Dirt

(Matt's POV)

I sighed as once again, Jimmy walked behind me and smacked the back of my head. "Jimbo, you're gonna have to stop doing that."

"No, I don't. You did something really stupid, and probably hurt Ash's feelings. You're my brother and all, but that was the dumbest shit you've ever done," he told me. He sat down on the couch next to me and looked over at Johnny. "I'm just saying, if Matt hadn't called dibs on her first, and she wasn't a recruit in the stallion duck ninja army, I would have gone for her. She's a hottie!" he said in a sing-song voice.

I eyed him. "You better watch it. Even though she's mad at me right now, that's still my girl. I don't care what anyone says. I'm gonna win her over again."

Johnny smirked. "Yeah, yeah. How the hell did you even get to the point that taking Val to Ash's party was a good idea anyway?"

*Flashback*

I had been seeing Ash for a while now. We texted back and forth all the time and I really liked her. After the night Jimmy and I stayed over at her house, I'd been hooked on spending time with her. I did want to be with her. I don't know what all the confusion was in the beginning. She's amazing.

The night before her birthday I made sure to set an alarm so I could text her right after midnight to wish her happy birthday. I wanted to be the first one to do it. After I sent it, I went to bed. I wanted to be rested for her party. I was really excited to see her. I couldn't wait to see her face when she opened my present.

I woke up the next day to someone frantically ringing my doorbell. I slipped on some pj pants and a tee shirt and answered the door. Val was standing there with her hair all ratted out and tears and mascara running down her face. She looked like shit. I invited her in.

She had to take several breaths to calm down enough to tell me what was going on. "We broke up," she told me. "David just left. Why am I not good enough for any of the guys I date?"

"Val, what are you talking about? You're too good for the guys you date. You just need to find the right one. Are you drunk?"

She nodded while wiping her eyes. "Matt, you've always been so understanding and sweet. I'm sorry to just show up this way, but there's no one else I could think to talk to. But what if I've already found the right guy? What if I let him go?"

I sat down beside her on the couch. "Val, you and I were together for a long time, and I will always have feelings for you, but we broke up for a reason. We weren't supposed to be together." She whined a bit and told me that she missed me. "I miss you too sometimes, but we're not going to get back together."

She started crying again. "We just broke up not that long ago! You found some other girl already?" I wanted to remind her that she just broke up with her boyfriend, who she started dating days after her and I split. "I thought you loved me."

I ran my hands through my hair. "I will always love you, just not in way I did. We can be friends, though." She asked me if she could stay and hang out for a while. I told her it would be fine. We watched a couple movies and even ordered Chinese food for lunch. Things seemed to be going fine. Then I told her I had to get ready to go out.

"Oh, where are we going?"

"Um, well...I mean, I was invited to a birthday party tonight..." I had hoped that she would get the hint that I was invited and she wasn't, but she didn't. She told me she couldn't wait to go. Then she went to my bathroom to fix her makeup. I tried to follow her and tell her that she couldn't go, but she started to tear up again, and I just didn't have the heart.

When we got to the party, I didn't want anyone to see me. I knew the guys were going to give me major shit for it, so I took the pussy's way out and hid out in the back with Val. The whole room quieted down right before she walked in. When she did, it was like everything stopped. She looked beautiful. You could see all of her beautiful curves in that dress, and she looked so happy, she was practically glowing. I wanted to run up to her and give her a giant kiss on that sexy red pout. But I felt guilty for having Val with me, so I hung back.

But I watched her. I watched as she drank with everyone. I watched as practically everyone in the bar gave her hugs or kisses on the cheek and wished her Happy Birthday. I watched as Jimmy danced three hilarious slow songs with her to fast music. I wanted to join in her good time. I wanted to be the cause of her good time. But I still hung back. When I felt a tap on my shoulder, I knew she had spotted me.

And of course, since Val was Val, she had been drinking the whole night. So when Ash tried to talk to her, she was insulting. I tried to explain to Ash what was going on, but she wasn't having any of my bullshit. It wasn't coming out right. She wasn't understanding that I wanted to be with her. I asked if I could call her later, but she simply told me no and walked away.

I wasn't too long after that that the guys started giving me shit, especially Jimmy. Since becoming Best Friends Forever with Ash, he was really mad at me. Jimmy leaned over and pushed my head away from him. "It's simple. You say no. 'Sorry, Val, but you're the one who broke up with me. No, you can't go to my NEW GIRL'S BIRTHDAY PARTY!' That's what you say."

Johnny smiled. "You're too nice, man. He's right. You gotta learn how to say no to people. Next time you're in a situation like that, call one of us and we'll get you out of it."

"Yeah, but first you have to get Ash to start talking to you again," Jimmy pointed out.

I shook my head. "Well right now, Ash isn't talking to any of us. It sucked to see her so upset." Johnny smirked and told me I had it bad. I grinned. I did. All I wanted to do when I saw Ash in that office was scoop her up in my arms and take her away from everything. I wanted to take her to my house and kiss her until she forgot why she was upset in the first place. I had the realization that keeping the secret about Zee being her brother was just another thing for her to be mad at me about. I didn't know how I was going to get her back, but I had to think of something.

