Bittersweet Sundown

May 31, 2010

I am so stupid. I slept with Brian and then I fled. I just left him at the Big Bear and without even leaving a note or anything. I don’t know, guess I panicked. I was afraid that he’d turn back to his evil side now when he got what he wanted. Guess I’ll have to wait ‘til he gets back to find out.

I know this one night is all we had, it’s not gonna happen again. And I’m fine with it. It will only be a beautiful memory...

Ash was unpacking her clothes in her new apartment. It had one bedroom and a huge bathroom. And while the bathroom was beautifully decorated with rock bottom gray and pure white, she hated the walls on the rest of the rooms, they were painted with some ugly shades of brownish orange. And she had to endure them since it was only a rental apartment, she couldn’t paint them over. But she loved the location the building was in. It was quite peaceful around here and it was fairly close to the beach.

She walked back to the living room, showing her tongue out at the ugly walls. There was two more boxes to go through. And she needed to go shopping for some supplies. And she needed groceries. She didn’t have anything edible or to drink.

Just when she reached her destination, Jimmy ran by her, screaming and flailing his hands, almost knocking her down. He disappeared into her bedroom, only to emerge the way he went there, still screaming.

“Jimmy! Stop!” Ash yelled, grabbing a hold of his hand. “What the hell?”

“That’s what I’d like to know. What the hell have you done to this place? It looks scary,” Jimmy stared at her with wide eyes. Ash couldn’t but laugh at him.

“I didn’t murder this place, it was like that. Get used to it,” she shook her head and squatted down to the next box.

“You’re serious,” he muttered, landing his bony butt on the couch.

“Yep. It’s a rental, remember?” she wasn’t happy about it but she had decided to ignore this tasteless catastrophe.

“Damn. Maybe I should accidentally trip and splash some paint on the wall,” Jimmy mused, stroking his chin in thought.

“Don’t get me in trouble, Jims. I really like this neighborhood,” Ash scolded him, giving him a stern look.

“Ugh. Can we at least get you some awesome things, so I’d have something else to look at than these hideous walls,” he shook his shoulders and closed his eyes tightly. He looked like the walls were crashing down on him.

“Sure, J. I was planning a shopping trip anyway,” Ash stood up. She’d had enough of unpacking for now and she was starving.

“Come on then, “ Jimmy jumped up and practically dragged her out of the door.

Ash insisted on having a lunch before going to the stores and so they sat in a cafe, in a table most separated and as far from others as they could. Jimmy was fidgeting around, tilting her coffee cup.

“Jimmy! Stop that,” Ash whispered, quickly grabbing it from him.

“I just wanted to see how much you have left. Drink it already,” he whined. Now he tried to push the cup closer to Ash’s lips.

“You do realize that you are begging for a bruise?” Ash warned, squinting her eyes at him.

“I’ll take two if it gets you moving,” Jimmy was hopefully leaning forward.

“You’ll get three,” she sighed and emptied her cup. Then she stood up and strolled out, deliberately taking her time. Jimmy was almost steaming when she got to her car at last.

“You’re mean,” he pouted, crossing his arms on his chest.

“I’m mean? How about you? You didn’t even let me finish my meal,” Ash snorted, pulling out to the street. Jimmy scoffed but didn’t say anything.

“Hey, where’s Haner? Did he come back with you?” Jimmy asked some time later, turning to look at Ash.

“No, I came alone,” she said, not wanting to talk about Brian.

“What did he do?” Jimmy noticed her reluctant tone.

“Nothing.”

“Right. If he did nothing then why won’t you talk about why you came back alone,” he didn’t drop the subject.

“Maybe I did something. It doesn’t matter. I don’t wanna talk about it,” Ash sighed, parking her car and stepping out. She wasn’t planning on continuing this conversation.

“Fine. I’ll get the details from Brian later. Where did you left him anyway?” he appeared next to her.

“Big Bear,” Ash muttered before entering the Plummers. She didn’t know any good stores yet and this was one Jimmy had named on his long list of shopping places.

She did find a floor lamp she liked but it was expensive. Jimmy was sitting on a couch, next to the lamp.

“Oh, you have to buy at least four of these purple pillows,” he lifted one up. Ash sat down quickly, swatting the pillow from him.

“Do you really have to get me in trouble? You think floating pillows are normal sight here?” she whisper-accused, looking at the pillow in her hands. “And it’s violet, not purple.”

“What ever. It would at least scream back at your stupid walls,” he stated, deciding that she would not leave this store without the pillows.

“Fine. Go and find me same colored rug too then,” she gave up, seeing the determination in his look. Jimmy took off instantly, a happy grin on his lips.

Finally, she walked out of the store with that lamp she liked, four violet pillows, three golden pillows, a violet rug and a four piece set of wall graphics she indented to hide at least some of the ugliness at home.

“Matt and Val are having a pool party day after tomorrow,” Jimmy said, watching as she stuffed her things into the car.

“Really?” she asked, standing up to look at him over the car.

“Yep. It’s gonna be the coolest party ever,” he beamed. He was leaning his hands on the cars roof. Ash smirked and rolled her eyes at him. Before closing the car’s door, something over the street caught her eye. Without saying a word, she walked towards the store.

“Hey, where are you going?” of course Jimmy was not staying behind.

