Ash’s POV

I groaned as I searched my empty suitcase one last time. Of course I was going to forget some of the most important things at home. I hadn’t unpacked them and they weren’t anywhere in any of my bags. How was I going to survive four months without them? I was certainly going to need them sometime soon, whether I liked it or not. This was so stupid.

I carefully walked to Alex’s room and made sure to knock extra loud. Ever since the walking in incident, I had made sure to make a lot of noise before entering. I swear, I did knock that time, but he probably didn’t hear. it was a normal thing to do, knocking that is, not the thing Alex was doing. Well, it was normal, but still. I just didn’t think about it anymore. It happened in the past.

Instead of calling me in, Alex opened the door, “can I help you?”

“You know how to drive a car, right?” I questioned before asking my main question.

“Yeah… why?”

“Could you drive me to a store. I left some stuff at home that I need.”

“Yeah, sure,” He shuffled past me and started down the stairs, expecting me to follow him. That went a lot easier than I had expected. I thought I was going to have to beg him and convince him. Why was Alex being so nice to me suddenly? Just because he said sorry, didn’t mean he was going to change, right?

“Mom, Ash and I are going to go out for a bit! She needs to get some stuff that she forgot to bring with her!” Alex shouted as he grabbed the car keys and hopped around to put on his shoes.

Isobel walked into the hallway, “ok, do you need any money?”

We stayed silent and I kneeled down to tie my shoelace.

“She’s asking you, you doofus,” Alex tapped my shoulder.

I looked up at Isobel, “oh, sorry. No thanks, I have my own money My dad’s giving me way too much money per week already.”

“I might need some, though,” Alex tried to pull out the puppy dog eyes.

“No, you’ve spent too much already this week,” Isobel scolded.

“But mom!”

“No.”

“Please!”

“No, Alex.”

“You’re the best mother ever, and I love you so so so much,” Alex dramatized, “you are and always will be my favourite person ever in the whole wide world!”

“Fine,” Isobel rolled her eyes and reached into her pocket, “you get ten dollars, but that’s all. You won’t get any more for the rest of the week.”

“Thank you!” Alex skipped out of the door, into the sunny and hot weather. He unlocked the car and called for me to come in.

I got into the passenger seat and put on my seat. This car was a lot different to the one they picked me up in. It was smaller and looked like it was only being used my Alex. There were punk CDs all over the place and some random clothes in the back seat. I did not want to know what had happened back there. Other than that, it was surprisingly clean.

“Ok, so let’s go,” Alex turned on the ignition, “wait, where are we going?”

“I don’t know, you’re the one who’s been living here most of their life,” I rolled my eyes.

“Well, I meant what type of store, you shithead. What do you need to get?”

Don’t say that. Just, please, watch your language around me!

“Girl stuff.”

“Care to elaborate?”

“Just go to a drugstore, I don’t know.”

“You seem to not know a lot of things,” Alex commented and started driving.

“You’re starting to get annoying again. You were doing so well,” I sighed and shifted my position.

“Sorry.”

We continued down the many roads in silence. I had no idea where he was taking me, but it was pretty far away. Everything in America was so far away from each other. It was totally normal to drive for 3 hours just to go somewhere for an hour or so and still be in the same area here. In Germany you would have already entered several different towns and cities, maybe crossed the border three times, depending where you lived, and have been annoyed about having to drive so far. This country was so weird.

“Why are you wearing jeans?” Alex pointed at my legs, “it’s warm out, all the girls are wearing shorts.”

“Because I’m wearing jeans?” I gave him an annoyed look.

“Yeah, I get that, but why?”

“Because I want to.”

“But isn’t summer the time for girls to wear slutty clothes. You know, show off their bodily parts?”

“Just shut your mouth, Alex,” I tried to say in a calm tone, “you’re not really doing well on the ‘I’m not going to annoy you anymore’ part.”

“But-”

“Zip it.”

That got him to stop for a while. I was afraid he was going to start again, but we arrived before he could. He just didn’t understand the meaning of stopping and not talking. It was like he had short term memory problems.

I didn’t bother to wait for him as I walked into the store; I was perfectly capable of entering and finding items myself. Alex was only going to follow me around and make fun of every item, whether I was going to buy them or not. He was too childish for the most simplest everyday products.

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Alex’s POV

I watched as Ash walked into the store without even telling me she was already going to go. Fine. I didn’t give a fuck. I was trying to be fucking nice to her, but she didn’t fucking give a flying fuck. If that was how it was going to fucking be, I would be as fucking annoying as I wanted to fucking be.

I locked the car and went into the store myself, not being able to find her anywhere. This was so on. I ran through the aisles searching for the things I was looking for. It better annoy and embarrass her, or this would be a waste of my time. I found the aisle full of condoms and chose five random packets before going out to look for Ash. She was standing somewhere studying different items. I sneaked past her and carefully threw the condoms into the basket she was holding. She didn’t even realise. This was definitely going to have her freak out.

I decided to wait at the checkout counter so I see first hand how she would react. I was going to get in so much shit for this. Two girls walked up to me. They looked exactly like the typical teenage girls I was talking about earlier: tops showing off their boobs and shorts that barely covered their ass. Basically perfect for guys like me.

“Hey, Alex,” they purred.

I put on a fake smile, I knew these girls, “Hey.”

The one with obviously bleach blonde hair put her hand on my chest, “how come you haven’t called either of us back?”

“I’ve just been very very busy,” I nodded and cringed at her touching me.

“You know, we could made have some fun, just us three, together,” the other one ran her fingers through my hair.”

“Ah, I’m sorry, girls. I’m still very busy.”

“But Lexy-Poo!”

“Hey, Alex, you ready?” Ash came to save the day. Her voice didn’t sound as fake as bimbo 1 and bimbo 2, which, for some reason, made me feel so relieved.

“Yeah,” I shrugged the girls off, who looked Ash up and down before scoffing and stomping away.

We both got into the cue and I couldn’t wait to see Ash finding the condoms. This was going to be awesome! We slowly inched forward until it was Ash’s turn. She put the basket on the metal in front of the belt and started unpacking the items.

“I’m sorry for disappearing on you, I just didn’t want you around me when I was choosing this stuff. It’s kinda awkward,” Ash apologized and blushed.

I looked at the items and saw an assortment of different things: makeup, tampons, disposable razors, and other things I couldn’t make out. Shit. I messed up.

I quickly took the five boxes of condoms out of the basket and clumsily held them, “umm, these are mine.”

She gave me a judgemental look; she knew exactly what I had planned to do. Now I had Ash mad and disgusted with me, 5 boxes of weirdass condoms, and I had spent the last 10 dollars I was given for the week. It was only Wednesday! How was I going to survive the rest of the week before school with no money! Maybe I could get Ash to lend me some money, she had a debit card, so her dad was probably giving her enough money per week. But by the way she ignored me the entire way home, I knew it was a lost cause.

Shit.

Notes

Alex is messing everything up. How will it go down when they finally go to school?