Life of the Party (MATL #1)

Pain

Ashton's POV

I spent the night with Mikey instead of heading home; I knew my parents wouldn't mind, they never seemed to be home anyway. Mikey was fast asleep next to me and I wished that I could do the same. I wasn't having any luck, so I decided to get a glass of water and see if that helped any. It startled me when I walked into the kitchen and saw someone else sitting there. "Can't sleep?" Frank asked me.

"Yeah," I started, as I got a glass of water and sat down across from him, staring down at the water. "I can't stop thinking about earlier. I don't know what I did wrong."

"Hey." He said making me look up at him. "You did nothing wrong, okay? That was all on him and whatever delusions he's managed to get in that head of his."

"Thanks." I said with a fake smile that he seemed to see right through.

"Come on, I'll give you something to help get your mind off of that." He said leading me to the living room and motioning for me to take a seat on the couch while he went to the safe.

"Frank?" I started, waiting for him to look over before I finished. "Could I buy some stuff off you?"

"I'll even give you the Way discount." He said with a wink before seeing my confused face. "You're kind of like an honorary Way now, I'm assuming you want all three?" I bit my lip and nodded.

"Please and thank you." I said. I watched as he got some stuff together, putting it in what looked almost like a pencil box before setting it on the table in front of us.

"Here's the combination for that." He said handing me a small piece of paper that I put in my pocket. "Everything you'll need is in there, you'll wanna make sure it stays locked and hidden." I nodded.

"Thanks, how much do I owe you?" I asked, reaching for my wallet.

"Three hundred." I counted it out and handed it to him. "If you run out, let me know, I can always front you." He said putting the money in his pocket, not even bothering to recount it like he had with Luke's money earlier. "Do you know how to tie your own arm off?" He asked as he prepped the needle.

"Kind of, but not really, Mikey helped me both times." I said truthfully, I had watched him but not done it myself.

"No problem, I'll walk you through it, so you know how if you do any on your own." He explained how to prep everything as he was finishing up before setting down the needle and picking up a strip. "You always want to tie right about here. You can use your teeth to help tie it off." He said as he pointed to a place on my arm before tying it off, using his teeth to show me what he had meant. "Then, like they do when they take your blood, rub right here to prep your veins." He explained as he worked. When he deemed my arm ready he picked back up the needle and looked at it before flicking the tip a couple times. "You want to make sure there's no air in the needle before you inject it." He said as he slid the needle into my skin. "Then press this down and untie your arm." He said before he took my free hand and showed me how.

It felt quite a bit more intense this time, he must have given me a bigger dose, I realized. When I looked over he was untying his own arm. I watched his movements as he started putting things away. "Thank you." I said with a smile, deciding to lay my head in his lap. I needed to lay my head somewhere, and that looked comfortable enough. I watched his face, smiling back when I noticed him smile down at me and start brushing his fingers through my hair. I raised my hand to trace the tattoo on his neck and realized he was saying something. I looked back to his face and watched how his mouth formed around each word. I wasn't able to concentrate long enough to focus on what he was actually saying.