“There,” Ash nodded at the store in front of her.

“But they sell pool supplies. You don’t have a pool,” he was a bit confused. Ash only smiled and looked around the store. She spotted what she needed at the counter, next to the cash register. A minute later she walked out with a bottle of red Party Pool Color Dye.

“Have they colored their pool water before?” she asked when they were safely sitting in her car.

“Not that I know,” Jimmy answered, thinking about it.

“In that case you can’t tell anyone about it, okay? Let’s see what they think when suddenly their pool turns to red,” Ash smirked. “Actually you could sneak it in so nobody notices, right?”

“You bet. Great idea,” Jimmy rubbed his hands together. “Oh, and Val expects us over for a dinner in fifteen minutes.”

“What?” Ash raised her brow at him. “And you couldn’t tell me earlier?”

“I just remembered it,” he made a puppy face and Ash shook her head, getting into her car. From where they were now, it would be at least twenty minutes drive to Sanders’ place.

“Hide the damn dye, will ya,” Ash said while turning to the driveway. Matt and Johnny were talking beside Johnny’s car. Jimmy slid the bottle he was still holding underneath the front seat.

“Welcome back, Lee,” Matt came to hug her right when she got out of the car.

“Hi, Matt,” she greeted him first, then went to hug Johnny too. She and Johnny were not as close as she was with the rest of the group but she liked hugging people and Johnny was cool enough to ear a hug from her. Besides, she didn’t want to treat him differently than she treated others.

“How was your trip?” Matt asked, throwing his huge arm around her tiny shoulders.

“Surprisingly good. Actually Brian saved me from a fight with my ex. Guess he was too intimidating to Sean,” Ash smiled, remembering the look on Sean’s face when Brian had called her babe.

“Really? What the fuck is his problem then? He’s been acting like a bear with a hedgehog stuffed up in his ass,” Matt marveled, raising his brow.

“He is? So back to his normal behaviour,” Ash sighed, knowing that this would happen sooner or later. She wished it would have been later.

They reached the front door and Matt let them all in. Ash could hear girls voices coming from the kitchen and headed that way. She saw Zack sitting at the kitchen island, his back to her. Without thinking, she sneaked behind him and suddenly grabbed him by the sides of his ribs.

“Hi, Z,” she half yelled at the same time, making the poor guy jump.

“Damn, Ash. You’re gonna kill me one day,” he muttered, seeing who was behind him.

“I can’t kill you, I love you,” she hugged him, slipping herself under his arm. Val came to kiss her cheek.

“Dinner will be ready in half an hour. I got delayed a bit,” she apologized, obviously not happy about it.

“Want me to help you?” Ash offered immediately, almost standing up.

“No, don’t worry, Chelle is helping already,” Val went back to the stove, stirring something in the huge pot. Michelle was slicing tomatoes on the counter next to the sink.

Soon Matt walked into the kitchen. He kissed his wife on the lips before coming to stand on the other side of the kitchen island.

“Hey, Val and I are planning on going to Maldives for a week. You guys are in, right?” he asked, looking straight at Ash.

“Are you kidding? No way I’m gonna miss that,” she grinned. She had always wanted to go on a vacation to some tropic island.

“Of course she can’t miss the opportunity to take advantage of us,” she heard Brian’s remark from behind her back. He walked by her, not even glancing at her, and grabbed a bottle of beer from the fridge.

Ash was not in the mood to start fighting with him. She felt sad that Brian had turned back to being evil to her again. So instead of saying anything back, she just stood up and left the kitchen, wanting to get away from him. In the living room, Zack reached up with her.

“Wanna tell me what happened between the two of you?” he asked, worry obvious in his eyes.

“Not really,” she looked down, not wanting to even think about Brian. “Is there some place in here where I could hide?” she cast a hopeful glance at Zack.

“Come on,” he took her hand and guider her somewhere down the stairs. Ash curiously looked around, she didn’t even know that they had a downstairs. There was a drum kit in the corner and at least five guitars, lined on the wall. A big black couch looked so comfy that Ash couldn’t resist and went to sit down. It felt even more comfy than it looked. Zack took one guitar down the wall and after sitting down, started playing some random tune. Ash just listened some time, totally enjoying it.

“Hey, Z? Can you teach me how to play So Far Away?” she asked suddenly, sitting up straight.

“Uh, sure. Grab that guitar on the left, it’s Matt’s,” Zack instructed, watching how she reached up and carefully took it down. “You’ve played before?”

“Yeah, a little. A friend of mine tried to teach me years back. We went to school together. It’s been a looong time,” Ash told him, carefully placing Matt’s guitar on her lap.

She wasn’t a total beginner and Zack was an amazing teacher, so almost half an hour later, she knew how to play most parts of the song. And they had so much fun. Every time she messed up, they joked about it, instead of being tense and trying to concentrate too much.

“God, you’re good, man,” she shook her head. She wasn’t used on playing and her fingers were sore as hell. Even ‘tho she wanted to, she just wasn’t able to continue.

“That’s what I keep telling everybody but they won’t agree,” Zack joked, setting both of the guitars back on their places on the wall.

“We better get back up, before Val gets our heads as dessert,” Ash stood up and waited for Zack to go first. She didn’t want to run into Brian, using Zack as a shield.