PLANK'S CONSTANT|| ASHTRAY O'NEIL.

Lil' Rabbit

"The feelings got lost in my lungs. They're burning, I'd rather be dumb. And there's no one else to blame."

CARMEN'S POV:

We've been walking for about five minutes now. In silence. The sun's setting, but it's still pretty light. My dad should be home for work soon.

"Why do you have Mila with you?" He asks, breaking the silence.

"Alex needed me to babysit, family problems, I guess." I say.

"Hm." He hums.

My phone vibrates. It Alex!

"Speaking of." I say.

Alex🫂

Alex
Hey, Car. You can drop off Mila now, and we'll talk tmrw.

Carmen
Kks!!

I smile at my phone. Ash looks at me and makes a face.

"What he say?" He asks as I stop walking.

"We gotta go back so I can drop off Mila." I say as we turn around.

"All right." He says.

After about twenty minutes of walking, we reached the store.

We walk in to see Mila, sitting on the floor with... a girl who looks to be a few years older than me and Ash.

Well, me. I tend to forget he's a year older.

She had long-ish curly hair, tall and skinny, and quiet pretty.

They look to be playing, Mila's laughing and the girls smiling.

ASHTRAY'S POV:

Of course, the first thing I see as I walk in the door is something that's pisses me off.

Rue does not need to be around Alex's four-year-old sister.

I walk away from Carmen, getting the car keys from Fez and stuffing them in my pocket. I couldn't let Carmen and her best friends little sister walk alone, especially when it's going to get dark soon.

I watch Carmen walk into the back, not taking Mila with her. She probably forgot her lighter back there, I didn't see the outline of it in her back pocket, where she always keeps it.

Not that I was looking. Not for too long, at least.

I walk over to the counter, leaning on it.

"Was that the new girl in town?" Rue asks, making a face, which means she probably knows something we don't

"Yeah, why? Do you know so'em?" Fez asks, clearly nothing what I did.

"Yeah, my mom and Alex's mom talked to her dad." She said.

"What do you know?" Fez asks before remembering Mila is right there.

"Mila, go see what Carmen's doing." Fez says before gesturing for Rue to continue.

"Supposedly, she been through a lot of shit, um, her moms dead. She's a sweet kid and an academic genius, apparently. All her siblings are moved out, she skateboards, and uh, her dads a drunk." Rue finishes, her ranting making it clear she's not completely sober.

"You know, it's weird though, she doesn't really seem like the ' been through shit, thug' type. Academic genius, maybe,
but -" She continues, but Fez cuts her off.

"And her dad fucking hits her." Fez says, crossing his hands on the back of his head with a sigh.

We all shut up as we hear the back doors open.