The Best Mistake

“Go away.” Nash spoke before I was even within three feet of him. I wasn’t sure if he was talking to me; he was counting change in his hand and his back was turned away. I didn’t know who else he could be talking to, but there was no way he could know that I was there, or that it was me. My shadow hadn’t even reached him.

So I continued walking toward him. When I was finally within two feet of his, he turned around and gave me a glare. “Do you not know the meaning of ‘go away’?” he asked. “I understand you may not be very smart, but fuck, it isn’t that hard to decipher.”

“We’re out in public, I have as much of a right to be here as you do,” I said, crossing my arms.

He stared at me a little longer before shaking his head, laughing dryly. “You really are stupid, princess,” he said.

“How many times have I told you not to call me that?” I asked.

He went back to counting change. “You wouldn’t have to hear it if you’d quit stalking me,” he said.

I snorted and his head shot up, giving me a weird look before looking at his hand again. “Why the hell would I stalk you?” I asked.

“Ooh, princess can curse,” he said in a taunting voice. “And I don’t know, because you’re a dumb ass?”

I rolled my eyes, before looking at the money in his hand. “You don’t have enough there,” I said.

“What?” he asked.

I pointed to his hand. “You need fifteen more cents to use the payphone,” I said.

“Cool, now go away.”

“I can give you fifteen cents.”

“I’m not a fucking charity case, thanks,” he snapped at me. His voice sounded scary, but the main thing about him that had scared me before was his eyes and all the emotions they held. Right now his eyes were covered by his hair, so he seemed a little less intimidating.

“Your call is clearly important, so here-“ I dug into my pocket, pulling out all my change. I held out my hand. “Take it.”

He looked at the change. “Who said it’s important?” he asked.

“If it weren’t important you could’ve waited until you got home to make the call. For free,” I said. “So swallow your ego, and take the damn money.”

He bit at his bottom left lip ring, thinking it over. I ignored how attractive it looked. Finally, he took the money out of my hand. His hand was unusually cold- I mean; it was nearly 90 degrees out. “Okay, run along now.”

I shook my head. “I need to talk to you about a couple things,” I said.

“I don’t want to talk,” was all he said, as he leaned against the payphone, waiting for me to leave.

“An hour or so talking to me won’t kill you,” I told him.

“Yeah, but it might kill you.”

“You don’t scare me, Nash,” I lied.

He smirked, taking a couple steps forward. He was standing merely a few inches away, but I wasn’t backing down. I refused to give him the satisfaction of me being scared. “Oh, but I do,” he whispered, condescendingly. “And to make matters worse, you haven’t even seen half of what I’m capable of.”

“I still want to talk to you,” I said, but it came out more like a small whisper.

He chuckled darkly. “Look, if this is about anything that happened last night, save it. I’m a weird drunk, okay? Nothing serious about anything that happened,” he said.

Levi must have told him about his little episode last night. “Just make your call, then we can go back to my house,” I said.

“Big plans to seduce me, Ashlyn?” he said, his voice sounding seductive. “You could try, but I don’t think it’d work. I like my girls a bit more real.”

“For someone who gets butt hurt when somebody makes assumptions about them, you sure are judgmental,” I told him.

He tilted his head to the side a little. “So where am I wrong, princess?” he asked. “Am I wrong about how big your house is? Am I wrong about how rich you are? What about how you cry for daddy’s credit card? Or am I wrong about how fake you are?”

Before I could register what I was doing, I pushed him away by his chest. I’m sure he wasn’t expecting it- I wasn’t even expecting it- so he stumbled back a couple of steps. Suddenly, I was pushed up against the tall wooden fence behind the payphone. Nash was holding me there by my neck. “Touch me again, Ashlyn. Touch me again and see what happens.” I winced at how harsh his voice sounded, but that didn’t divert my plans at all.

“One hour,” I whispered. “I won’t pry into anything you don’t want me to, I swear.”

He let go of me and walked back over to the payphone. I pushed myself off the fence and took a step toward Nash before he stopped me. “Let me make this phone call. Bother me while I’m on the phone and I change my mind, got it?” I bit my lip, trying to hide my smile as I nodded.

Nash.

This girl has to be seriously fucked in the head to want me over her house. I’m going to assume neither of her parents are home, either, because I’m sure bringing guys that look like me to her house was considered a crime. But I couldn’t deny how Ashlyn did intrigue me a little bit. I know she’s fully aware that I’m perfectly capable of killing her within a second, yet she’s still around. Maybe she has short term memory loss or something.

Keeping my eyes locked on Ashlyn, making sure she didn’t come any closer, I put the money into the slot and quickly dialed the number. The phone picked up after three rings. “Hello?” I heard my aunt say.

“Hey, Carrie,” I said. “It’s Nash. Can I talk to Eric?”

“Of course,” she said. I heard muffled voices, before I heard Eric’s bright voice. “Nash!”

I couldn’t help the smile that made its way onto my face. “Hey, what’s up, buddy?” I asked, as I completely forgot about Ashlyn.