brenton's girl

seventeen

I shuffled my way through the front door and kicked it shit with my foot, my hands were too full of bags to shut it like an average person. I walked into the kitchen and placed all of the bags on the countertop. "Oh my god." I hissed shaking out my wrists.

Grocery shopping was my least favorite chore, but it was even worse today because Sam didn't go with me and i was shopping for thanksgiving dinner. We had two days until high school students got their thanksgiving break, four more days until thanksgiving.

I leaned against the counter and looked at the seventeen bags I just lugged inside, then I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I was interrupted from my relaxing moment when a knock sounded from the door.

"Why? Why must people bother me?" I hissed walking into the hallway, then to the front door. I peeked through the peephole and saw Vivian.

I pulled the door open and looked at her. She looked wore out. "Hey vi, you okay?" I asked letting her come inside. She immediately walked into the kitchen and yanked the fridge open, she grabbed one of the beers and smashed the cap against the counter, taking a gulp from the foam.

"Ashton's here." She said.

"Woah, how'd he even know where
You live?" I asked. I grabbed a bag and took the canned goods to the right cabinet, I began stacking them.

"I don't know. He doesn't tell me anything. He just showed up."

"That's what you kinda wanted though, right?" Vivian glared at me and took another swig.

"That isn't the point. There's something off about him."

"There's something off about everyone from Florida, you know this vi." I said. "Just talk to him. It can't be that hard."

"I tried talking to him when he showed up to my house."

"And? How'd that go?" I closed the cabinet and grabbed another bag of groceries.

"I'm here chugging a beer," She said. "It didn't go great."

"Everything happened very fat between you two, maybe you guys just need space."

"You have absolutely no clue, Leah. That's the problem though; I don't want to give him space. I don't want him to leave again."

"You care about him, don't you?"

"I trust him." She said and sighed. "In Dubai he kept telling me not to trust him, don't trust him because he can switch his mask so fast I won't even remember him in a few minutes."

"Has he ever told you why he's like that?"

"He said don't ask questions." She said.

"Vivian." I scolded. "You have no clue what type of things this guy is in."

"I know, I know, but I trust him. My gut feeling has never been wrong, not once. Why would it be wrong about this, of all things?" I began putting meats in the freezer while she hopped on top of the counter.

"You could ask brian if he knows anything about him." I told her.

"How do you know brian?"

"He stopped by a little bit ago, then Brenton took me by the Cold Croc to meet some of the people there."

"He's so stupid with wayside." She groaned and ran her fingers through her hair just like Brenton does when he's frustrated.

"What's wrong?"

"He doesn't take it seriously, I don't know if he doesn't realize that he's going to be at the top of the empire one day or if he just doesn't care, but getting you involved with wayside is his stupidest choice."