✓ | TEENS AND THINGS → richie tozier ²

five

"MOM?" ASH said, stepping into her house.

She was greeted with silence, and looked around hesitantly. "Mom?"

"In here, honey!"

Ash jammed her cigarettes into her back pocket, and walked into the living room.

"Yeah?" She asked, and she stopped abruptly in the doorway as her mom looked up from where she was sitting on the couch.

A man sitting across from her looked up also, and Ash's forehead creased.

"What's going on?" She asked, looking between them, and her mother smiled.

"Ashley," She said. "This is your dad."

Ash stared at him, and he waved timidly. "Hey, sweetheart."

"N-no." Ash stuttered, swallowing hard. "This isn't– it's not–"

But her mom was nodding her head, a weird smile stretched across her milky face, and Ash took a step backwards.

"There's been a mistake you– you can't be my–"

"Dad?" The man asked, looking up at her. "You'll find that I am, darling."

Ash shook her head, and then said in a trembling voice, "A real dad would've been there. A real dad wouldn't have– wouldn't-"

She rubbed her arms self consciously, and he got up from the couch and took a step towards her.

"Sweetie, that was a long time ago-" He reached out to touch her shoulder, but Ash slapped his hand away, glaring at him.

"Ashley!" Her mother said warningly, and Ash turned furiously towards her.

"No!" She said. "You can't just drop a bomb on me like this and expect me to act like everything's fine- like nothing ever happened!"

She glared at both of them before saying abruptly, "I'm going to Richie's."

She turned on her heel and thundered up the stairs to her bedroom, hearing her mother shout, "Ashley Brenner! You get down here this instant!"

Ash grabbed her jacket off the back of her chair and slung it over her shoulders, stomping back down the stairs and immediatly turning towards the front door.

Before she could turn the knob however, she was stopped by her mother.

"Ashley." Her mother said in a sharp voice. "Your father just got home-"

Ashley spun to face her. "Really mom? I had no fuckin' idea!"

"Hey, young lady, watch your language!" Her dad said, also walking towards the front door, and Ash laughed.

"Ohhh right, I forgot!" She face palmed her forehead. "You have no literal clue what's happening in my life right now!"

She smiled sweetly. "Let me fill you in."

"First of all," She began, cutting right across her father. "This summer I made the best friends of my entire life, all of them boys and one girl who sadly moved away to Portland. We spent the whole summer riding around on our bikes, going into abandoned houses, and splashing around in sewers. We called ourselves the Losers Club."