For a moment, there was a small silence. No one could believe what had just happened. Three young middle-schoolers, unknowingly in possession of a DVD that's illegal in this country. How could Ashton be so careless? What was he thinking? Those questions all ponder my mind.
At least Jacob broke the silence.
"So let me get this straight. You somehow put an illegal DVD in a case to hide it from the public?"
"Mhm," said Ashton.
"And then you took the other DVD out and put it in the wrong case, and give it your little cousins and his friends?"
"Yup."
"And then, you sent them to take it back to you to get them out of your apartment so we can watch the DVD with no interference?"
"Sounds about right."
"Then what the hell are waiting for?" cried Marcus. "We gotta stop those kids before they fall in the wrong hands!"
"We no time to waste!" I said.
"Let's go, before it's too late!"
We put our jackets on and then headed to Ashton's GMC Sierra. I got in shotgun. Ashton climbed in, started the ignition and drove off.
"Chris will help me," Ashton called. "You two look out and th eside street."
Ashton wasted no time.
"Ashton, what are you doing?" called Jacob from the back. "You're going too slow!"
"There's a speed limit!" Ashton snapped. "The last time I wanna do is get ticketed for something else illegal."
"They could be around here anywhere."
"A-ha! I see them. "
Ashton stopped the truck. There ahead was the boys. Ashton stepped out of the truck.
"Boys! Stop! Where is the video?"
"What video?" asked one of them.
"We're wizards. We don't know anything about videos," said another.
"I don't have time for this!" Ashton snapped. "What did you do with that video I gave you?"
The boys just stood there for a moment. Then they took off running down the street.
"Hey!" called Ashton. "Come back here, you little bastards!"
But they didn't listen and kept on. Ashton let out grumble and went on. We kept on pursuing the boys, until a traffic light turned red.
"Goddammit!" groaned Ashton.
"Take it easy, Ash," said Marcus. "I don't wanna be a pedo."
"Pedo?" asked Jacob."
"Pedos chases kids," explained Marcus.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
Before he could go on, the light turned green and Ashton slammed his foot as the engines roared. But we lost sight of the boys."
"Where the hell did they go?" I asked.
"I think I know," said Ashton. Ashton pulled his truck over. We all got out.
"Follow me," be said. I have a clue where they are."
We followed Ashton to a dark neighborhood. We went to this house and went to a backyard. And there was a small clubhouse that read "WIZARDS ONLY!!!"
Ashton stopped. "No, they're not dumb enough to hide there."
He turned around to the back door. He gave us the signal to follow him to a back Door. He got a key ring off his belt and he took a key out and opened the door.
"Whose house is this?" I asked.
"It's my older cousin's," Ashton explained. "Those little kids are here somewhere. I know it."
Then, we heard a cough coming from the downstairs cellar.
"Bingo!" whispered Ashton. He stepped slowly forward and opened the doors. And there were the boys!
"A-ha! I knew we'd find you here!"The boys screamed and raced like mice. We chased them outside But I see Ashton lift Tyler by his shirt and pinned him against the wall.
"Hey! Let me go right now!" squeaked Tyler. He squirmed and kicked, but Ashton held him tightly.
"Not until you tell me where the video is."
"I don't know what you mean!"
"Don't play games. Tell me right now, or else."
"Or else what?"
With his other hand, Ashton tickled Tyler's belly.
"Hey, cut it out! Cut it out!" laughed Tyler.
"Will you tell me now?"
"No!"
"Well, it looks like we'll have to do this hard way."
Ashton turned to Jacob and nodded, and Jacob pulled out what looked like a DVD.
"I'm gonna give you ten seconds to tell me where it is, or I'm gonna destory your Fortnite."
"No!" squealed Tyler. "Not my Fortnite!"
"Ten...nine...eight..."
"I'll do anything!"
"Seven...six....five..."
"Please! Anything but that!"
"Four...three...two..."
"come on!"
"One!"
"Okay, okay, I'll talk!" begged Tyler.
