Nightfall

Chapter 2

Ash knew exactly what he was doing when he and his friends stalked over to the girl behind the counter. Unlike his two buddies flanking him, he had the balls to do what he had to do. And it would become legendary.

They finally reached the counter but the girl wouldn't look up. Long, curly strands of her red hair framed her face and her light hazel eyes. She was cute. He'd give her that. In a mid-height-geek way cute.

Ash's friends were beginning to get restless behind him and he felt a few kicks and elbows thrown at him casually. Ash cleared his throat and leaned onto the counter innocently. "Excuse me," he said conversationally.

Thea, a last, looked up and glanced over the three of them. "What?" she asked defensively.

Ash scoffed more to himself with her rudeness, but continued to play his part. "Would you be so kind as to show me where I could find the 'sexual attraction' section?"

Behind him, Ash's two friends held their stone faces in place, and Thea's cheeks flushed. But then her eyes narrowed and she was scowling. But she didn't snap.

She pursed her lips. "What are you researching for?"

Ash shrugged, untroubled. "Just getting a head start on my summer homework for science."

To his surprise, Thea actually laughed, and he felt his friends behind him shift uncomfortably. Ash knew he would have to take control of the situation soon if he wanted to win the bet.

But before he could say anything Thea sneered, "I'm pretty sure they don't have summer homework for EARTH science, Ash."

He frowned. "How do you know my name?"

She rolled her eyes, annoyed. "We go to Performing Arts together, remember? Oh. Wait. You don't. Because you're too fed up with your jock status to notice the people that you walk all over."

Laughter erupted behind Ash and he instantly knew that he lost the bet. He slowly closed his eyes in quiet anger.

"Yeah," Thea drew out. "That's what I thought. So get the hell out of my library."

Ash opened his eyes and focused in on the girl who had just made a fool out of him. And then it dawned on him. "You're that girl with the messed up life aren't you!"

Thea went pale and her teeth clenched.

Ash knew he was on the right track. "It is you, isn't it? The one with the faithless mother and the drunken dad who can't even control his own wife--"

Thea couldn't stand Ash anymore and she had absolutely no idea why she was ever attracted to him in the first place. All she felt was her arm flexing and her elbow reaching back, and then the sudden urge of release. She punched Ash square in the nose and he doubled over in pain as blood began to flow between his fingers.

"Bitch!" Ash muffled out from behind his hand. His two friends didn't know whether to laugh or to gang up on Thea because she had just knocked their friend off of his feet. So they just stood there for a few moments watching, until the old hag came stumbling over and they quickly scattered.

Ash shot the girl one last look, a promise of retribution, and then he was gone.

"Thea!" The hag yelled. "What the hell happened? I leave you alone for two seconds and you're already punching out my customers."

Thea defended herself fast. "They weren't customers! They were pulling a joke and it pissed me off so..." She trailed off.

The old woman looked at her a moment and then suddenly grabbed her hand and inspected her knuckles. She smirked. "You got 'em good."

She let go of Thea's hand and started to walk away. Thea was baffled. "You're not mad?" she called.

The woman turned around halfway and the corners of her mouth quirked up. "No," she stated. "You're just lucky you remind me of someone I used to know."

Then she turned and walked away.

Adrenaline pumped strongly in Thea's veins, but eventually, she calmed down and leaned back against her chair. She had just been so angry at everything and how life was unfair. So she finally womened up and told the punk that was complicating her life even more to go mess with someone else's emotions.

Thea had never felt even close to as good as she had felt in that moment for the past eight months. And she wasn't about to give that up.