Heavenly Virtues

Part 23

The MacManus twins had raised Ashley's tolerance level for alcohol, there was no doubt about it, but she would still get drunk way before them. She sat with Rocco at the bar, listening to him complain about his boss. She had recently learned why he had been so secretive about it all, he worked for the Italian mafia. He was a low man on the totem pole, a delivery boy, the boys had called him but he still saw all the nasty shit that went along with it.

"Almost 17 years I've been working for those bastards and nothin! Some of these guys are fuckin crazy hun." She rested her head on his shoulder, a little past tipsy at this point. "That fuckin sucks Roc, I'm sorry." He leaned his head onto hers "fuck I shouldn't even be talkin about this with you." She sighed, thankful for the change of subject as she was kind of uncomfortable with it. "How's Donna?" He scoffed "fucked if I know. Things were good, she was tryin'ta get clean. She even brought home this stupid cat, but she's been M.I.A this past week on some fucking bender. Now I'm stuck to take care of the fucking thing and I have no idea where she is."

Ashley sat up on her stool "we gotta find you a nice girl. No drugs, no bullshit. Just a nice girl." She pointed a finger at him. He took a drag of his smoke "well if there's any more girls like you out there, let me know." She laughed as she hit the counter "Roc, you don't want a girl like me, trust me. WAY too much baggage. I don't even know why the boys have stuck around this long." Rocco elbowed her "Shut up. You're awesome, and the guys love ya."

She smiled at him "I know I just wish I didn't come with so many hang ups. They deserve someone that they can do stuff with, go somewhere other then this fucking pub." She looked up to her granda "no offense, I love the pub. You know that." He smiled at her and laughed. "I just.. I don't know... I wish I could be more for them."

He elbowed her again, trying to get her to stop ragging on herself. "Hun, it's not like the boys did much else before you came around. Hell all they fuckin did was go to work, hang around the pub and go home. The only difference now is their home is at the pub." He laughed.

She smiled at that, they had been living with her for over a month and she couldn't even remember the last time they went to their place to grab something. She raised her eyebrows at her silent realization, this really was their home. It was their place now.

She laughed as she punched him in the arm "Alright enough sappy shit. I'm gonna go see if one of the boys will accompany me to the washroom." She said wiggling her eyebrows. The statement made Rocco choke on his beer as she slid off her stool.

She leaned against the wall as she waited for the boys to finish the round of darts. When they were done she stumbled over to Conner "Hey baby, wanna finish what we started?" He laughed as he kissed her lips softly "Murph and I got one more game. 10 minutes and I'll meet ya in dere." He whispered to her before littering her face with kisses.

She giggled and turned to go to the washroom, willing to wait in there for him. He smacked her ass on the way by, causing a yelp to come out of her as she giggled harder and scurried off. Ashley fluffed her hair in the mirror before making her way to the stall to sit down and try an sober up before Conner showed up. It had only been a few minutes when she heard the door open and close.

She excitedly jumped up, stumbling forward. "I thought you'd be lon-" She stopped mid sentence as she came face to face with Stace. "I'm sorry." Stace said before she pushed her into the stall wall, making her loose her footing. Stace grabbed a fistful of Ashley's hair, and smacked the back of her head off the stall door. Ashley slid down the wall landing on her ass while holding her head.

Ashley almost thought she saw regret on Stace's face before she kneed her in the face. Ashley felt hot pain radiate all over her face, had she just broken her nose? She looked up to Stace, dazed and already feeling concussed. Stace's eyebrows were furrowed, she looked conflicted and her voice was shaky as she spoke.