Bittersweet Sundown

“Good morning,” Ash greeted, entering to Jimmy’s kitchen. Leana was pouring coffee to a cup and Jimmy sat behind the table.

“Morning Ash. Did you sleep well?” Leana asked, flashing a wide smile at her.

“Six hours is unusually long for me, so I guess I can say yes, I slept well,” Ash laughed, not feeling tired at all. It was a nice change for her.

“Want some coffee?” Leana offered her a cup full of steaming black liquid.

“Sure. Thanks sweetie,” Ash smiled, thankfully accepting the drink.

“So what are you planning today?” Jimmy asked when she went to sit down next to him.

“I don’t know yet, thinking about going to the beach,” Ash said aster some sips of coffee.

“Want company?” Leana questioned while leaning against the kitchen cabinet.

“That would be awesome,” Ash nodded happily. Being a bit shy to ask herself, she was glad Leana had offered to go with her.

“I’ll go and see if some of the guys would want to come too,” Jimmy said before disappearing. It didn’t frighten Ash anymore, she was slowly getting used to his erratic manners.

“Do you want something to eat before we go?” Leana emptied her cup and set it to the sink, not bothering to wash it.

“No, I usually don’t eat so early. I’ll grab something later from the beach,” Ash said before emptying her own cup too.

“Give me that and let’s go,” Leana took Ash coffee cup and placed it next to hers. “I know a perfect place on the beach. It’s a bit separated and more peaceful than the rest of the beach.”

They gathered their things and walked out the door.

“Well look at that, the rat is back again,” Brian snarled while passing by Ash.

“Bri, stop it,” Jimmy tried to avoid the oncoming fight.

“Stop what? She’s a spy. Like I said, she’s out for money,” Brian seethed while holding some magazine in front of Jimmy. Ash saw a big headline, announcing that Zacky Vengeance from A7X is having a baby.

“I didn’t tell anyone about it,” Ash said calmly, knowing already that Brian wasn’t gonna believe her.

“You’re the only one who knew about it. It was a test and you failed,” Brian was smug, obviously happy that he was right all along.

“I didn’t talk about this with anyone outside your group. But I understand that I’m not wanted here so I’m not gonna bother you guys again,” she started to gather her things. She was so over fighting with this accusing selfish man that Brian was.

”Wait, what? I’m having a baby?” Zack finally got a hold of the magazine.

“No. Me and Johnny made it up and talked about it so this bitch could hear. And now it’s in the media. So you do realize what it means?” Brian explained, giving Ash an disgusted look. “And now when she’s caught, she’ll run. Like a sneaky little coward she is.”

“What did I do to you to deserve such cruelness? I never meant to do anything bad to you, to any of you. I’m sorry for being friendly towards you. Obviously I’m not worthy enough for you,” Ash said before walking away.

She’d had it with all the drama around Brian. She didn’t need it. She could hear how Jimmy and Brian got into a word fight, she could also hear Michelle’s voice, screaming over the guys. But she kept on walking, it was too much for her. She’d promised herself long ago that she would never force herself to someone who didn’t wanna be her friend.

“Bri, shut the fuck up! It was me who blurted it out. Stop blaming her. And she didn’t mean to tell me, she was just asking where she could find a good shop for baby supplies, to buy something for Zack. She thought we knew already. You’re such a pig,” Michelle almost screamed at her husband. She couldn’t watch how Brian accused this girl for something she herself was at fault.

“Ash! Wait up,” Zack yelled, starting to run after her. Ash didn’t stop, she just needed to get away from Brian. Although none of the other guys had never said anything to her, she didn’t feel welcomed.

“Please wait up. I didn’t have anything to do with it. I swear,” Zack stopped her by grabbing her hand.

“It’s okay, Zack. I don’t blame anyone. You have any reason to doubt me,” Ash said quietly, she didn’t even look at him. Leana and Jimmy joined them, soon followed by Michelle, leaving Brian and Johnny all alone.

