Obsession // Ashtray

6

I look to Ashtray in disbelief, "What the fuck crawled up your ass?" That was like so uncalled for. "Nah coz you think ion like you," he stops walking when he's about three feet away from me. "But I fuck wit you Nyah, don't drag it" he grabs my waist with one hand but quickly moves it onto my shoulder. "Are you messing with me right now?" I pull away from him and look for cameras through the back of Feztray's store. "Would you quit pacing around n shit? I just told you how I felt and you not deeping it," he groans frustratedly. (A/N For those who don't know to 'deep it' just means to think/understand/acknowledge). "So I'm just supposed to believe that you like me? You're mean to me? I mean there are moments when you're nice. But to be honest you're just confusing and I-" Ashtray huffs loudly rolling his eyes and grabbing both my shoulders making me look into his eyes. His brown eyes were looking black but that's probably because of the bad lighting. "Nyah, shut the fuck up," he says in a low tone which was sending swarms of butterflies attacking my stomach. "I'm so nice to you. Nicer than I've ever been to any hoe," he lets go of my shoulders and sits back down in his 'drug lord behind the desk' chair and I sit on the counter making sure I don't touch the powder.

"So you mean to tell me we're friends?" My face lights up in excitement. Ash sends me his all too familiar look of judgement on his face. "Yeah sure friends," he shrugs. "I appreciate you coming to check on my life status earlier," I give him a genuine smile and he gives me one back. A genuine, wholehearted beautiful smile. "Yeah well, your dumbass wasn't responding." he breaks the eye contact, "and I was worried, ma" There it was again. The nickname he gave me today. It confuses me. "My bad," I giggle nervously and tug on a braid. "Your hair looks dope too," his eyes traces my hair and I smile. Here come the white people questions. "How long did it take?" And I laugh, it's okay when it comes from people I know. And when my newfound friend is intrigued as so how a mundane process is done, I don't mind answering. "About 17 hours and I did it all in one go because I didn't want to drag it out," he face looked bewildered. I was so fascinated by his face and self when any emotion other than anger was displayed on his face.

- bonding time skip -

"So we're friends," I grin again. "Why are you so fucking happy about it. You can chill," he playfully rolls his eyes and I stick my tongue out in response. We had been talking for almost 2 hours, it was just easy to talk to him. You know, after i hammered down to crack him open. "Well I really like you so I'm happy," he smirks when he hears this. "No I meant-" "I like you too," he smirks more deviously and I stare at his tatted face confused. Did he mean like me or just friends? Do I want to find out the truth? Is he fucking with me? "What do you mean?" I eye him, "that's me to know and for your ass to stay dumb and struggle." So rude and for what. "I'm gonna ask you every day til you tell me you know," I glare at him hopping off the counter because my butt was feeling flat. "Bet, ma," he gets up to stretch then walks out to the front to grab two waters then comes back. "Do you not get bored of sitting in a chair all day?" I lay down on the ground staring at the ceiling. He took a moment of silence to judge me once again and then said, "Nah I usually do more if I'm alone. Like shoot things for fun or practice tattoo drawings on dead bodies," I flinched and look at him. "Are you serious?" I squealed in fear and excitement. "No you du-" "call me dumbass one more time," I fold my arms. "Yeah cos that's hella threatening from a bitch laying on the floor." He laughs and eventually I join in. "Before I was rudely interrupted, I was saying I just play COD and shit on my phone. And check my NFTs, ethereum, you know all that shit," he shrugs looking down at me.

"We should do something," I say after we sit in comfortable silence for a while. "I'm still working," I frown forgetting he actually probably has things to do and I've most likely been intruding. As if telepathically listening to my thoughts I see bestie Chris calling so I pick up and put it on speaker since I was too lazy to hold my phone against my face. "Nyah where the fuck are you?" I roll my eyes and Ashtray chuckles. "Hello to you too cousin. How have you been? Oh I've been wonderful thanks for checking in I appreciate it.-" "Nyah this is fucking serious," he groans and my anxiety spikes. I stay silent waiting for him to continue. "I don't know what you did but your mama is furious with you. Like ready to kill you," he sighs. Fuck. I get up and take it off speaker and sit in the other chair in the room.

Ashtray POV
I thought maybe she would've taken the call outside you know with a bit more privacy but her actions were telling me it was the last thing on her mind. I didn't want to make it obvious that I was watching her and listening. I've never seen so much fear on her face. Her forehead was creased, her eyebrows scrunched up, her eyes not leaving the floor and her nibbling on the sides of her fingertips. "Did she say what I did?" Silence. You could just hear me bagging the 2C-T-7. "No you don't understand what she did the other night. She-". I felt her eyes shift to me. What is she not telling me? "Wait you did WHAT?" I heard the hitch in her breathing. My anxiety for her was worsening, and I hated it.

Nyah POV

I hang up and take a shaky deep breath. "Um.. Ashtray I gotta go," looking up at him for a brief second then averting my eyes anywhere else. "Are you okay? Do you wanna talk about it?" He blurts out and I see genuine worry on his face which may have made me feel a bit better if I wasn't about to enter the worst situation ever. "No, I'll be okay," I let the lie slip right through my gritted teeth. I didn't want to but it had become a reflex.

Word count: 1221

Okay I know it's not much for the long time I was gone but I'm back at school after missing like 3 weeks bc of the covid numbers in the state then my getting covid myself which gave me ample of time to write. But I really like writing for you guys so hopefully a chapter will come out every day or second day <3