The Woman of War

Three

Dollhouse by Melanie Martinez

" Hey girl, look at my mom, she's got it going on

Ha, you're blinded by her jewelry

When you turn your back she pulls out a flask

and forgets his infidelity "

*****

I turned around on my heels as I saw a motorcycle parked next to my car with a teenage boy leaning against it. My eyes raked over his body from his boots to leather jacket as I realized it was Ashton leaning against the bike. My eyes widened as I questioned "Ashton?"

"The one and only, princess," he laughed as he pushed himself off his bike and started walking towards me.

My mouth was growing dry when I felt a weird sensation of something dangling off my lips as I sent confused stares into his direction "Princess, really?"

"What?" He smirked as his arrogance levels were growing.

"How unoriginal could you be?" I rhetorically questioned.

Ashton's face was riddled with confusion as he seemed dumbfounded that someone just told pointed out his clicheness.  As now I was the one smirking,  I pulled the cigarette out of my mouth as I pointed it in his direction "Ya got a light?"

He began to dig into his pockets as he pulled out a lighter and raised it as the flame ignited. Pointing it in my direction, I placed the cigarette into the flame as the as I smelt the burning nicotine while I began to inhale the smoke. Pulling it away, I blew it away as I coughed "Thanks."

He laughed slightly before leaning against his car, as I knocked ashes onto the ground. He was now raking his eyes up and down my body as he smirked "I didn't take you as one of us."

"One of us?" I squinted.

He was now in his jacket, as he pulled out a pack of Marlboro as I noticed the smirk was gone for a split second, as it was replaced with a frown. He was now looking back up at me as he now had a cigarette dangling in between his perfect teeth. In a swift motion, he had lit the cigarette and taken a drag with his eyes close before he started talking "A smoker."

I nodded as I took another drag from the death stick, as the nicotine smoke swelled up in my lungs as I began to cough. It burned in my throat as I heard Ashton laugh making me cough at him "What?"

He was still laughing while he kept taking drags as the smell of the burning tobacco mixed with a hint motorcycle oil combining with the faint aroma of clean sheets that have been dried in the sun on a summer day. Something about the smell was addicting. "You clearly haven't been doing this long."

I nodded as I took another drag as the burning began to numb as I heard him ask "How long have you been smoking?"

"A couple weeks... ever since I moved here," I mumbled down as I watched the ashes blow onto the cement in the wind.

"Why?" His voice was riddled with ge00niune with concern.

"Reasons," was the only response I could think of. Before he could answer anymore questions, I looked up into his eyes as I saw the flash again "Why do you do it?"

He made his throat do a dark chuckle that was about an octave lower than his normal voice. He was now looking at his boots as he twiddled the cigarette around in his fingers "It's a way to die."

Ashton looked up at me through his hair that began to shag as he read my furrowed eyebrows that were asking 'What?'. He put that smirk back onto his face as he began to explain "I don't want to die, but I don't want to live. So I'm just speeding up the dying process by smoking like a chimney."