ʙᴀᴅ ʜᴀʙɪᴛꜱ| ᴍ. ᴘᴇʀᴇᴢ

ten

The carnival was buzzing with bodies - teenagers, children, families, anyone and everyone that lived in the town was attending. Ash stood by an ice cream stand that was filled with an unnerving amount of middle schoolers. He removed the already lit cigarette from his lips, blowing the smoke out from both his mouth and his nose lazily. He had no idea what he was doing here, his mother practically locked him out of the house, forcing him to leave and who was he to say no to pissing off his younger sister. He watched as Ana and her group of friends queued for the bustling carousel, feeling oddly pervert-like as he suspiciously followed around his middle school aged sister.

Ash avoided the Jacobs' chilly stand with everything he had in him, not that he'd go anywhere near that willingly anyway. He caught himself scanning faces, searching for her again, quickly shaking himself off as he realised what he was doing- he was delusional to say the least. He saw many people from school, walking around pissed out of their heads as if it hadn't barely even turned 9 o'clock.

Ash walked around, observing the stands as well as the people, searching for anyone that even looked like her so he could narrow his search down but no- not a single familiar face to be seen. But then, like a miracle from god. A wave of blonde hair in the distance, practically glowing in the dark. Cassie. He watched as she also queued up for the carousel, her walk seemingly disturbing as she practically tripped over thin air every second. When she finally got on the carousel, sounds of shock and outrage escaped from the surrounding crowd of people, without hesitation he joined the queues of families waiting for their turn, watching in horror as a blonde teenage girl rode the carousel horse, her eyes closed as she moaned loudly in front of everyone with zero shame. A moment later, it seemed she'd come to her senses as she opened her eyes, staring at everyone with a terrified look on her face.

Ash slowly left, trying to block out the horror he had just witnessed. "Fuck this." He muttered under his breath as he left the carnival completely, walking through the empty streets, heading for Fez's shop. Usually he'd only come here for drugs or...drugs, but he was in urgent need for a phone. No, not for any reason other than the fact that he believed it was his phone's fault for Maddy not texting him.

"This is all I got." Fez spoke slowly, nothing unusual for him. "Sure. How much?" Ash asked, reaching for his five year old wallet Ana got him for his thirteenth birthday. "Like 50 dollars." Fez shrugged as though he didn't care. Ash looked through his wallet, practically wincing at how broke he was. "Can I get it for 40?" He asked, embarrassed at himself. "Dude." Fez's head cocked to the side. "Please. It's urgent." Ash begged. It was in fact not urgent. "Fine, sure." Fez shrugged again, handing the phone over with little care before collecting the cash off the counter and folding it.

Ash put his old SIM card into the phone, ignoring all the bullshit setup settings as he quickly found the phone app, viewing her contact. The profile picture just a random zoomed in group picture of her at cheerleading but Ash felt at ease just looking at her. He wanted to press the little phone button to hear her voice, he didn't know what had gotten into him, the sudden obsession with Maddy Perez was taking over him. He downloaded Instagram, looking for her profile. Nothing.

He did however view some other classmates' stories, videos of an angry Maddy kicking over a large pot of chilly in a revealing outfit had spread amongst the school. "Damn." Ash tried not to laugh at it but he noticed it was the Jacobs' stand. Their precious chilly that they held at the carnival every year as it was a family tradition and all of a sudden Nate's 'girlfriend' had come out of nowhere to ruthlessly destroy it.

Ash made his way back to the carnival, scanning all the food stands for evidence that this was real, even though he knew it was. He avoided being seen by anyone in the Jacobs' family because for all he knew they could've already filed a restraining order against him by now. Maddy was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Nate. Ash watched as Cal tended to the pathetic mess but quickly left after losing interest. Where the fuck were they? Ash knew they'd gone off together but he couldn't believe Maddy for getting back with someone like Nate. "Fuck sake." He whispered to himself as he walked all over the carnival, bumping into his younger sister on numerous occasions yet walking past her like he had no idea who she was every single time. Maddy was gone and Ash felt hopeless.