Jacob stopped. Ashton put him down. We all listened as Tyerl went into a story how he and friends were in his role-play and they gave the video to a guy and he said he took it back to GameStop. When he finished, Ashton froze.
"You mean to tell me, you took back that video after I specifically ordered you to take it down the street?"
Tyler nodded. Ashton looked like he was gonna faint. But he didn't.
"Come on, guys," he said to us. "Let's go."
"What about us?" said Tyler.
"Just go home," sighed Ashton. And they ran off.
* * *
The ride back to Ashton's apartment was silent. No one said anything. The only music was through his radio, but that's it. I didn't dare look at him. No one did. We knew how aghast he was. We got back to his apartment and we all sat down. No one was sure what to say.
Finally, Ashton broke the silence.
"You guys, I'm so sorry we couldn't have a movie night. I feel this is my fault because I should have made sure that dvd was in the right place."
We all nodded in agreement.
"But we got a bigger problem. My idiot cousin took the DVD in to a store, a mall, which happens to be closed for the weekend, due to this COVID shit. And now we gotta retrieve it before it gets in the wrong hands."
Ashton stood up, and went to his kitchen and returned with a large bottle of whiskey. Then he took a large gulp.
"Oh n-- don't start drinking!" moaned Jacob. "When you drink, you make bad decisions."
"I'm sorry it's just the booze helps me think properly."
"No, it doesn't!" snapped Jacob.
"Shut up, you ugly Jew!" slurred Ashton.
Before anyone could stop him, Jacob lunged at Ashton, but Marcus and I grabbed his jack and restrained him.
"Stop it, stop it!" cried Marcus.
"Anyway, uh, you guys can go home. I'll think of something on how to get that DVD back. I may need you guys' help."
"I don't wan..." Before Jacob saying anything, I clamped my hand over his mouth. "Uh, sure thing."
We left, I saw Jacob turn around and flip Ashton the bird.
As I drove home that night, I started thinking about Ashton. I've known him for about twenty years and he's had a hard life. I know he recently dumped his Vegan girlfriend. He's twenty-eight years old. He's made a lot of bad choices in the past. There was one time, last year, he needed a new TV. He took me and my brother to Walmart so we could help him. He found a forty-six-inch TV for only $599. He liked it. It had Nextflix, Hulu and that other streaming stuff. He could even order a pizza online.
"Damn, this is too much," he said. I agreed. Then he told my brother to go and get a lime from the Produce section. Without asking why, he did so. When he came back, while no one was looking. Ashton took the tag off the lime and put it on the TV. '
"Are you crazy?" my brother said. "That won't work."
"Oh, trust me, it will," replied Ashton.
We took it to the self-checkout area, he scanned it, and sure enough, it rang up thirty-nine cents. Ashton felt very clever. After he paid for the so-called TV,, we left. He could have gotten away with it- if the loss prevention officer wasn't watching. When we got caught, Ashton tried to play dumb and claimed he paid full price for the TV. But the officer didn't believe him. He took us into his office. About ten minutes later, my brother and I were set free, since we didn't really do anything, but Ashton on the other hand, had to pay a lengthy fine, and was banned from the store until further notice.
I parked my car outside my condo, and then I went inside. My roommate, Ty, was inside the living room watching TV. He looked at me.
"Where've you been, Chris?" he asked. "You've been gone for a long time."
I hestaited. "I was over at A..." Before I could finish my sentence, Ty stopped me.
"Were you over at Ashton's again?"
I slowly nodded.
"Chris, I keep telling you, you gotta stop hanging out with him. He's bad news."
"Nonsense. I've known for him a long time. He may have done stupid and illegal things, but he's got issues."
"That's no excuse to do illegal things," replied Ty. "One day, you'll wind up in a bad situation with him."
I scoffed slightly, and took a Budweiser out of the fridge.
"Besides, he's too skinny," added Ty.
I looked at Ty's belly. His gut is larger than mine.
"He sure has no large ass gut," I said to myself.
"What's that?"
"Uh, nothing."
I headed to my room, and went to bed.