“Please don’t be mad at us for what those two idiots did. And forgive me for getting you into this mess. I accidentally let it slip at work. There’s a girl that always bugs me about Zack and I kind of snapped yesterday and told her,” Michelle apologized, standing in front of Ash, not allowing her to walk away.

“It’s okay, really, I’m not mad at anyone. You have every right to not trust me,” Ash told her, meaning every word she said.

“Still, what he did was low,” Zack added, stepping a bit closer too.

“Okay, guys, you make me feel kind of special. I’m not worth it. Stop that worrying, okay. I’ll be happily a friend to any one of you. But only if you want it, I’m not forcing myself to anyone,” Ash smiled. Seeing that they did care about her feelings, made a warm fuzzy knot inside of her stomach.

“I’m gonna be your friend forever. I just know I can trust you with everything,” Jimmy announced with a huge grin, throwing his arm around her shoulders.

“Well, I’m willing to give it a try. Let’s go get some ice cream,” Leana said happily, starting to drag Ash and Jimmy towards the cafe, standing less than five hundred feet away. Zack and Michelle followed them, but stayed a bit behind.

“You think we can really trust her?” Zack asked quietly from Michelle.

“I hope so. She seems like a kindhearted person. I don’t think she would do anything bad to anyone. At least not intentionally,” Michelle said after thinking for a moment. “Jimmy is determined on keeping her around. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

“I’m so tired of having to always be so careful. It would be actually nice to have some new friends,” Zack sighed, driving his hand through his hair.

“Same here, Z, same here,” Michelle agreed before stepping in to the cafe. Leana and Ash were already at the counter, trying to decide what ice cream they would take.

They were almost finishing their ice creams, when Val and Matt joined them.

“So am I gonna hear your side of the story?” Matt asked after sitting down.

“My side of the story is that I only kind of told Michelle. You guys seem so close, so I presumed that she already knew,” Ash said shortly, she didn’t feel like explaining every fact.

“And when did you hear Bri talk about it?” Matt questioned with a serious expression.

“The day we went to that boat trip,” she said, looking at him. She tried to figure out, was he believing her or not.

“It was what? Four days ago? That gave you enough time to leak it out but you kept it to yourself?” Matt inquired thoughtfully.

”Matt, I’m sure it was Shelby. She’s that kind of woman who can’t keep her mouth shut. I’m sorry for snapping at her. I just thought that maybe she’d leave Zack alone when she knows he’ll have a child with a woman he loves,” Michelle tried to explain. Matt looked at her, still pondering in his thoughts.

“Okay. I guess you passed the test,” he smiled at last, turning his gaze at Ash.

“You knew about it?” Val asked her husband.

“No. But I have to admit that it was not a bad idea. I’m sure you understand why we have to be careful with new people,” Matt looked at Ash while saying his last sentence.

“Don’t worry, I know exactly what you mean. I was with Bam, if you remember,” Ash replied.

With Bam, she had seen countless attempts from people who tried to gain their fifteen minutes of fame through him. Some of them even tried to use her to get closer to Bam. This was one of the reasons she nowadays didn’t even mention that she was friends with him. She hadn’t even told Dani yet and they’d been friends for two years by now.

“Well, I guess you are a bit different than girls we usually meet,” Matt had this calculating look in his eyes, his head a bit tilted.

May 14, 2010

Well, my dear diary. I had an interesting day today. I got accused of treachery by Brian. He called me some really nice names again.

He was testing me and by a misunderstanding, he found that I’m guilty of things I didn’t do. Like leaking some information to the press about them. I don’t blame him ‘tho. He has a right to be suspicious. After all, he doesn’t know me.

Michelle and Zack were so sweet to me after this incident. I am so glad that they seem to like me because I really like them too. They are fun to be around.

Anyway, I’m off to sleep now. It’s been a long day and I have a date with Jason tomorrow. I wanna look nice for him :)