'She was a wild one, but some of us need the storm to feel safe.'
|| Book 1 in the Ashton Wright Series ||
|| Animal Kingdom ||
|| S1 - S3 ||
|| COMPLETED ||
No. 1 in #animalkingdom
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Ashton was in her room sketching a new tattoo for herself when she heard Smurf start yelling, her eyes snapping to the door. She sighed, pushing herself up to stick the paper to her wall by the door. She put sticky tap on each of the corners and stuck it under the others she'd drawn, admiring it for a second. It was two intricately drawn fish, as most of them were, curling into one another as they swam in opposite directions.
'Do I have to go ask Ashton?' Smurf's yelled caught her attention.
'Oh, shit,' She whispered as footsteps approached her room.
She backed away from the woman as she stride toward her fuming, holding her hands up in surrender.
'Where is he?' Smurf asked.
'Who?' She queried.
'J.'
'I don't know.'
She let out a yelp as Smurf grabbed her hair, yanking her head down before she pressed her fingers into her healing neck. She clenched her teeth as she squeezed her eyes shut, her skin burning where her wound lay.
'His backpack is gone! All his clothes are gone! Now, what the hell happened? I won't ask you again,' The woman sneered.
'We were mucking around,' She hissed in pain; 'He fucking can't take a joke. Fuck! I'll go looking for him if you want me too.'
'No. I'll find him myself. You, out of all of them, I thought would at least try to treat him nicely.'
'Who do you think stopped Deran? Hey? I could've let him almost drown him, but I didn't. He's too soft- Shit.'
She whimpered as Smurf dug her nail into her skin, before she shoved her away; letting her tumble backwards over a bag as she walked away. Ashton bit the inside of her cheek to keep herself from crying, her hand cupping her neck. She rubbed her scalp where Smurf had pulled her hair, a shaky breath leaving her mouth. It wasn't the first time Smurf had pulled something like that, and she was sure it wouldn't be the last.
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It was just before midnight when Smurf returned home with J, the boy heading straight to bed. Ashton waited a few minutes before she wandered up to the boy's room, knocking lightly on his door as she stepped inside.
'Hey,' She greeted softly.
'Hey,' He looked at her from where we sat.
'Uh, look, sorry about what happened before. We were just mucking around, we get a bit rough sometimes.'
'It's ok.'
'But, man, some advice. You don't have to act tough around us to try and fit in, you can always say no. Trust me, we're not as smart as we look.'
