her head to look him straight in the eye. She was filled with rage and couldn't contain it any longer.

"No, you don't! You don't know what it feels like to have your heart broken over and over again. To have the one person you thought cared about you tell you that you are nothing, and that you have nothing! I'm tired of people treating me like I'm shit." Her voice wasn't a whisper anymore and her eyes weren't dry. Tears streamed down her face as she relentlessly released her true feelings.

"Charlotte, I didn't really mean—" Asher tried remain calm inside, but hearing Charlotte sound so broken broke his heart into tiny pieces.

"You don't even know what happened to me that damn night, Asher!" She screamed, and even more tears fell onto the tabletop. She didn't clean them up.

He couldn't make any words come out of his mouth. He was utterly shocked, taken aback by her boldness.

"Do you know what happened?"

He gulped, shaking his head. Charlotte squinted her eyes, her hands feeling shaky but her voice remaining strong.

"I was so excited on the date with Nick at first," she stated, her eye twitching. "He seemed like a sweet guy, and even paid for dinner. Everything went pretty well and normal, we talked for a while and then went to the dance floor. We eventually slow-danced but something just didn't feel right. . . His hand traveled abnormally further down my waist as he tried to kiss me, and even though I said, no, he persisted. He said, 'Loosen up a little. I can make you feel good.'"

"I told him I was going to go to the bathroom before he could touch me anywhere else," her voice shook with a tremor at the memory, and she crossed her arms in front of her chest. She felt vulnerable, out in the open and exposed.

Asher, meanwhile, attempted to contain his anger by clenching his fists until his knuckles turned white. His cheeks were turning red and his eyes flickered with a murderous expression. His jaw ticked as he thought of ways to handle Nick, and not in the good way.

Charlotte, surprisingly, was not finished. She continued warily, "Once I came out of the bathroom, he was waiting for me by the bar. I could tell he had a number of drinks, so I told him I wanted to leave. He took me out of the Red Barn, but we didn't go to his car. I was confused.  Instead, Nick brought me to the side of the resturant, and his hand gripped my arm so much it hurt. He pushed me up the brick wall and started touching me more and no matter how hard I tried to get him off me, he was too strong. He. . . He tried taking my clothes off, but I kicked him as hard as I could. . .

"I was so scared, Ash," Charlotte admitted, trembling as she remembered Nick's filthy hands on her waist, her dress and her legs. "I thought he was going to rape me, or worse. He didn't get to. A guy I saw at the bar had been talking with him knocked Nick out."

She sniffled, "And then the man offered me a ride home. Obviously I declined it, but  thanked him. I was too frightened to be with another man at the moment. Except. . . Except you.

"That was when I called you. I knew I could trust you. Your actions, however, told me differently. You—"

Asher threw his hands into the air. "I didn't know that asshole tried to take advantage of you and if I did, then I would've killed him, I would've! I--"

Charlotte threw the wet cloth onto the floor and smacked Asher hard in the face. The loud sound echoed throughout Jimmy's Ice Cream Parlour.

Asher brought his hand up to his face, cradling the cheek that had been hit. "I guess I deserved that," he mumbled.

"Yes, you certainly did. Just because you didn't know about Nick doesn't justify what you did," Charlotte re-crossed her arms around her chest and huffed in annoyance. She looked off to the side, not wanting to look Asher in his beautiful eyes.

It was only until she turned her head back to him, seconds later, that he crashed his lips to hers once again.

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