Page 58 of Tailwhip
At that time, Joanna speaks to her, so quiet you have to strain your ears to hear her, but I hear everything. “I’m so sorry, Ashlynn.”
Ashlynn stands up and just squeezes her shoulder before walking out of the room. I think we are all stunned with the compassion Ashlynn just showed her attacker. I stand for a few minutes in the room while they take Joanna, then turn and leave as well. I need to find Ashlynn now.
I get out of the room right when Ashlynn turns the corner. I shout her name. “ASHLYNN.”
She doesn’t stop; if anything, she tries to walk faster, but her short legs are nothing to my large strides. She keeps walking away from me, and once we make it outside of the station, I have no choice, but to yell at her, “ASHLYNN, STOP!”
Surprised that she does, I see her take a deep breath and turn around to finally face me. I throw my hands up. “A restraining order, really? She hurt you, I mean, look at your face.”
Letting out an emotionless laugh, she says, “Wow Anthony, really?”
Right then, I realized what I said, and it came out wrong. “Ashlynn, that’s not what I meant. Just that you are going to have that scar forever because of her and that’s it? Just a restraining order.”
I see a tear roll down her cheek, and she quickly wipes it away when she looks me straight in the eye. “Yeah, Anthony, that’s it.”
I am grasping at straws here, just trying to keep her talking to me. “She hurt you, sweetheart.”
Ashlynn shakes her head. “She did hurt me, but you hurt me more when I needed you and you pushed me away. I deserved a kinder goodbye from you.”
I am stunned speechless as Ashlynn turns to walk away. Soon, Heath comes up to her and places his hand on her lower back to help her in his car. He looks over at me and just gives me a head nod. Then they drive off. I don’t know if I’ll ever see her again. I deserve every harsh word she says to me. I turn and walk away in the opposite direction, with Chase yelling at me from the rental car. I just continue to walk away to clear my head. I feel like my heart was just ripped from my chest by her words.
34
Anthony
Holding the Embers – We Came as Romans
It’s New Year’s Eve and I haven’t stopped numbing my feelings since finally leaving Colorado and Ashlynn behind. I decided to have a huge party at my house for the New Years. There are so many people here that I don’t even know who most of them are. That’s what happens when you invite people and tell them to also invite people. As long as cops aren’t called, we will be good.
I am having a good time with the team and a few skaters that live in Greenville. After a while, Nick and Neha show up, which puts a damper on the party for me because I am sure Neha will want to talk about what happened. Something I am trying to drink away. They come over and say hi to me. I am surprised Neha even acknowledges me, but she does. “Anthony, how are you doing? I haven’t seen you in a while.”
I take a swig of my rum and coke, “Yeah, things are whatever. I guess I’m doing okay.” Neha gives me a look that I can’t try to bullshit with her because she knows better. After I catch up with Nick, Jax comes over to have me go play beer pong with him against some girls from town.
I get over to the ping pong table and look over at the two girls we are playing against. They are cute, I guess. Either one will do if I decide to take her upstairs and maybe have some fun for the night. My judgment has been skewed lately. I agree to several games of beer pong, though beer has changed into shots, with these two girls and the bets continue to get out of hand, with the current one, that I can take one of them upstairs. Both seem all too eager to get into my bedroom. Jax and I win; we turn our backs to the girls; deciding which one I get and which one Jax gets. I take the blonde with brown eyes and take her hand to lead her to my room. Like I said, she’s way too eager to go with me.
Once I have the door closed, she tries to pull my mouth down to hers for a kiss, but I don’t budge and tell her, “I’m not kissing you. You can get naked and get on the bed, so we can start this.”
She huffs out an annoyed sigh that I don’t want to kiss her, but she does what I tell her. I watch as she undresses and have no feelings about it. All I can think is she doesn’t hold a flame to Ashlynn’s curves, tan skin, brown hair that I would wrap around my fist and piercing hazel eyes that I feel deep in me. She moves and lays down, trying to be sexy, and it’s just not working. “Get on your hands and knees.”
I snap at her as I unzip my jeans; I pump my cock once, twice, before I line it up to her. I can feel her heat on the head of my cock. I am just standing there, when suddenly, I start swaying, and my legs become unsteady. She looks back at me. “Is there a problem?”
I give her a drunk smirk. “No problem, my cock is hard as fuck, but you’re not her.” I put myself back in my jeans. “Get dressed and get the fuck out of here.”
Once she finishes dressing, she turns to me to tell me off. I can see it all over her face and that’s when it happens: I start vomiting on the floor and get a little on her heels she is wearing. She lets out a scream and I somehow manage to tell her, “They are ugly heels, anyway!”
Last thing I hear is my room door slam shut to the point that it shakes the pictures on my wall, and I black out.
Opening my eyes, I feel like death. Somehow, I made it into my bed. As I glance down, I see vomit on the floor and a trash can filled with more. Closing my eyes again, I roll over, clutching my head, only to bump into another body. My eyes snap open. “NEHA! Why are you in my bed? We didn’t–please tell me that this isn’t what I think?”
She scoffs at me, “Easy there, killer, we most definitely did not do anything. That rando you brought up with you last night came down upset and said you were getting sick.”
Oh god, I did bring a girl up here last night, fuck me. I got out of hand with my drinking. Breaking me out of my self-pity, Neha starts to talk. “Nick and I took turns checking up on you through the night, making sure you would be okay, asshole.”
There is an uncomfortable silence between us when the door opens and Nick walks in. “Ah, he lives. Here’s some water and medicine for you.”
I take both and quickly down the pills. After that, I manage to get out of bed and clean up my mess, thankful for my hardwood flooring. I am exhausted after that bit of movement and crash again.
It’s around 7PM when I finally manage to get out of bed and shower. I still feel horrible and slightly embarrassed by how I acted last night. I have never blacked out before and that is crossing the line. I don’t remember all of it. I ignore everyone still at the house, which is only the team, Nick, and Neha. I go out and sit on the deck of one of my ramps; this is a place I come when I need to try and calm the storm that is in my head. Once sitting on the deck, I look at my phone and feel my stomach start turning, right there when I open my phone. I sent a text message to Ashlynn, right at midnight, telling her Happy New Years and I hope she is happy that Joanna broke us. I blame that solely on the alcohol. I have fought the urge to reach out to Ashlynn and plead with her to just take me back and to apologize to her, but that’s what I decided to tell her. My message, though, shows as unread, which is a slight relief.