Dirt

The next time I saw Matt was at a rally The Angels were holding a couple weeks after my Nancy Drew incident. The five newest members of The Avenged Sevenfold Club had shown up, as was protocol. The two clubs supported each other, so all members of each club were expected to be in attendance. He was standing next to his bike all by himself and he had a black eye. I was too curious. I pulled Erin along with me and went over to ask him what happened.

"Who hit you?" I asked him quietly.

I didn't miss the smile he gave me as he turned his head and saw me talking to him. Then he scowled. "Zack. He sucker punched me when I wasn't looking. When I asked him why he did it, he told me you told him to. He was protecting your honor, and as your brother, it was his job to do."

I snorted. "Wow. I guess I didn't expect him to actually do it. To be honest, I'm kind of not sorry, though." He asked me if this meant I was talking to him again. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You know, because I took Val along with me to your party."

I shrugged. "Why would I be mad that you took your girlfriend to my party? I don't care." I could see Erin staring at me out of my peripheral vision. "Why wouldn't I want my friends to bring their significant others to a party?"

He looked over to Erin and asked to give us a minute. She looked to me for approval first. I nodded. "Ash, Val is not my girlfriend. Yes, she used to be, but she's not anymore. I know that I should have told her no. I realize that I did the total opposite thing of what I should have. I fucked up, I'm willing to admit that. I can only hope that I didn't completely burn the bridge I had hoped we were building."

I wanted to. I really did. But fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. "We can be friends. I'd like to be friends. I'm not sure I can offer anything other than that."

He looked awfully defeated. "I guess I can live with that." He turned to look me dead in the eyes. "For now. But I need you to know that this isn't over yet." With that he stalked off.

I shrugged my shoulders and decided to walk around in search of something to do. I went and got a quick bite to eat and then looked over some of the bikes. The powder blue Fat Boy was there again, and I couldn't stop drooling over it. If I thought I could get away with it, I would have stolen the damn thing and ridden away into the sunset. We would have been so happy together. I walked around a while longer, and stumbled across Jake, who waved me over.

"Sup, girl? How's things?" he asked me with his signature grin. I told him things were pretty good. "So, I don't have any tats planned for a while. You haven't been inked in a minute. You game?"

I didn't even have to really think about it. I sat down in his chair and told him to get started on my other wrist. I decided on a hummingbird. I didn't want the average one you'd see with the blue and green wings, so I chose some different colors. Jake used some red, pink, yellow, and ochre. He shaded and highlighted, and even used a cool mixture of grey and purple for a background highlight. It took him about an hour and a half and it was beautiful. It made me so happy to look at, and it really matched up with my dragonfly tattoo on my other wrist. This was why I only let Jake tattoo me.

He cleaned me up, wrapped my wrist, and sent me on my way. As I turned around to walk away, Zacky and Jessi were standing there smiling at me. "I had to do it," I told them with a grin. "I just couldn't resist." We walked around together for a while. "Oh, Zee. I almost forgot. Thanks for punching Matt in the face." He laughed and told me not to worry about it.

"It was actually kind of fun," he said. "You know how sometimes you just want to punch your friend in the face? Well, now I had a reason to. If you ever need me to do it again, let me know."

"Guys!" we heard in the distance. We all looked over to see Jimmy running at us full speed. "Zack, Jessi! Ashlynn," he said my full name. I raised an eyebrow and called him by his full name. James. "You don't still hate me, do you?" I smiled and told him I could never hate him. We were a team in the stallion duck ninja army. He smiled like a kid at Christmas. "I fucking knew it! You only hate Matt! We're the best of friends. We can't stay mad at each other." He pulled me in for a massive hug and I couldn't help but laugh. He looked at Zee and Jessi. "I'm stealing her. It's funny. I'm stealing your best friend," he pointed to Jess, "and your sister," he pointed to Zack. "It's still weird talking about you having a sister."

"And just think," I told him, "you guys have had more time to get used to the idea."

Jimmy and I didn't do anything in particular. We just walked around and talked to a few people. I felt really at ease with Jimmy. There was just something about his personality that really drew a person in. He was quickly becoming one of my really good friends.

"Word on the street, Princess, is that the new guy who was sniffing around is gone." I stiffened upon hearing that voice. I knew that voice and I hated the owner. Jimmy and I turned around to see Harrison standing there with his cocky smirk of his. I wanted to rip his face off. "Now that the giant isn't around, maybe you and I could get back to the way things were."

Jimmy looked over at me in confusion, but I just shook my head at him. "You know, Harry, you're right. We should get back to the way things were between us. I honestly can't remember the last time I told you how much I can't stand being around you. Let me count the ways."

Jimmy snickered but Harrison frowned. "Ashlynn, one of these days you'll realize that our parents had it right. It's only natural that we should be together." He stepped closer to me and whispered in my ear. "And when you come around, the first thing I'm gonna do is make sure my dick gets nice and wet."

I pushed him off of me. "You're lucky you're a legacy. But watch yourself. The next time you speak to me, I will have you thrown out. This is your last warning. And about getting your dick wet, you're barking up the wrong tree. Go get one of your little whores who won't mind that you have a practically non-existent dick."

I started to walk away but he grabbed my hand. "This isn't over."

Jimmy stepped in between us. "Actually it is. You're going to let go of my friend now. Please don't make me get serious about this." I had never seen Jimmy so angry. Come to think of it, I hadn't seen Jimmy angry at all. He looked really menacing. "And besides," he pointed off in the distance. We all turned to see Matt standing there a couple dozen yards away, looking like he wanted to kill Harrison. "The giant isn't exactly gone. If you haven't noticed, he's wearing the same colors you are. He's here for good. Get used to it." Harrison let go of my hand and walked away with a 'whatever'. Jimmy waved and Matt and smiled down at me. "Cool. Let's go do something. Have you eaten yet? I think I'm getting hungry." And the regular Jimmy was back. It had me wondering, though. What was it that Jimmy really did for their group. He seemed like a goofy fun loving guy just about all the time. But that one instance, he seemed really dark and sinister. It definitely gave me pause.

We ran into Pop a short time later and he pulled me away from Jimmy. We walked around together. "I'm getting kind of tired," he told me. "What about you? You ready to go home yet?" I knew something was up, so I agreed. He drove us home on his bike and once we got there, he asked me to sit in the living room. "Since you decreed that we will be completely honest with each other from now on, I wanted to talk to you first. What happened with you and Matt?" I still wasn't sure what had actually happened when Matt and Pop had their "heart to heart", so I was a little nervous about what would happen to Matt if I actually told Pop the whole truth. So I just told him that nothing much happened. We just decided to be friends. "Okay, so there's no need to dig a shallow grave?" I told him no. "I wanted to talk to you about this first, before talking to Zack. I wanted to get your opinion." He paused for the longest time. "What would you think if I called Zack's parents and invited them to dinner?"

I thought about it for a while. What did I think? "Well...why? I mean, what are your intentions?" He told me he just wanted everyone to get to know each other since they all shared a son. I smiled at him. "You're such a teddy bear. Don't worry, your secret's safe with me. I think it's a great idea."

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. You're making me blush!" We laughed. "I'm glad you're not freaked out by it. It's something I've been thinking about for a while now."

"Yeah. Definitely get with Zacky and see how he feels about it. Just let me know when dinner is. I'll even be the sweetest daughter ever and make dinner." He thanked me. I got a text on my cell and I smiled. "And since we're being honest, I secretly would sneak off to go practice with my band. That was them. They want to know if I can practice now. I'm gonna go." I kissed his cheek. "I'll catch you later, Pop!"