terrible things - ashton irwin

nineteen

We drove on through the night. The dark shapes of the Los Angeles hills have way to flat nothingness, and then, after a few hours, an orange glow blossomed in the sky. it gee steadily brighter, and when the highway began its gentle slope downward, suddenly a vast ocean of glittering lights stretched out below us.

"Ooh, Las Vegas ain't no place for a poor boy like me," Ashton sang. Then he turned to me. "That's Gram Parsons," he said. "Did you listen to that album i gave you?"

i hunched down in my seat, shaking my head minutely. Ashton laughed.  "Doesn't matter. I can sing the whole damn thing for you."

"And you probably will," I said.

Humming, he drove us down the Strip, which was lit up like Christmas tunes a million. It was as bright as day on the street, even though it was after midnight. We passed signs for the Bellagio, Bally's, the MGM Grand casino. 

"So we have to gamble, right?" Ashton asked.

I nodded, suddenly resolute. "I believe it's required."

I cleaned myself up in a 7-Eleven bathroom while Ashton ate his ten thousandth Slim Jim. Then we went to the Luxor, mostly because it was shaped like a pyramid. It even has a giant Sphinx out front.

The moment we stepped inside, we were in yet another world. the sound of pinging slot machines, the smells of air-conditioning and sweat, the flashing lights above the pits: it was totally sensory overload. 

Ashton put his arms on my shoulders. "You want to win big?" he asked.  

"Yeah, we've got twenty bucks to blow."

"is that what your budget tells you? Well, that's two games of blackjack with a ten-dollar buy-in." He grinned. "That's assuming we don't win, which we will."

"Twenty dollars'll last longer at the slots," I said, because tiring i'm a semicircle with a bunch of strangers and trying to decide wether to tell the dealer to "hit me" was more than i was up for.
Ashton eyed the backpack table longingly. He probably thought he could charm the cards into falling the way he wanted them to. Not me. Maybe i wasn't GG anymore, but i'd never be the gambling type. Because it was my babysitting money we were talking about, and i'd wrangled some serious beats to earn it.

Maybe it was just as well that a burly guy in a black vest came up to us as we headed for the slot machines. He wanted to see out IDs.

"Well, you see" Ashton began.

The guy cut him off. "Save it. If you got and ID, you can play. If you don't, scram."

"Go on," I said to Ashton. "Now you can play a hand of cards. I'll wait outside."

He shook his heads. "No way, Lav, we're in this together."

I liked the sound of that a lot.

"Okay, what do you want to do now?"

Ashton yawned so deeply I decided not to wait for an answer. I said, "Let's got find a place to sleep."

So we pulled into the nearby parking lot of an Treasures, which at first i thought was a gift shop. "Why's it open to late? Who needs a snow globe at two a.m?"

Ashton laughed, at me, not with me. "it's a strip club, you dope. This is Sun City, remember?"

I was too tired to take offence. i settles down in the back seat and pulled my sweatshirt over me. Ashton snaked his hand around his seat in the front, and i reached out and took it. Here we were in the car again, three feet of air and eight inches of foams between us. Why hasn't i made a move at the hotel?

"Tell me a bedtime story," Ashton said. 

"Sing me a bedtime song," I retorted.

"Flip a coin," he said. 

I agreed, and he lost. So i fell asleep to Ashton singing, drumming lightly on the dashboard.

There was a girl named Lav
who was a runaway.
Instead of taking a taxi
she tried to drive around LA.
She crashed her car and hurt her nose
and i don't mean to brag
but who should rescue Lav
but a charming scallywag?

The sound of ringing laughter woke me at 4a.m. A handful of dancers were leaving the club, done with their shift for the night. 

One passed by the car and spied me in the back seat. "Hey, girl," she said, leaning in close I could smell perfume and sweat. "You can't sleep here. They'll tow your car and take you and your friend here to the pound." 

Ashton sat up, rubbing his eyes. "Huh?"

"Y'all need to be getting on home," said another. I could hear her smacking her gum. "Wherever that is."

Ashton leaned out the window and smiled at the like they were long-lost friends. "That is excellent advice," he said, "And i thank you for giving it. But unfortunately it is not possible for us to follow it at this time."

The women burst into laughter. one nudged the other with her bony hip. "Look at them! They're as cute as kittens. Chrissy, you take 'em home with you."

The blond one called Chrissy looked ya over. she spent an especially long time looking at Robinson. "My car's the white Chevy over there," she said finally. "Y'all follow me out."

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word count - 913

it's been a while and i doubt anyone is gunna read this but, welcome back to terrible things