"So I see your wheels turning," Johnny said thoughtfully. "You come up with a plan yet? We could help you think of something, you know." Jimmy suggested making a pond in the back yard of her house and filling it with ducks so she could practice her new ninja skills. Everything went back to ducks with him. I told him I would keep that as a backup plan. "Don't worry, dude," Johnny told me. "We'll figure something out. We better, cause I can't stand to see you all emotional and shit. You're making me depressed."

(Ash's POV)

I sat in front of Pop on the living room couch while he paced in front of the TV. Zack sat next to me with an arm around my shoulder. He smiled down at me. It was nice to have some support. Pop hadn't stopped pacing since we came in the door. As promised, Zee went ahead of me by a couple minutes and had cleared everyone else out of the house. When I pulled up he was standing on the front porch and offered to stay with me. I was starting to think that I would like having an older brother.

"You know, as much as you're mad at me, I'm also pissed at you. Why the fuck would you run off and worry the shit out of me like that? You're the only daughter I got, and I'm not about to lose you because you're too upset to ride correctly."

I just stared at him. "You know, Pop, I've been riding for a long time, now. And obviously, nothing happened. I'm back and I'm just fine. So, why the fuck would you keep something like that from me? Why would you convince everything else to keep something like this from me, too?"

He looked at Zacky and me for a minute. "You have to understand that I never meant to hurt you. Either of you. When Zack and the guys first came to me, I wasn't sure. I mean, yeah, I remembered his mother, and yes, we had a fling back then, but I didn't want to tell you about this until I was absolutely sure. And Zack...I didn't even, I mean...had I known about you, I would have done everything differently. I need you to know that."

Zacky looked thoughtful for a while. "I'd like to believe that you would have. I asked my mom once why she never told you about me. She didn't really have an answer at the time. I figured out later that it was because you were already married when she got pregnant, and she didn't want to mess that up for you."

Pop looked sad. "Love will make people do the damndest things." I was starting to tear up. I asked him if he loved Zee's mom. "I did. In my own way, I did. She was an amazing woman. That doesn't mean that I felt for your mother any less." He sat down on the coffee table across from us and hung his head. "I've fucked up everything, haven't I?"

I wiped my face and sighed. "You didn't fuck it all up. Just skewed my vision of it. I thought everything was one way, and now I know it's a completely different way. I'm pissed, don't get me wrong, and it will take some time getting used to, but we'll be okay. You know I can't stay mad at you forever. But from here on out, we're gonna be honest with each other. All of us." I looked over at Zack. "You're included in all of this family bullshit too, now. The three of us, we're gonna be honest. No more lies, and no more withholding. I mean it."

He smiled at me and pulled my head down on his shoulder. "You got it, sis!" Pop looked relieved but I told him it sounded too weird. "You're right. Too soon. We'll work up to that."

After I had calmed things down with my dad, I decided to clear things up with the girls. I texted the both of them to find out where they were. They were both over at Erin's, so I drove over with a solid determination. I was pretty much over being mad. I was still a little hurt, but if I couldn't stay mad at Pop, I really couldn't stay mad at Jessi and Erin. They were my best friends. When we said for life, we meant it.

I pulled up outside of Wolf's house a short time later and was caught at the door by none other than the man himself. I put a hand up to stop him from speaking. "Don't even bother. I know what you're gonna say. I've worked something out with Pop and I'm here to work something out with Erin and Jess. I'm pissed. At you, too. I'll eventually get over this, you just have to give me time to be pissed." He responded by pulling me into a giant bear hug and kissing the top of my head. "Yeah, yeah, yeah," I told him as I pulled away and went in search of my two friends.

I found them in Erin's room, sitting on her bed waiting for me. They looked at me with the most guilt ridden looks I'd ever seen, even from Jess, who had once had to apologize to the principal at school for "accidentally" announcing over the PA system that he was a jackass. Of course, she wasn't sorry then, so I guess it wouldn't count. I sat down in Erin's desk chair and spun around to face them. Erin spoke first. "Ash...we never meant to hurt you."

"You know we wouldn't," Jessi added. "You're our best friend. If we had known that you would've found out that way, we would have said something a hell of a lot sooner."

I nodded, but didn't speak. "We're so sorry," Erin told me.

I took a deep breath before beginning. "You guys have no idea how hurt I am. It's not like you didn't tell me that my haircut looked stupid. You guys kept the fact that I had a brother from me. I would never do something like that to either of you."

"Can you ever forgive us?"

I looked at Jessi. She was never this quiet and reserved. She must really be worried about how pissed I was. I smiled slightly. So did they. "You two are a couple of whores. I'm so fucking pissed at you two I can't see straight. But I also love the shit out of you, and I could never be mad at you for long. So here's what I've come up with. You two are still in trouble, so that means I am now the ultimate Queen and you two are my puny subjects. For the next week I get to make all the Queen decisions. I'm talking, picking out what movies to watch, where we go eat, the works. Think you could handle that?"

They were smiling. "Yes, Queen Super Bitch. We can handle that," Jessi told me.

I grinned at her. "Yeah, yeah. So...you and my brother, huh?" We all erupted into laughter.