No Alpha, I Do Not Like Your Abs

Chapter 3: Slushies

I strolled over to my regular table and sat down.  Ash was already there with our other friends, and I noticed that Camila was sitting there too. Kind of out of the ordinary, but I let it slide. I plopped down next to Ash and pulled out my notebook, ready to copy all of his History notes. He rolled his eyes and slid his notes towards me, going back to talking to Camila. I frowned. Since when had those two become so close.

"Oh Tayllooorrr"

A smile shot across my face as Anne slid into the chair in front of me. If Ash and I were best friends, then Anne and I were siblings. We were two peas in a pod, and I don't think Ash appreciated that. Sometimes he would make strange remarks when Anne and I hung around each other or would try to make plans with me when he knew that I already had plans with Anne. As if to prove my point, Ash rolled his eyes when he saw that Anne had slid in front of me. She sniffed the air and raised an eyebrow in question.

"New perfume?"

I nodded. I had sprinkled some of the wolfsbane solution onto the inside of my wrists before leaving the lab, just to see how it felt and to test it out around others. 

"Yeah, like it?"

She nodded quickly, her pink-striped hair waving back and forth. It still stumped me how the heck she had managed to get her hands on any dye, as all of it had been banned for the past ten years. The werewolves claimed that it "interfered" with their mating process, but I called BS. Even though they were quite secretive about the process, I just didn't believe hair had something to do with it. Every time I brought her dyed hair up and asked her where she got the dye, Anne waggled her eyebrows and said "magic".

"Heck yeah I like it. You smell like just like freshly roasted coffee. Where did you buy it?" she responded, taking a bite of her wrap.

Following in her suit, I waggled my fingers and said, "Magic."

She let out a booming laugh as Ash gave her the side-eye. He was such a crazy head, I swear. But he did have a bit of an excuse. About two years ago, his sister had been taken by the wolves. They had come and simply plucked her out of his house in the middle of the night, not a trace of her to be found. Ash had basically gone insane for three months, desperately trying to find his sister. I had found him sitting on my bed at the end of the summer, weeping into his hands. He hadn't found his sister anywhere, no matter how far he had gone or how hard he had searched. All night he had laid in my bed, crying into my shoulder.

Now, he was especially cautious around the werewolves and their rules. His thoughts were to practice his hate in secret, and not outright express it as Anne did. He would probably die of a heart attack if he knew I was in the protector program. 

We all ate our food, as Ash continued to shake his head at Anne and I's gimmicks. The rest of our day went as normal, with me being bored out of my mind and annoying the crap out of Ash. He was much more pleasant to be around when I wasn't with Anne.

In the afternoons, I rode home with Ash in his car. For some reason, it seemed as if the werewolves never tried to board the afternoon buses. It was strange but we rolled with it. I slammed the door to his mustang, which was probably the nicest car in town. I don't know how it had survived the raids, but my guess was that his dad had hidden it in the woods behind their house.

We rolled out of school and onto the road to our house. Basically all of the smaller, unpaved roads in our town fed out onto the main road. You could get anywhere in town off the main road if you knew what you were doing. 

Ash pulled into the slushy place on the corner of the road, aka my favorite place in the world. It was one of the only places in town that was still standing after the raids, and had the best slushies in the world. I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at Ash.

"Why are we here? What do you want now?"

He just shrugged innocently and got out of the car, strolling into Slushy World. I followed him, grumbling while I stomped like a child behind him. He was already at the counter, ordering our usual; I got half watermelon half sour apple, and he got blue raspberry. I sat down at one of the rickety tables as he brought our slushies over. I began to slurp mine as he tapped his fingers against his. My eyes narrowed once again.

"So spill, what do you want?" I asked him.

"What, you think because I bought you a slushy means I want something?" he said with an innocent grin. I socked him in his shoulder from across the table, causing him to choke on his slushy.

"Yes, I believe you do. Slushy dates are sacred, we all know that. Now what" poke  "do" poke  "you" poke "want?" poke.

He swatted my finger away from his chest and gave me a serious look. Ah, here it comes.

"Listen, Tay, you need to stay away from Anne. She's bad news, I can feel it. The last thing we need is for you to gain the attention of those monsters, and hanging with her is the best way to do that. She's reckless and doesn't think of the consequences of her actions. We don't need to gain any more attention than we've already got, and I worry about you. I already lost Alaya, I can't lose you too."

His eyes started to tear up as he took a sip of his slushy. My harsh face softened as I took his hand in mine and gave it a small squeeze.

"Hey now, it's all ok. I promise I'll be careful, yeah? You don't need to worry about me. I've got plenty of tricks up my sleeve. And besides, werewolves almost never come up here. This is probably the safest place for me to be. Plus, I've got you to protect me, eh?" I gently flicked his nose as he gave a small smile. I grabbed a napkin and wiped the tears off of his face. 

"Now, let's finish our slushies and get out of here." 

We spent the rest of the time joking around and getting some of the worst brain freezes I've ever experienced. I swear my eyes went cross-eyed as I chugged the last third of mine, while Ash was muttering about how dumb I was. He looked at his watch as his eyes widened.

"Oh shit, I'm almost late for work."

We quickly ran out of the shop as I slipped a dollar bill into the tip jar, waving bye to the owner. She waved back with a jolly flick of her wrist.

Ash sped back onto the main road, definitely disobeying all speed limits. My hand gripped the side of my seat so hard that my knuckles turned white.

"Might wanna slow down before you kill us Ash."

He grinned in response and went even faster, drifting onto the path to our houses. As soon as he stopped, I jumped out of the car and waved as he pulled into his driveway and ran inside. Yep, he was definitely late for work. He didn't even say bye. 

I opened my door and threw down my bag, sitting on the couch in our living room. My mom should be home soon. It was just us who lived here; I didn't have any siblings or anything, and dad was gone. That was probably why Ash and I had become so close when we were so young. It was just my mom and I living in our cute little house. I got up and grabbed some goldfish out of the cupboard, somehow hungry again after I had just had a whole slushy.

I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and dialed Anne, who answered with a happy, "Hellooo!"

I grinned evilly and asked her, "Got any extra hair dye I can borrow?"